Filled Focaccia With Ham and Melted Fontina

Noo's Note:

A Delia Smith creation that she describes as a 'hot, home-made sandwich'. I love everything to do with hot cheese and this is no exception. The focaccia dough is made in a bread machine, stuffed and then baked. Any number of fillings would be great here. Use your imagination--mushrooms, artichokes, salami, bacon--the possibilities are endless!

• Total Time: 2 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 2 hrs
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 focaccia

DOUGH

• 250 g bread flour
• 1 teaspoon easy-blend dry yeast
• 150 ml water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

FILLING

• 175 g parma ham
• 350 g Fontina cheese or 350 g gruyere cheese
• 3 tablespoons fresh sage leaves , chopped
• fresh ground black pepper

THE TOP

• 15 small sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Pop the ingredients for the dough into a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Set to dough and start.
2. Towards the end of the time, prepare the filling by slicing the cheese thinly and separating the slices of ham.
3. When the dough is ready, remove from the machine, turn it out onto a lightly foured surface, divide it into two and then roll out one half to form a rough rounded rectangle approx 28 x 20cm.
4. Place the rolled out dough onto a baking tray or pizza stone and arrange the slices of ham on top, making sure that they go right up the edges. Follow this with the cheese, then scatter the sage and season well with the pepper. Roll out the remaining dough, lay it on the top of the other half and pinch the edges together to completely enclose the filling. Cover with a clean cloth and leave to puff up for about 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to Gas 6/400/200 degrees. When the dough is ready, make about 15 little dimples in it with your finger and press in the sprigs of rosemary. Finally drizzle over the olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the dough is crisp and golden.
7. Serve straight from the oven, cut into wedges or squares.

Reviews

[Chocolatl]

Mine didn't rise a lot, but I might not have used enough water, so that could be my fault. I gave them an extra half hour to rise, and they did eventually. I added mushrooms, which were very nice. I used rosemary instead of sage for the filling because it was in tune with the rosemary on top, and rosemary is always good with focaccia. Despite the snags, this turned out very well, and I would definitely make it again. Thanks for posting!

[Karen Elizabeth]

Gosh, this was lovely!!!! I love my ABM so adore any excuse to use it. Only observation, my dough didn't rise particularly, which I don't usually have a problem with. Bread dough can be finicky though, and there could be any number of reasons for this. I also didn't have fresh rosemary, so used a rosemary salt, but I'll try and make sure I have rosemary on hand next time. very filling!!! I made this for DH and I, but we could only manage half... some left to look forward to! I also sliced some cherry tomatoes and included them in the filling, another time I'll use ordinary tomatoes (didn't have any this time), DH is very fond of tomatoes in his cheese sandwich. Worked well! I really liked this, Noo, thanks for sharing! Made for PRMR tag game. Edited to add that the next day DH ate ALL the rest by himself, and said it was even better than before! he started with a little bit -- little bit more.. before he knew it he had eaten it ALL! Will be making this again and regularly, Noo!!!!!

[Ceezie]

This was a good quick dinner. I did cheat a little bit and got some dough from the local pizzaeria. I also had to sub pepper jack for fontina but good none the less. Thanks