Pasta Recco

A dough made with milk. The amount of yeast is higher than other doughs because the milk reduces the strength of the yeast. It is traditional in Liguria, Silvana learnt how to make it from her uncle who lived near Genoa. It is a particular favourite in the lovely seaside town of Santa Margherita

Ingredients

1/2 kilo flour
40 grams yeast
700 ml full cream milk

Method

Put the yeast into warm milk

Mix in a machine with a dough hook. It should be a soft mixture

Leave the dough to rise (as in previous recipe). It should almost double in size. Then you have to flatten it into a pizza shape and then wait for it to rise again, before you cook. The second rising is very important.

If the oven is not ready and the dough seems to come up too much, you have to knock down the dough and let it rise again. But try and avoid working this dough too much. It is fairly thick and it gets tough if worked too much. Because of the milk it will be very white and the texture should be fluffy.

This dough should not shrink back. Just pat it down, don’t punch it like the focaccia dough. Put fork marks in to stop it rising in the oven.

Cook at 275 for about 15 minutes.

Because this is a thick dough, it must be half cooked before you put any topping on.

Variation: make a hole in the centre of the Recco dough and then bake, It bakes into a fat ring which can be sliced open and filled with fresh ricotta. In Italy, it was a popular snack for children because it forms a shape which is easy for them to hold.