Hello friends, how's it going? Today I want to introduce you to my favorite dish when I go to Sicily.
Palermo Sfincione is a culinary delight from the beautiful island of Sicily. It is a kind of pizza with a high and soft dough, topped with anchovies, cacio cavallo cheese, onion sauce, breadcrumbs and oregano. A veritable explosion of flavors and scents! But what makes Sicilian Sfincione truly unique is the dough, which must be high (double the height of a pizza) and soft like a sponge. If you are a fan of pizza and strong flavors, you cannot miss Palermo Sfincione, a true masterpiece of Sicilian cuisine.
It is not a coincidence that the name of this dish derives from the Latin "spongia", as with the sfince of San Giuseppe. As for the topping, there is a distinction to be made between homemade sfincione, heavily seasoned, and that sold on the street, just barely covered in onion sauce. It is this latter version that maintains the roots of street food and which is still sold today in the typical lambretta of the sfincionaro. If you are traveling in Sicily and want to taste a piece of its culinary history, then you cannot miss the sfincione sold on the street, a true culinary treasure.
*The original recipe for sfincione calls for the dough to be prepared with only semolina from hard wheat, but today we tend to mix flours to make the dough lighter. As for the amounts, everyone has their own! The important thing is that the sfincione ends up being high and soft, slightly crispy around the edges, and with a flavorful onion sauce... and digestible, I would add! *