Scaccia
Aka lasagne bread. Ready in about 4 hours including dough proving.
If pizza and lasagne had a love child, this Sicilian stuffed flat bread would be it! A pizza style dough is rolled, sauced, cheesed and folded to create a wee loaf that crisps on the outside and cooks in the middle, in a way that makes the dough feel pasta like. Traditionally you would use caciocavallo cheese. Here I use mozzarella but you could also use Parmesan or your fave, just make sure it’s not too chunky. I went quite plain here with cheese, tomato and prosciutto but the fillings are endless. Anything pizza-ish would be yum. Also FYI this is insane the next day sliced thickly and fried in some olive oil.
Ingredients
(makes 1 large loaf)
Dough
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp yeast - check the use by date my friend!
1/4 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
Sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
400g can chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 cup picked basil leaves
To Fold
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
100g thinly sliced prosciutto
Prep It
Get your dough started. Combine 3/4 cup warm water, 1/2 tsp yeast and 1/4 tsp sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or large bowl you unlucky thing) and set aside to foam for about 10 minutes. Once foamy or you can see some action add 1 Tbsp olive oil, 2 cups flour and 1 tsp salt and mix with the dough hook for 6-8 minutes on medium speed or until smooth. If kneading by hand this will take you more like 10-12 minutes.
Drizzle the bowl with a bit of olive oil and roll the dough around inside to coat. Cover and leave to prove for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Meanwhile make your sauce. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a small pot on medium heat. Mince 1 garlic clove, add to olive oil and cook for about 1 minutes, until fragrant. Add 400g canned tomatoes, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp tomato paste and 1/2 tsp dried oregano and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes stirring often, until thickened. Remove from heat, stir through 1 cup picked basil leaves and set aside to cool.
Line a loaf tin with baking paper or grease really well with olive oil.
Fold It
Probably just study the above photos for best results but I will attempt to explain it here.
Clear the bench and drizzle with a little olive oil. Spread the oil out with your hands to make a nice greasy surface and place your dough in the middle. Using your hands push the dough out into a rectangle with the longer side in front of you. Now use a rolling pin to roll the dough out, until it is about 3mm thick. You should end up with a rectangle that is about 40 x 25cm. If you get any holes just push them back together. It’s very forgiving.
Imagine the dough in thirds and spread half the tomato sauce mixture in the middle third. Sprinkle over a third of the cheese and prosciutto. Book fold the outer pieces of dough into the center so that they meet but don’t overlap.
Now spread half of the remaining sauce on top of the dough but this time in the middle third from side to side. Sprinkle over a third more cheese and prosciutto and then fold the non sauced pieces of dough like a book, this time top and bottom into the center to meet, but again not overlap.
Almost there. Spread the remaining sauce over two thirds of the dough just leaving one side free of topping. Sprinkle over remaining cheese and prosciutto. Fold the non sauced piece of dough in and over a third of the dough and then fold the sauce piece over the top of that.
Transfer to prepared loaf tin seam side up and prick with a fork a few times. Leave to prove for 30 minutes.
Cook It
Preheat oven to 210°C.
Cook scaccia in oven on the middle rack for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes reduce oven temp to 180°C and continue to cook for a further 25 minutes, until very golden brown on top and cooked through. It should sound reasonably hollow when tapped or if you have a temperature probe, it should reach 100°C.