Sfincione Siciliano Recipe

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SERVES 4

Ingredients – The Dough

  • 500g x Semolina Rimacinata
  • 5g x Instant yeast/Fast action dry yeast or 7g Active dry yeast
  • 4g x Salt
  • 5 g x Sugar
  • 4 Tbsp’s x Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 120-130g/ml x Lukewarm water

Ingredients – The Sauce/Topping

  • 300g x Finely sliced onion (around 4/5 small onions)
  • 300g/ml x Water
  • 1 x 90g Anchovy fillets in oil
  • 1 x Pinch Oregano dried
  • 2 x 180g Jars Strazzanti Sugo di Pomodoro
  • 100g x Pecorino Cheese
  • 20g x Breadcrumbs (optional)
  • Sicilian Chilli Infused Olive Oil

Sfincione Siciliano, a traditional style of Sicilian pizza from Palermo. It has a thicker crust (similar to focaccia) and is baked in rectangular shaped pans. We use Twice-milled durum wheat semolina or Semola Rimacinata which comes from Sicilian durum wheat; only water is required to bind the dough.

This recipe was inspired by our father as he loves baking pizza! Read more about this in our Editorial post

 

Method ~ The Dough

In a bowl, place the flour, sugar, salt and yeast *see note 1 and mix well together. Add into the flour mix the extra virgin olive oil and the water. Pour the water in slowly and a bit at a time as you might not need all of it.

Bring the dough together into a ball and place on a clean work surface and begin kneading the dough for a good 10-15 minutes until lovely and smooth.

Place the kneaded dough back into the bowl and cover with a clean towel and leave to rise in a warm area until doubled in size or overnight in the fridge.

 

The Sauce/Topping

Take your finely sliced onions and gently fry in 3 tbsp’s of olive oil until slightly translucent. Then add the water to finish cooking the onions until sweet and tender on a very low heat.

Once the water had evaporated from the onions add in the anchovies and let them disintegrate until they are one with the onions.

At this stage, depending on how much you like anchovies, you can either:
1) leave them out
2) add in 1 tin for a subtle back note or
3) add in 2-3 tins of anchovies for a more intense hit

Add in the ‘Sugo di Pomodoro’ and a good pinch of oregano and place on a low heat to simmer away until thick and reduced by half; around 15 mins remembering to stir frequently to avoid the sauce sticking to the pan.

Check your seasoning for salt – remembering the anchovies act as salt here too and the sugo is already seasoned, so tread carefully. Leave to cool down in a bowl to one side.

Whilst the sauce cools and the dough proves, either grate the Pecorino cheese on a medium coarse grater or chop roughly into small pieces with a cooking knife and keep to one side.

 

Assembling & Baking

Once the dough has doubled in size and the sauce is cooled, you can start to assemble the Sfincione.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and prepare a baking tray around 10 inches by 8 inches (but whatever you have, this is just a guide) lined with a thin layer of olive oil.

Take the proven dough and gently knock-back the air and place on the baking tray and mold into the tray until the base of the tray is fully covered with the dough. If you have proved the dough overnight in the fridge *see note 2.

Take the grated/chopped Pecorino cheese and place on top of the dough evenly, then spread over the cooled sauce and top with the optional breadcrumbs and a drizzle of olive oil. Leave to rest for 1 hour before placing in the pre-heated oven.

Cook in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes until golden on the bottom.

Serve warm or equally delicious room temp on a picnic.

Note 1*

If you are using active dry yeast then this needs to be dissolved in the water to become activated. You should also increase the quantity of yeast to 7g.

Note 2*

If the dough has proven overnight in the fridge make sure to take it out for a good 30/40 minutes before you start to mould into the baking tray as it will be too firm to work.

Buon Appetito!