Carnival Focaccia Bread

The carnival focaccia bread is a traditional Italian recipe from Puglia, in particular from Lecce. It is a main course made with the dough for pizza stuffed with meat of pork, mozzarella cheese and tomato, that can be fresh tomato or as I used for this recipes also tomato sauce.

The preparation is easy but if you use the tomato sauce pay attention to not cook a filling too much watery.

INGREDIENTS for the focaccia bread:

400 g of Flour

20g of brewer’s yeast

1 Teaspoons of Sugar

1 Teaspoons of Salt

3 Tablespoons of Extra virgin olive oil

Water

INGREDIENTS for the filling:

1 onion

3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

350 g of pork meat in small cubes

250 g of Mozzarella cheese in small cubes

100g of Tomato sauce

Salt

Pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour plus 4-5 hours for leavening

COOKING TIME: 1 hour and 30 minutes

WINE: Primitivo (Red Wine)

PREPARATION

Place in a bowl the flour, the brewer’s yeast, the sugar, the salt ad the extra virgin olive oil. 

Mix all together until you obtain homogeneous dough. 

Let the dough rise for about 3 hour or until it doubles. Prepare the filling of the focaccia bread in this way: preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a large pan, chop the onion and add it to the pan. 

Let the onion sauté for a few minutes and then add the cubes of meat. 

Let the meat cook for about 10- 15 minutes, then add the mozzarella cheese and the tomato sauce. 

Stir and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue to cook for about 5-10 minutes. When the dough is ready divide it in 2 parts, stand both parts. Put one of the two part on a baking pan, 

pour on it the filling

and cover it with the second pastry. 

Now let the focaccia bread rise for another hour. 

Remember to preheat the oven, and then bake the carnival focaccia bread at 200 degree for about 50 minutes or until the surface become golden. Serve hot.

BUON APPETITO!