It doesn’t matter whether you call it focaccia or white pizza. The main thing is that in between the slightly bitter radicchio leaves, the crunchy hazelnuts and the creaminess of Stracchino cheese you place some slices of Prosciutto di San Daniele. Its sweetness and its delicate saltiness will immediately find a balance with the other tastes and textures, closing a perfect and delicious loop.
Focaccia with radicchio, Prosciutto di San Daniele, Stracchino cheese and hazelnuts
Ingredients
For the focaccia dough
- 300 g white flour
- 200 g Manitoba flour
- 300 ml water
- 10 g fresh yeast or 7g active dry yeast
- 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- a pinch of salt
- a handful of durum wheat flour for the work surface
- olive oil as required to knead the dough
For the topping
- 12 slices of Prosciutto di San Daniele
- some radicchio leaves
- 150 g Stracchino cheese
- extra virgin olive oil as required
- a bunch of fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons of hazelnuts
- salt and black pepper as required
Instructions
- To make the dough:
- First of all put the all-purpose flour, the Manitoba flour and the pinch of sugar in a big bowl. If you are using fresh yeast, crumble it and dissolve it in a little warm water, add the rest of the water, the salt and the oil. If you are using the active dry yeast just mix it with the flour and pour the liquid ingredients in the middle of the flour mound.
- Mix the ingredients, at first with the help of a fork and then with your hands. If the dough is too sticky, don’t add more flour because this would make it too stiff and impair its rising. To knead the dough more easily just pour a little olive oil on your hands.
- Pour the dough onto the slightly oiled working surface and continue kneading it until it is smooth and firm.
- Put it in an oiled big bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.
- Let it rise for 3 to 4 hours at a temperature between 25 and 30° C (some ovens have a very useful function for the proofing) or until tripled in volume.
- Divide the dough into two equal parts and let them rise on a baking tray covered with a damp dish towel.
- After 15 minutes roll one of the pieces of dough on the work surface sprinkled with a little durum wheat flour and flatten the dough with your fingertips, giving it a rectangular shape. Do the same with the other piece of dough.
- Brush the dough with a little oil, sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper and put it in a preheated static 220°C oven on the lowest rack for 15 minutes.
- Add the radicchio (if the leaves are too big, cut them in half lenghtwise), the Stracchino cheese and the hazelnuts, half whole and half partially chopped.
- Bake the two flatbreads for 5 more minutes until the base is well cooked and the crust is golden.
- Take them out of the oven and top them with fresh thyme leaves and some roses made with the prosciutto di San Daniele slices.