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1
Combine the flour, water, olive oil and salt. Work the dough until it is smooth and homogeneous. Divide into two equal pieces, shape into balls, cover and leave to rest at room temperature for a minimum of 1 hour. The dough is ready when it offers no resistance when a corner is gently pulled — it should feel slack and extensible, not springy.
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2
Set a pizza stone or baking steel on the highest rack of the oven. Heat the oven to its maximum setting — 270–300 °C — and allow the stone or steel to pre-heat for at least 1 hour. The surface must be fierce to the hand held several centimetres above it.
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3
Drape the first ball of dough over both fists and extend it gently outward, rotating as you go, until it reaches the dimensions of the baking tin and is near-transparent — it should be the thinness of a plastic bag. This is where the dish lives or dies: any residual thickness will produce a doughy result entirely without character; transparency is not an exaggeration. Lay the sheet in a lightly oiled baking tin or directly onto a sheet of baking parchment cut to the stone's size.
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4
Spoon pieces of crescenza or stracchino evenly across the base sheet, distributing the cheese in small spoonfuls so no area is left without coverage. The cheese should lie in a single, fairly even layer.
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5
Stretch the second ball of dough to the same near-transparent thinness and lay it over the cheese layer. Press and pinch the perimeter firmly to seal the two sheets. Make several small holes across the surface of the top sheet to allow steam to escape during baking. Brush the top sheet lightly with extra-virgin olive oil.
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6
Slide the focaccia onto the pre-heated stone. Bake at maximum oven heat — 270–300 °C — until the surface is deeply blistered and golden in patches and the dough is fully crisped. The cheese must be completely molten and audibly bubbling through the holes when the tin is briefly tilted. Serve immediately from the oven; the focaccia becomes leathery within 15 minutes.