You can’t say no to a slice of Messina focaccia

Messina focaccia or Messina pizza is incredibly tasty, brings a lot of joy to the table and is a complete meal on its own.

Messina focaccia is a rich traditional dish to which all the inhabitants of this splendid Sicilian city are very attached. The original recipe includes the use of tuma , which we absolutely recommend using. However, it is a difficult cheese to find outside the production area, and if you want to make this focaccia far from Messina, you can replace it with scamorza.

In theory, you could also use mozzarella, but it's too watery. If necessary, cut it into small cubes and, to make it lose liquid, let it drain for 5-6 hours or use the one specially made for pizza.

Preparation of the Messina focaccia recipe

1. Sift the two flours into a bowl and mix them well.
2. Dissolve the yeast in 300 ml of slightly warm water .
3. Pour 50 ml of EVO oil , a pinch of sugar, and a little at a time the water with the yeast onto the flours. Mix with your hands.
4. Pour the Messina focaccia dough onto the work surface and start kneading. After about 5 minutes, add the salt, and continue kneading and stretching the dough for another 5 minutes until it is well mixed (i.e. when it is elastic and uniform).
5. Place the ball-shaped dough inside a clean bowl by making a cross cut on its surface with a knife.
6. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and place it in the turned off oven . Turn on the oven light so that its slight heat promotes leavening. Let rise for 2 hours or until doubled.
7. Take a baking tray and grease it with oil. The baking paper helps, but makes the bottom of the focaccia less crunchy.
8. Spread the dough into the pan with your hands until it is completely covered . You need to use only your fingertips. Place back in the turned off oven and let rise for 30 minutes.
9. In the meantime, cut the tuma or scamorza into cubes. Cut the anchovy fillets into small pieces. Wash the curly escarole, chop it and season it with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper. Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half and season with salt.
10. After 30 minutes , take the pan. Preheat the oven to 200°C . Spread the freshly prepared ingredients evenly over the focaccia, but using only half the cheese. Drizzle with EVO oil. Place in the oven and cook for 30 minutes .
11. Take the pan out of the oven and spread the other half of the cheese on the focaccia. Place back in the oven and cook for another fifteen minutes. When cooked, let cool for 2-3 minutes , cut and serve.

Do you want another delicious and leavened recipe? Bonci's pizza is unrivaled!

storage

We recommend storing the Sicilian focaccia for a maximum of 1-2 days in the fridge , well covered in cling film. We do not recommend freezing in the freezer.

Read also

Genoese focaccia: the original recipe for a fragrant and perfect dough!