“The scacciata is street food, made from bread, with ingredients that come from the heart of Sicily, from its warm and welcoming land. It’s difficult to find a specific recipe for scacciata precisely because it is one of those dishes that are passed down from generation to generation, from grandparents to parents and from parents to grandchildren.” – From Scacciata siciliana

These are my Sicilian grandparents on the left. They arrived as a married couple through Ellis Island from Melilli during the early part of the twentieth century. A photo of my father as a young boy is on the right. Grandma baked scacciata often and so I remember her with love and emotion whenever I make it.

Since members of my family are vegetarian, I make scacciata without the meat. This recipe posted below is my own version. Broccoli scacciata is my favorite type, but I also make it with potato or potato and spinach.

The broccoli filling :

• Fry one small onion and a large garlic clove in canola or vegetable oil until the onion is translucent. Don’t burn the garlic.

• Add 3 – 4 cups of bite-size broccoli pieces and sauté them until tender.

• Add a handful of chopped sundried tomatoes in oil and add a bit of the sundried oil too. For flavor, add a small swirl of olive oil (approximately three tablespoons). Stir until it is all mixed and hot and the broccoli is tender but not mushy.

• Turn off the stove and add 1/2 cup of Romano cheese (sometimes I add Feta instead). Stir.

• Add salt and pepper to taste. It should look moist and the broccoli tender. Now you are ready to fill the dough.

• Lightly oil a baking sheet and then roll out dough* on the sheet about 15 long x 12 inches wide. Or you can roll and stretch it out on parchment paper on a pizza peel.

• Spread the broccoli mixture on half of the length of the rolled out pizza dough. Fold the other half of the dough over the broccoli mixture and press down the edges to close it tight. (see photo above)

• Take a knife and make a hole in the center of the top of the dough.

• Place the pizza in a 400-degree oven or slide it onto an oven-heated hot stone using the pizza peel. Once the scacciata turns brown underneath, you can slide out the paper, but keep it in the oven until it turns a nice baked brown across the top.

• It takes about 25 minutes to cook. Let it cool for about 10 – 15 minutes before cutting into large sections.

*The dough that I use for all my pizza recipes is is King Arthur Sourdough Pizza Crust It is a delicious flavorful pizza dough.

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