AUGUST 2019 21
SPENT MANY MONTHS in the early 1990s in the western
Italian coastal region of Liguria researching the cook-
book that became Flavors of the Riviera. I ate very
well in the course of my research. Pesto was invented
here, and Liguria’s is the best in the world. The region’s
minestrone and ravioli are memorable; its veal and
rabbit dishes, made with ingredients like tomatoes, pine nuts,
and olives, practically define Mediterranean cuisine. After I’d
finished my book, though, one dish stood out in my memory
above all others: focaccia col formaggio, a specialty of the town
of Recco, which is about a dozen miles southeast of Genoa.
Focaccia col formaggio has nothing to do with the slightly
spongy semi-risen pizza-dough bread usually called focaccia. It
might be described as a kind of Ligurian quesadilla consisting
of two large discs of crispy dough with tangy, gloriously melting
white cheese inside. It’s absolutely addictive—the kind of thing
people make special trips to devour. The memory of this irresist-
ible regional dish inspired me, not long ago, to make a special
trip of my own, heading back to Recco for a few days with a
couple of friends (the focaccia is typically 15 or 16 inches across,
perfect for sharing) to see if it lived up to my recollections.
The people of Recco take focaccia col formaggio seriously.
There’s even an organization dedicated to its preservation and
appreciation: the Consorzio Focaccia di Recco col Formaggio. The
group publishes an official recipe on its website and lists some 18
approved restaurants, bakeries, and takeout places serving the
dish. It also hosts an annual Festa della Focaccia di Recco, one
feature of which is a “No Limits Challenge” where contestants
attempt to consume a 2.2-pound focaccia as fast as possible.
Recco’s pride was apparently invented in the late 1800s by
one Manuelina Capurro, who ran a modest inn along Recco’s
main road. The inn didn’t survive World War II, but in 1960,
Capurro’s grandniece, Maria Rosa, and her husband opened a
new restaurant, dubbing it Manuelina in her honor and featur-
ing you-know-what. This was our first stop.
Manuelina had gotten fancier since I first visited: There’s
now a four-star hotel attached, and the menu offers amberjack
carpaccio with pink peppercorns and smoked salt and foie
gras with Sauternes and caramelized mango. But focaccia col
formaggio is still the star of the show, and almost everybody
orders it to start.
It’s easy to see why. The dough is salty, rich with olive oil, and
simultaneously flaky and a little chewy. The cheese, stracchino
(also called Crescenza), is runny, almost like clotted cream, and
pleasantly sour, becoming slightly grainy as it cools. A server
brings the focaccia on a flat metal pan and cuts it into rectangles,
then folds them onto individual plates. It looks like an immense
amount of food, but my friends and I made it disappear in
minutes, before moving on to monkfish with onion compote.
The next day, we had focaccia col formaggio again, this time
down the road from Manuelina at Da Ö Vittorio, which employs
one chef who does nothing but prepare focaccia day and night.
Their version was excellent, a lot like Manuelina’s.
The best focaccia of the trip came on our last day, at a place
called Vitturin 1860, which is so serious about its version that
the owners have installed a kind of vertical lazy Susan against
one wall to deliver focaccias. A wheel about 3 yards across
extends down to the basement kitchen, and six large trays are
attached to the wheel and hinged so that they remain upright
as it turns, like seats on a Ferris wheel. They bring up a constant
procession of hot foccacias from below. The crust in Vitturin’s
focaccia is just a little crisper than Manuelina’s and its cheese a
little denser. It was so good that we ordered a second one and left
the excellent seafood risotto and grilled shrimp for another time.
I’m already dreaming about my next trip to Recco. Meanwhile,
though, of course I had to develop a focaccia col formaggio
recipe, and after considerable trial and error, I finally got it right
(see p. 22). I just might have to make some tonight.
MANUELINA
Via Roma 296
16036 Recco,
Genoa
(manuelina.it)
I
DA Ö VITTORIO
Via Roma 160
16036 Recco,
Genoa
(daovittorio.it/
ristorante)
VITTURIN 1860
Via dei Giustiniani
48
16036 Recco,
Genoa
(vitturin1860.it)
Recco, Liguria, is
home to world-class
focaccia.
WHERE TO EAT IT
PH
OT
OG
RA
PH
Y:^
AL
EX
G
EN
OV
ES
E/
AL
AM
Y
