South American Fugazza

Fugazza is a delicious foccacia-like pizza popular in South America. Fugazza has a soft airy crust, perfect for soaking up olive oil, and does not have tomato sauce or much cheese. Fugazza is most often topped with sweet cooked onions.

Fugazza is easy to make. The dough is just pressed into the pan - no need to roll it out. The onions are sautéed in olive oil to soften and sweeten them. Artichoke hearts, olives (black and green), pimento, thinly sliced ham, herbs, parmesan are frequent additional toppings. Use a pizza stone or a perforated pizza pan if you have them, but a regular baking sheet will work fine.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons yeast
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 3/4 - 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 large onions
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup pimento slices
• 1/2 cup olives
• 1/3 cup coarsely grated parmesan chese
• Coarse salt

Preparation:

1. Sprinkle the yeast over 1 cup of the water.
   
   
2. Add the flour, salt and olive oil to large bowl or in the bowl of a standing mixer, and whisk together.
   
   
3. Gradually stir in the water with the yeast.
   
   
4. Stir in another 3/4 cups water and knead dough (with dough hook or by hand), adding more water if dough is too dry. Knead dough until it is very smooth, about 5 minutes in the standing mixer or 10 minutes by hand. Dough will be soft and slightly sticky.
   
   
5. Place dough in a oiled bowl and cover loosely. Let dough rise until double in size.
   
   
6. Slice the onions into thin rings.
   
   
7. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large skillet and cook onions and pimentos over medium-low heat until the onions are soft and turning golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
   
   
8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
   
   
9. Lightly oil a large rectangular baking pan (about 18" by 12"). Punch down the pizza dough and stretch it gently to fit the baking pan, pressing it into the corners. Brush the dough lightly with olive oil.
   
   
10. Spread the cooked onions over the top of the dough.
    
    
11. Cut the olives into quarters and scatter them over the onions. Sprinkle the pizza with the grated parmesan and some coarse salt.
    
    
12. Place the pizza into the preheated oven and bake until the pizza crust appears golden and crispy.
    
    
13. Cut pizza into rectangles, and serve hot or at room temperature.