Sfincione
Sfincione alla Palermitana
Region: Italy, Sicily
Category: Pizza and Focaccia
Season: Any
Difficulty: Labor Intensive

In New York City nearly every street corner pizza joint sells "Sicilian" by the slice. These thick pizzas have their roots in the sfincione of Palermo. Non-Sicilian Italian cookbook writers have often misunderstood this pizza. Luigi Carnacina and Ada Boni both incorrectly called this pizza "di San Vito," another pizza which is made with pork and sausage and not fresh sardines. Canned sardines will not work for this recipe. You simply must find fresh sardines. If that proves to be impossible...then make something else.

[photo: Clifford A. Wright]

Yield: Makes one to two large pizzas or four 9-inch pizzas
Preparation Time: 4:30 hours in all

1   Basic Pizza Dough recipe     3/4 pound fresh sardines (or anchovies), cleaned and gutted with, heads, tails and backbone removed       Sea salt for dredging     1 pound plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil plus 1 tablespoon     1 medium onion, chopped     1/2 pound young mild caciocavallo or provolone cheese, diced or sliced

1. Prepare the pizza dough.

2. Wash the sardines and roll them in the sea salt. Cut up the tomatoes and let them drain for about 1 hour.

3. In a large skillet, heat 1/2 cup olive oil over medium heat, then cook the onion until translucent, about 6 minutes, stirring. Reduce the heat to low, add the tomatoes, and cook until denser, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add half the sardines to the tomatoes and cook 10 minutes (1 minute if you are ignoring my advice and using canned sardines). Turn off the heat and set aside.

4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

5. Divide the pizza dough into quarters if you are making 4 pizzas. Roll out the dough and lay it in a lightly oiled pizza pan, flattening the dough with your hands to cover the whole area. The dough should be 1/8 inch thick. Make sure the sides are not too thin or they will brown too fast. Using half the tomato sauce and all the cheese, cover each pizza and bake 20 minutes.

6. Add the rest of the sauce and place the remaining sardines on top in a spoke-like fashion. Bake for 10 minutes. (If using canned sardines add them for only the last minute of baking.) Serve immediately.

Posted: 01/10/2007

Needed Recipes:

Homemade Bread