Sfincione pizza — the recipe
Palermo's street-corner pizza, and the original behind every American “Sicilian” square. Sfincione means little sponge, and that's the crumb: thick, soft, soaked with oil. On top goes an onion-and-tomato sauce melted with anchovy, cubes of caciocavallo pressed into the dough, and a fistful of toasted breadcrumbs over the lot.
This is a pan recipe, so everything below is weighed for the pan and scales with its area; the table covers the common sizes. The dough is the spongy, oil-rich Sicilian — the Sfincione preset weighs it for whatever pan you own.
What goes on top
Per pizza, on the default 33 × 33 cm pan — in layering order:
cubed small, pressed into the dimpled dough before anything else
a generous pinch over the sauce
Sicilian-generous — the sponge drinks it
Different pan? Dough and toppings scale together with the pan’s area — the common sizes:
| Pan | Dough | Caciocavallo | Onions | Crushed tomatoes | Anchovy | Dried oregano | Extra-virgin olive oil | Toasted breadcrumbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 × 22 cm | 495 g | 75 g | 75 g | 110 g | 5 fillets | 1 g | 9 g | 25 g |
| 33 × 23 cm · 13 × 9 in | 569 g | 85 g | 85 g | 125 g | 6 fillets | 1 g | 10 g | 30 g |
| 35 × 25 cm | 656 g | 95 g | 95 g | 145 g | 7 fillets | 2 g | 12 g | 30 g |
| 33 × 33 cm | 817 g | 120 g | 120 g | 180 g | 8 fillets | 2 g | 15 g | 40 g |
| 40 × 30 cm | 900 g | 130 g | 130 g | 200 g | 9 fillets | 2 g | 15 g | 45 g |
| 46 × 33 cm · 18 × 13 in | 1139 g | 165 g | 165 g | 250 g | 12 fillets | 3 g | 20 g | 55 g |
The dough
Sfincione is built on Sicilian dough. Thick, spongy square — sfincione style, generous with the oil. For 4 pans:
| Ingredient | Baker's % | For 4 pizzas |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 1852 g |
| Water | 70% | 1296 g |
| Salt | 2.2% | 41 g |
| Olive oil | 3% | 56 g |
| Sugar | 1% | 19 g |
| Yeast | 0.23% | 4.2 g |
The yeast is weighed for an example 8 h rise at 21°C — your kitchen disagrees, and that’s the point: set your real schedule in the calculator and it reweighs the pinch.
How it’s done
- Make the dough: 4 pans of Sicilian dough — the calculator weighs everything for your pan size.
- Stretch the dough into the oiled pan and let it relax into the corners.
- Top with 120 g caciocavallo (cubed small, pressed into the dimpled dough before anything else).
- Top with 120 g onions (sliced thin and stewed soft in olive oil first).
- Top with 180 g crushed tomatoes (crushed, cooked down with the onions into a loose sauce).
- Top with 8 anchovy fillets (melted into the warm sauce until they dissolve).
- Top with 2 g dried oregano (a generous pinch over the sauce).
- Top with 15 g extra-virgin olive oil (Sicilian-generous — the sponge drinks it).
- Top with 40 g toasted breadcrumbs (toasted, scattered over the top so they crisp in the oven).
- Bake at 230 °C / 446 °F — no steel or stone needed: the pan is the baking surface; set it low-to-middle in the oven.
Questions from the counter
What's the difference between sfincione and American Sicilian pizza?
Sfincione is the ancestor: a spongy Palermo focaccia under onions, tomato, anchovy, caciocavallo and breadcrumbs — no mozzarella, no pepperoni. The American “Sicilian” square that immigrants adapted kept the thick pan crumb but swapped in mozzarella and a more familiar tomato top. Same skeleton, different wardrobe.
I can't find caciocavallo — what's the substitute?
Caciocavallo is a firm stretched-curd cheese, sharper than mozzarella; provolone is the closest easy swap, and a young pecorino or even a mild cheddar gets you in the neighborhood. Some Palermo bakers use tuma or primo sale instead — fresh and milky. Skip low-moisture mozzarella here; it melts too blandly for the breadcrumbs and onions to play against.
Why the breadcrumbs?
They're not a garnish — they're structural. Toasted breadcrumbs (mollica) on top drink the surface oil and crisp into a savory crust over the soft sponge: the textural counterpoint the whole pizza is built around. Toast them in a dry pan or in a little oil first; raw crumbs just go soggy.
No anchovies — can I leave them out?
You can, but they're doing quiet work: melted into the sauce they read as savory depth, not fish, the way they do in a good puttanesca. If you truly must, a spoonful of capers or a little extra salt keeps the sauce from going flat — but try them dissolved in first. Most anchovy-skeptics never spot them here.
Get the dough
The Sicilian preset weighs the pan and writes the schedule — mix, rise, pan, dimple, bake.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.