Sfincione (Sicilian New Years Pizza with Bread Crumbs, Onions, and Caciocavallo) Recipe

The etymology of sfincione isn't completely clear, but the most likely answer is that it comes from the word for sponge, a reference to its tall, airy texture. The bottom is crisp with olive oil while the sauce and cheese layer are salty and deeply savory with dry grated caciocavallo (a Sicilian sheep's milk cheese) and anchovies with plenty of caramelized onions. Rather than straight melted cheese on the top, it's got a mixture of bread crumbs and more caciocavallo. It's pretty delicious any time of year, but especially appropriate for welcoming the new year, when delicious, simple, hand-held, booze-spongey foods are at their apex of popularity. Not only that, but it's pretty dead-simple to make.

What's that? Never heard of it? You always thought Sicilian pizza was just the fat, square spongy stuff you get when you're drunk enough that a regular slice just won't do.

The Anchovies

Sfincione does bear a few resemblances to what passes as a Sicilian slice stateside. For one, it's often made in a square pan and allowed to rise before being topped, resulting in a tall, focaccia-like texture.

From here, the similarities end. Rather than a sweet, bright, fresh tomato sauce, sfincione is made with a load of onions caramelized in olive oil until sweet, robust, and complex.

I've not been to Sicily, but from the research I've done (and what I know of Sicilians), it's natural that anchovies play a large role in the flavor of Sicilian pizza, lending their characteristic savory, salty brininess. (Worth noting: None of the New York pizzerias serving versions of sfincione—Ben's and Pizza Cotta Bene, for example—employ anchovies in the sauce.)

Anchovies contain massive amounts of glutamates, the chemical compounds responsible for the flavor of umami, or savoriness. They're also a rich source of inosinates, another compound that works in conjunction with glutamates to amplify their effect. Many folks are afraid of the fishy taste of anchovies, but when it's incorporated into a sauce like this with plenty of other flavorful ingredients, you won't notice the fishiness at all in the finished pizza, just an intense, salty-savory quality.

The Seasoning

The only other seasonings for the sauce are oregano and red pepper. While most herbs are better fresh, succulent herbs like oregano, marjoram, and rosemary which come from dry, hot environments are particularly good at maintaining their aroma even when dried. Fresh oregano is nice, but dried works perfectly well for this application. The anchovies, oregano, and red pepper get added to the cooking onions for the last 30 seconds—just enough time to release their aroma before adding the tomatoes. It's better to use whole tomatoes packed in juice rather than crushed or diced tomatoes, which are far more inconsistent and contain more calcium chloride—a firming agent used to prevent tomatoes from becoming mushy. Crush the tomatoes by squeezing them between your fingers or passing them through a food mill. After that, a long, slow simmer along with the other ingredients will intensify their flavor.

The Cheese

Rather than a thick layer of melted cheese, sfincione is topped with a sparing amount of very sharp grated caciocavallo, a family of hand-stretched Southern Italian cheeses that are hung by a rope and have a characteristic tear-drop shape. Caciocavallo can range from moist and creamy when fresh to very hard and sharp when aged. Go to a good Italian deli and ask for caciocavallo that has been matured and is meant for grating. Here, I'm using the traditional choice: Sicilian Ragusano, a caciocavallo made with sheep's milk that has a very distinct tang. If you can't find aged caciocavallo, a good Pecorino Romano, sharp aged Provolone, or even Parmigiano-Reggiano will do.

The Crunchy Top and Crust

Finally, a layer of bread crumbs tops the whole pie, giving it crunch on both the bottom and the top.

As the thing bakes, the bottom crust essentially deep fries in olive oil, giving it a remarkably crunchy texture and awesome flavor.

Crisp, crunchy, and saturated with olive oil, this is the kind of bottom crust you're looking for.

Tall and spongey but never dense or doughy, sfincione should have several distinct textural and flavor elements: the olive oil-saturated crunch of the bottom crust, the moist, tender spongy middle layer, the savory, sweet and acidic sauce with plenty of onion and anchovy, and the light, crumbly crunch of the bread crumbs on top.

Now, I know what delicious is, and the finished pie here was freaking delicious, but having never actually eaten sfincione at the source, I wasn't sure as to its authenticity. Fortunately, I had two good tasters: Scott Wiener, who's spent plenty of time eating around Sicily declared it to be "spot on." Meanwhile, Leandra Palermo—who has never been to Sicily or eaten their pizza, but, er, shares her name with Sicily's capital and thus must be an expert in everything related to it—declared the olive-oily carb-fest to be "everything that is good and right in this world."