Easy Recipes for the Grill & Cucina – Paggi Pazzo

Italian pizza has many varieties and traditions from each region and all offer unique flavors and tastes. While Napoli and Roma enjoy a great deal of the attention, down in the south of Italy the island of Sicily offers some of the best. Today I’m sharing my Sicilian Pizzolo Pizza recipe from the city of Siracusa that creates a pizza with a top and bottom dough crust. Yeah, that’s what I said slappy and it’s so good, it will have you celebrating just like Sicily’s own “Toto” Schillaci did at the 1990 World Cup. With some classic ingredients such as caciocavallo cheese, prosciutto di Parma, Sicilian olives and more, this pizza will be a crowd pleaser for special occasions (or if you’re just plain hungry). Think of it as a panini pizza but with way more ingredients and a lot bigger!

Start your Sicilian Pizzolo pizza recipe by making a traditional red sauce with garlic sauteed in olive oil and then add crushed San Marzano peeled tomatoes with salt and pepper. Let that cook for at least 30 minutes at low to medium heat and take your dough (pre-made or you can buy fresh dough) and roll and kneed, then sprinkle with flour. Then cut the dough in half and roll each thinly with one placed on top of the pizza stone. Cover the dough on the stone with your red sauce with attention to more of the middle of the pizza rather than the edges. Now get ready for the fun part! There are different cheeses to use but the traditional Sicilian pizzolo calls for caciocavallo, which I cut into chunks, fresh mozzarella, pancetta (which you can have sliced very thin or chunks pre-cooked), prosciutto di Parma, and arugula topped with diced mushrooms and Sicilian olives (pitts removed). There’s a lot going on in that party! It’s the kind of party you’d expect Brick Tamland from Channel 4 San Diego to invite you to.

So we got the bottom part of the Sicilian Pizzolo recipe finished, now it’s time for the top! Take your other dough and cover the bottom toppings but make sure to leave the edges open, this is not a calzone or stromboli (let your guests now that this is not your first rodeo). Once the top is on, dress lightly with some olive oil and sprinkle with Reggiano Parmigiano and dried oregano. Put the pizzolo in the oven and wait 20-25 minutes for a Sicilian sensation!

When your Sicilian Pizzolo pizza is out of the oven and has cooled, slice the middle center across (but not all the way) with a bread knife or large meat knife. After, finish the cut all the way to the edges with a pizza cutter and then you’re good to go! So there you have it, Paggi Pazzo’s traditional Siracusa Sicilian Pizzolo Pizza recipe, Buon Appetito e Grazie Mille Sicilia!!!

Sicilian Style Pizzolo Pizza Recipe
Published: July 6th, 2012

Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 hour
Yield: 8 slices

Ingredients

• 6 ounces crushed tomatoes (San Marzano)
• 4 ounces fresh mozzarella
• 4 ounces caciocavallo
• 3 tablespoons Reggiano Parmigiano
• 3 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 16 ounces fresh dough
• 2 handfuls of flour
• teaspoon salt and pepper
• 6 extra thin slices of pancetta
• 4 thin slices of prosciutto di Parma
• 2 small white or porcini mushrooms
• 3/4 cup fresh arugula
• 1/4 cup Sicilian olives

Cooking Directions

1. In order to make the sauce, add oil to pan at medium heat for 2 minutes.
2. Add garlic and cook for 3 minutes before adding crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper, then let cook for 30 minutes at low heat
3. Preheat oven to 420 degrees
4. While sauce is slowly cooking, add flour to top and bottom of dough and then cut dough in half (store bought or homemade dough)
5. Begin to poke and stretch one half of dough slowly to flatten out, then take dough roller and spread dough out with edges slightly rolled to create a thick crust
6. Lightly brush pizza stone with olive oil and place dough on stone
7. Add sauce to pizza dough after sauce has cooked for 30 minutes with focus on center of dough and not around edges
8. Chop fresh mozzarella and caciocavallo into little chunks and use 1/2 to spread across pizza
9. Top with pancetta and prosciutto di Parma across pizza with meat close to edges (make sure pancetta is sliced extra thin as it will not cook as fast in a pizzolo as it would on a normal pizza). Then chop mushrooms and spread throughout pizza topped with fresh arugula
10. Add rest of fresh mozzarella and caciocavallo, then top with chopped Sicilian olives (remove pits)
11. Take other half of dough and a little bit more flour, and stretch and use dough roller to create thin dough layer and then lay on top of already made pizzolo pizza
12. Dress top dough lightly with olive oil and grated Reggiano Parmigiano then sprinkle with oregano
13. Cook for 20-25 minutes, until top crust is brown and golden
14. Take pizza out and let cool for 5 minutes before slicing
15. Slice middle center of pizza across with a thick bread knife or meat knife 2 inches and then chisel the rest to pizza edges with pizza cutter.
16. Ready to serve!