Offida's rustic stuffed focaccia: two thin sheets of leavened bread dough sealed around a savoury filling of drained tuna, sweet peppers, green olives, capers and anchovies, brushed with oil and baked golden. 'Chichì' is the local dialect word for pizza or focaccia. Cut into squares and eaten hot, warm or cold as a snack, antipasto or picnic loaf, it has its own August festival in the town.
The name comes from lu chichì, dialect for pizza or focaccia, the scrap of dough a mother once handed a child to play with while she baked the household bread. Born as a way to enrich plain bread dough with a handful of preserved store-cupboard foods, the stuffed focaccia became the signature bake of Offida, in the province of Ascoli Piceno. Grown into one of the Marche's long-running food festivals, the Sagra del Chichì Ripieno fills the town's medieval centre on the first Sunday of August.
The crust is thin and crisp, the crumb soft and oil-glossed. Inside, flaked tuna and melting anchovy give a deep savoury base, sweet peppers add roundness, and olives and capers cut through with sharp, briny bursts.
Yeast ferments the dough, and its carbon dioxide, trapped by the gluten network, leavens both sheets; sealing them encloses the filling so steam from the moist tuna and peppers puffs the layers apart. At 220°C the oiled top browns through Maillard reactions and caramelised sugars from the peppers, while the crumb sets as starch gelatinises and gluten coagulates. Salt-cured anchovies, capers and olives are rich in free glutamates and, with the tuna, load the filling with savoury umami as they warm through.
Variations
Fillings shift with the cook: some add hard-boiled egg, others fresh tomato, sardines in place of tuna, or a little chilli. A plainer everyday version is filled only with sautéed peppers and onions, and some bakers finish the sealed top with a scatter of coarse salt.
On the Palate
Where Chichì Ripieno sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
8 steps · 30 min
- 120 min
Dissolve the fresh yeast in warm water, then mix with the flour, oil and salt and knead into a smooth, soft dough.
- 2120 min
Cover and leave to proof until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
Watch outLet the dough proof until doubled — this is what puffs both sheets apart around the filling; flat dough bakes into a dense slab.
- 320 min
Drain the tuna and peppers well; chop the peppers, olives, capers and anchovies and fold everything together into a filling.
- 415 min
Divide the dough in two; roll out the first piece and lay it on an oiled baking tray.
- 510 min
Spread the filling evenly over the sheet, leaving a clear border around the edge.
- 610 min
Roll out the second piece, lay it over the filling and press the edges firmly to seal.
Watch outPress the two edges firmly together to seal — an open seam lets the moist filling leak and steam escapes, so the layers won't puff.
- 735 min
Prick the top with a fork, brush with olive oil and bake at 220°C for about 30 minutes until golden.
- 810 min
Cool a little, cut into squares and serve hot, warm or cold.
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