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

The Messina focaccia or Messina pizza is incredibly tasty, brings a lot of joy to the table and by itself is a complete meal.

Messina focaccia is a rich traditional dish to which all the inhabitants of this splendid Sicilian city are very attached. The original recipe calls for the use of tuma , which we absolutely recommend using. However, it is a hard 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. Eventually, cut it into small cubes and, to make it lose liquids, leave it to drain for 5-6 hours or use the special one for pizza.

Preparation of the Messina focaccia recipe

1. In a bowl, sift the two flours and mix them well.
2. Dissolve the yeast in 300 ml of slightly warm water .
3. Pour 50 ml of EVO oil on the flours, a pinch of sugar, and the water with the yeast a little at a time. Mix with your hands.
4. Pour the dough for the Messina focaccia onto the work surface and start kneading. After about 5 minutes add the salt, and continue to knead and stretch the dough for another 5 minutes until it is well strung (ie when it is elastic and uniform).
5. Put the dough in the shape of a ball inside a clean bowl, making a cross cut on its surface with a knife.
6. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and place it in the turned off oven . Turn on the oven light so that its slight heat favors leavening. Let rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
7. Take a pan and grease it with oil. The parchment paper helps, but it makes the bottom of the focaccia less crunchy.
8. Spread the dough into the pan with your hands, until it is completely covered . You have to use your fingertips only. Put it back in the turned off oven and let it 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 up and dress it with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper. Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half and salt them.
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 of the cheese. Flush seasoned 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. Put back in the oven and cook for another fifteen minutes. When cooked, let it cool for 2-3 minutes , cut and serve.

Do you want another delicious and leavened recipe? Bonci's pizza has no rivals!

storage

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

Read also

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