SICILIAN SFINCIONE

Sfincione, which kinda translates to “thick sponge”, is a specialty Sicilian style pizza distinguished by an onion and anchovy sauce with a caciocavallo and breadcrumb topping. It’s a common Sicilian tradition to serve sfincione on holidays, particularly Christmas Eve and New Year’s. I’ve been making one every New Year’s day for the last 7 or 8 years and it’s become a pizza I look forward to all year. I typically make the sauce the day before, New Year’s Eve. I cook the sauce, transfer it to a glass bowl, let it rest to room temperature, and put it in the fridge overnight. I take it out of the fridge well in advance to give it time to get to room temp... plus I don’t like spreading cold sauce onto the dough. There’s no issue making the sauce the same day, but there is a lot of stirring and simmering involved so give yourself plenty of time before topping. You can’t rush a good sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• Forza Pizza’s Simple Sicilian Pizza Dough

• 1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil

• 1 Large white onion diced

• 2 tsp Oregano

• 12 Anchovy fillets (1 jar = about 12)

• 28oz Can of whole peeled tomatoes

• 1 Tsp salt

• 1 cup Grated caciocavallo or pecorino romano cheese

• 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs

STEPS

1. Heat the olive in a large sautée pan and add the diced onion. They should be sizzling the whole time. Add oregano after 5 mins and keep stirring and cooking the onions until they are all golden. This should take about 15 mins.

2. Add the chopped anchovies and continue to stir and mix for only a couple minutes.

3. Add the can of tomatoes and, using a wooden spoon, keep stirring and smash all the whole tomatoes as you combine. You don’t want any medium/large pieces of tomato, but it’s ok for them to be a little chunky.

4. Keep stirring, bring the sauce mixture to a simmer, and allow it to reduce. It will take at least 30 mins to get a nice dark red and thick sauce. It should not be watery at all.

5. Add the salt for the tomatoes. Taste. Stir again.

6. Spread the sfincione sauce

7. Sprinkle the grated caciocavallo or pecorino romano, and then sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top.

8. Hit it with a light drizzle of olive oil

9. And that’s it! You’re ready to bake!

10. I bake my Sicilian in a home electric oven on convect at 500F and they take around 16 mins, but every oven is different. Do what you gotta do to get a nice bake like the pic below

11. Now you’re ready to join the SFINCIONE SQUAD! Don’t forget to share your sfincione pictures with @forzapizza!

SIDESHOT