When Pizza Is More Than Just a Pie

[elleng]

This Sicilian dish isn’t pizza as you may know it: The familiar dough is baked until it puffs, split open, slathered with ricotta and arugula and served like a sandwich.

'Face it: If you want to talk about pizza, it’s going to be a long conversation.

Everyone has an opinion, knows the best restaurant, or can name that one spot that used to be great but went downhill. Still others boast of newer pizzerias with status ovens that have been shipped brick by brick from Napoli. Then, of course, there are myriad styles: thin crust or thick, Chicago deep-dish or homely grandma slices, and so on. And that’s just here in the United States.

If you want to discuss pizza in Italy, get ready for more opinions. Some would strongly argue that Naples sets the standard for authentic pizza, with a list of strict rules and regulations. Others prefer the Roman style, rough slices cut with scissors, while still others enjoy their pizzas with a fork and knife.

Sicily, formerly a separate kingdom, takes a different approach. Pizzas there tend to be more like focaccia, a bit thicker and heartier, more often referred to as scaccia or schiacciata.

In Palermo, the capital, the local pizza is the hefty sfincione, stained red and juicy with tomato, scattered with anchovy and onion, and sprinkled with bread crumbs, pecorino and wild oregano. It is cheap, filling street food, and quite delicious.

In nearby Ragusa, the specialty is a stuffed scaccia, more like a calzone, sometimes layered, perhaps filled with sausage and eggplant, or with greens and vegetables.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/dining/stuffed-pizza-recipe.html?

Sicilian Stuffed Pizza With Ricotta and Arugula

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019340-sicilian-stuffed-pizza-with-ricotta-and-arugula

[BigmanPigman]

1. Sicilian is tons of slightly sweetened dough and very

little sauce, or anything really, on top. It isn't foccacia, it isn't baked first and it is not deep dish. It is a whole different thing. Delicious.
Individual pizzas throughout Naples are flat, has watery sauce and slippery buffalo mozz sliding around with a few basil leaves. It is meant to be eaten with a knife and fork since slicing and lifting is I practical...too much slipping and sliding. Pizza in Rome is often baked in large, rectangular pans. You walk in and tell them the size you want. They slice it off the large pizza and weigh it and hand it to you to be eaten while walking or standing at a bar. Potatoes and rosemary without sauce is a popular Roman style.

https://slice.seriouseats.com/2011/07/anthony-bourdain-on-neapolitan-pizza.html