Ricotta Cheese Focaccia Pie

by lindarose92

5.6K22324

Intro: Ricotta Cheese Focaccia Pie

If you take a look at my recipe instructables it's easy to understand that focaccia bread is one of the things I love the most.
I love it because it tastes so good just plain, but it is also perfect when matched with other things like cold cuts and cheese or anything you like. And let's not forget that focaccia is the base for pizza! :D

This focaccia recipe is different than the regular one because there's no yeast, water or oil in it. The main ingredient for the dough is ricotta cheese. It may sound strange (it did to me), but its consistency is just like a regular focaccia's one and the taste is just as good. Ricotta gives a very delicate flavour to it.
Plus no yeast means less time because it doesn't need to rise! You can start to make it an hour before you want to eat it: perfect as a last minute recipe!

This focaccia is composed just like a pie and I filled it with ham and mozzarella cheese. You can fill it with anything you like!

STEP 1: Ingredients

  • 200gr (a little less than 1 cup) ricotta cheese
  • 200gr (1.6 cups) all purpose flour
  • 80gr (5.5 tbs) room temperature butter
  • 1 tbs grated parmesan cheese
  • salt
  • pepper
  • a little bit of olive oil
For the filling:
  • ham
  • 1 mozzarella of about 125gr (4.40 oz)

STEP 2: Put the Ingredients Together

Place your ricotta cheese in a big bowl and add the flour.
Cut your butter in small pieces and put it in the bowl too.
Add the parmesan cheese.
Finally adjust with salt and some pepper (if you like it).

STEP 3: Make the Dough

Mix all the ingredients with your hands. You can do it with a mixer too, but doing it with your hand will break and mix the butter with the other ingredients in a better way. It doesn't take long and it's very easy to do :)
Knead with your hands until your dough is compact.

Divide the dough in 2. These 2 pieces need to be about the same size.

STEP 4: Flatten the Dough

First of all you need to prepare your round pan putting some parchment paper in it. I used this pan that was perfect for this amount of dough.

Take your first half of dough, place it in the pan and press it with your fingers to flatten it. You need to cover the whole pan's surface (sides excluded) this way.
When you are done, prick the dough with a fork.

STEP 5: Add the Filling

Lay your ham (or whatever you like) on the piece of dough that you flattened in the pan, making sure to leave some free dough all around, to be able to close it later.
Slice your mozzarella and put it on the ham. You can also cut it in smaller pieces if you prefer.

STEP 6: Cover Everything!

Flatten the other half of your dough, just like you did to the first piece. It must be that same size, which is the pan's size.
I used a pastry mat as "table" to flatten the dough on. It's very useful because the main pan's sizes are drawn on it so you can flatten your dough following those signs.
You can use a rolling pin to flatten this dough if you want.

Now lift the dough disc with your hands and lay it on the ham and mozzarella, right in the pan.
Push it a little to make the air come out and use your fingers to press the borders. Use a fork to press them even better and make sure that the focaccia is closed.

Again, prick the disc with a fork, and spread some olive oil over the top.

STEP 7: Bake!

Preheat your oven and bake at 200°C (400F) for 30 minutes.

Enjoy your warm focaccia with all the melted cheese!
If you prefer, you can let it cool and eat it later...it's just as good!

24 Comments

MicioGatta 9 years ago

Tthis receipe seems great! I have a question: is this dough good to do simple focaccia (without stuffing, or maybe with crescenza or onions, like focaccia di Recco)? I've tried sometimes to cook a focaccia, but it always came out too hard >O_o<

lindarose92 9 years ago

I believe you can! I really like the flavour that this dough has. But I am not sure if keeping if plain feels too heavy (remember there is no yeast in it)...for this reason I would try to make it thin.

By the way, it's strange that your focaccia always turned out hard...I actually have the opposite problem sometimes.
Try this one (just the dough): https://www.instructables.com/id/Danubio-Pizza/
I always make that recipe for focaccia and it turns out great. Make sure to let it rest for more than an hour if you can, that will make it even softer and more digestible (you can use less yeast in that case).

Darthorso 9 years ago

Mmmmmm.... buooona!

Since you live near me, I suggest you to go to Sestola (near Modena, it's a 1.5h car trip) and buy the ricotta that the Agriturismo Cervarola (at 1.400 meters height) sells.

I can say with no doubt that it's the best ricotta of the world.

lindarose92 9 years ago

Sestola is a very familiar name to me...During the summer I used to go there with my parents when I was very little. Honestly, I don't remember anything about it, but it's still familiar :D I will have to try their ricotta cheese if I ever go back!

Darthorso 9 years ago

That Agriturismo has fantastic biologic products!

The ricotta is made every day with the milk of their cows :P

I had the best breakfasts of my life in that place

faiza007 10 years ago

congratulations linda..! you totally deserved to win this contest.. :D

Tarun Upadhyaya 10 years ago

Congratulations!! for the first prize Linda :D, show us a picture of you wearing that pendant when you get one :D

lindarose92 10 years ago

haha thank you Tarun! We'll see about that one... :D

bmelvin2 10 years ago

Can it be replaced with turkey

lindarose92 10 years ago

You mean replacing the ham with turkey? I have never tried it with turkey but I think that would be good too! Maybe not as tasty but still good and not as fat.

Let me know how it turns out if you make it :)

Tarun Upadhyaya 10 years ago

Yippy :), congratulations for being a finalist :)

lindarose92 10 years ago

It really is, thank you Muhaiminah! :)

sunshiine 10 years ago

What can I say? I will have to try this sometime. Thanks for sharing.

sunshiine

lindarose92 10 years ago

Thank You sunshiine!! Let me know how it turns out :)

hunter999 10 years ago

Very neat and mouthwatering! Great job, voted :-)

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