Split focaccia sandwich

There was this pizzeria owner on the Rai Uno cooking program, showing pizza his way. He rolled two pieces of dough, then put one on top of the other. He took the double pizza out of the oven, opened  it up, spread mayo, stuffed it with tuna and tomato. Although I don't care that much for mayo or tuna, this sandwich looked like a knockout.

I doubt if he used pizza dough. It was thicker and more meaty than a standard pizza. Kind of like a focaccia. Focaccia dough is looser. It has more yeast. You can't throw it around in your hands. It is not as elastic.You can roll it just a bit. The rest of the stretching is done with your fingers on a surface you'll be baking the focaccia.

So here I had, two stretched rectangles of dough on two baking sheets. The trick was to transfer one on top of the other. The sticky dough didn't exactly want to jump off the baking sheet by itself. I flipped one sheet up-side down, almost laid it on top of the other, and the dough just fell on its own with a little help from me.

The double focaccia, when out of the oven, opened beautifully. The middle looked fantastic, smooth with some big air bubbles here and there. I spread ricotta on one side, added rucola, cooked prosciutto, topped it with tomato slices, a couple of drips of olive oil and another layer of focaccia. A perfect sandwich!

Recipe seen on Rai Uno
time: 15 min preparation + 2 1/2 hr inactive 

ingredients

• focaccia dough
• ricotta, prosciutto, rucola, tomato, olive oil

instructions

1. Prepare two baking sheets brushed with olive oil.
2. After dough doubles in size in a bowl (2-3 hours), transfer it onto a rolling board covered with some flour. Split it in half. Using a rolling pin and more flour if needed, make a rectangle shape piece, not too thin. Transfer it onto a baking sheet. Drizzle it with oil. With your fingers, stretch dough some more. Repeat with the other piece. Let dough raise ont he sheets for 1/2 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 220C/425F (fan forced function). 
4. Flip one sheet of dough on top of the other. Drizzle a bit more with olive oil. Place it in the hot oven for 35 - 40 minutes, till golden. Take it out of the oven. While the focaccia is still hot, using a bread knife, cut in into the bread just a bit, all around it. Lift the top layer. Spread ricotta and top it with your favorite things. And off to the beach, or at least a sunny balcony!