Pizzata

How to prepare pizzata

1. For the dough, mix the oil with water and salt. Pour into the middle of the flour and knead until the dough comes together. You can continue kneading by hand, 5 minutes with a stand mixer, or one cycle in a bread machine. At the end, you should have a super elastic dough, like soft play dough that no longer resists stretching, but isn't sticky at all.
   * I gave the oil and water quantities in grams because I preferred to weigh them—I find it more precise than using a measuring cup
2. Shape the dough into a ball and cover with a bowl for at least 2 hours, but it can rest like this for up to 5 hours.
3. Prepare the tomato sauce: put the passata in a small pot, add oregano, vinegar from the capers, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer on medium-low heat until the sauce thickens a bit, about 5 minutes. Let cool.
4. Cut the dough into two equal pieces (about 200 g/piece). Follow steps 5-13 for each piece of dough.
5. On the work surface, place a piece of parchment paper cut to the size of your baking tray. Sprinkle a little flour. Start rolling out a piece of dough with a rolling pin, trying to get a rectangular shape. After it's thin enough, continue stretching the dough by hand, putting your fist or palm underneath and pulling toward the edges, like stretching thin strudel sheets. Stretch the dough until you can read through it (see photo 2). At the end, the dough will be larger than the parchment paper, so handle it carefully.
6. Using the parchment paper, drag the dough into the baking tray. Part of the dough will hang over the edge—that's okay.
   * if it's more convenient, you can cut the piece of dough you're working with in two and stretch two thin sheets, one for the bottom and one for the top to cover the cheese part
8. Break half the cheese into pieces and place them on the part of the dough that's in the tray, at roughly equal distances.
9. Bring the part of the dough hanging over the tray to cover the cheese part.
10. Cut the thicker edges from the three sides of the focaccia with a pastry wheel (or all four sides if you chose to work with two separate sheets). The idea here is to not have thick edges, but thin and straight ones.
11. Prick the focaccia with a fork all over the surface, so steam can escape.
12. In a small glass, mix the water well with the oil and salt until you see they're almost uniform. Drizzle (or brush) this mixture over the focaccia.
14. Then brush the focaccia with a thin layer of tomato sauce. Sprinkle capers as desired.
15. Bake the focaccia at your oven's maximum temperature (I set 280°C). At this temperature, it took somewhere between 7 and 8 minutes. The focaccia will puff up slightly and turn a pleasant golden color. Don't let it brown too much—just golden spots—otherwise the dough (especially the edges) will harden too much.
16. Remove the focaccia from the oven and serve immediately, drizzled with a little olive oil if desired. It's also good at room temperature or reheated, but the dough softens a bit if you leave it for more than 30 minutes.

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