Scacciata (ska-cha-ta) ~ Sicilian Pizza
“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
Since members of my family are vegetarian, I make scacciata without the meat. It is my own version. Broccoli scacciata is my favorite, 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.
- Turn off the stove and add 1/2 cup of Romano cheese (sometimes I use Feta) 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.
The Dough: Using my Kitchen Aid mixer, I modify the King Arthur Sourdough Crust recipe using only 2 cups of flour and instead of the 4 teaspoons of Pizza Dough Flavor, I add 1 tablespoon of honey. If I want my dough to rise more quickly due to time crunch, I add 1 teaspoon of dry yeast rather than 1/2 teaspoon. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-pizza-crust-recipe
Below are some of my pizza toppings.
Important note : Add the cheese and pesto dollops after turning off the oven so that the cheese doesn’t turn brown and the pesto isn’t cooked.
Homemade Pasta https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/homemade-pasta/
Gimme Some Oven ~ Homemade Pasta is such an informative website when it comes to making pasta! It describes several different methods for making pasta and has a successful recipe that I used. I added 1/2 cup of Semolina and 2 cups of white King Arthur Flour. It worked out fine!
The pasta strips were cut using a nifty pie dough lattice cutter. I dried my pasta on a drying rack several hours before putting it in boiling water (for 3 minutes) and topped it with tomato sauce using oven roasted garden cherry tomatoes tossed in chopped garlic, olive oil, basil, rosemary and a tablespoon of honey ( I do this myself) I added baked scallops to the final dish and, of course, grated Romano cheese and crushed black pepper. Ciao ! 🥙
Vermont Food Librarian 