L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES FRANCESCA BEZZONE S f i n c i o n e i s Sicily's own ver- sion of pizza al t a g l i o , t h e S o u t h ' s a n s w e r to Liguria's sardenaira and, let me tell you, a delicacy that should be way more popular across the country t h a n i t i s . Y e s , b e c a u s e while it enjoys cult-status b a c k h o m e , i n b e a u t i f u l Sicilia, not many of us up North are familiar with it. And what a shame that is! Sfincione is traditionally tied to Palermo and, while it kind of looks a tad like both, it's neither a type of pizza nor a more decadent version of focaccia. It's a leavened dough, not much different from the one we use to make bread, topped w i t h a s a u c e m a d e w i t h tomatoes, onions, ancho- vies, caciocavallo and bread crumbs. The latter are, in my opinion, the secret of sfincione's decadent texture and taste, although official- ly it's all in the double lea- vening time: the first just after the dough is made, the second just before baking, w h e n i t ' s a l r e a d y i n t h e baking sheet, topped with its sauce and cheese. In Sicily, and in Palermo especially, sfincione is an icon: they sell it at the bakery, but also along the s t r e e t s a n d a t t h e m a n y colorful markets so typical of the city. Here, ambulanti entice us with their singa- long chatter and the marve- l o u s s c e n t o f t h e i r f r e s h sfincione. As many of our dishes, sfincione has an interesting h i s t o r y . A c c o r d i n g t o some, it was baked for the first time in Palermo, some- times in the 17th century and, just like it happened for cannoli, pasta martora- na and cassata, it seems its creation is to be attributed to a religious community, more precisely to the nuns of the di San Vito mona- stery, located between the M e r c a t o d e l C a p o , V i a C a p p u c c i n i a n d P i a z z a Indipendenza. The idea was to create a richer bread to use during important festi- vities, but made only with simple ingredients and lea- vened dough. However, this first sfincione had one con- siderable difference from the sfincione palermitano of today: it had no toma- toes, perhaps because their use was yet to become tho- roughly common in Italy. A brief note on this: a toma- to-free sfincione still exi- sts today and is typical of the town of Bagheria, not far from Palermo. It is belie- ved it was, just like Caprese in Campania and sardenai- ra in Liguria, the food of m a n u a l w o r k e r s a n d f a r - mers, because it was cheap, f i l l i n g a n d e a s y t o c a r r y around. Its name, just like that of another traditional Sicilian dish, a fried dessert called s f i n c i a , p r o b a b l y c o m e s f r o m t h e a n c i e n t G r e e k spòngos, mediated through the Latin spongia, "sponge:" this isn't surprising at all, because at the heart of both sfincione and sfincia is a very spongy dough! I've had Sicilian neigh- b o r s f o r y e a r s a n d i t ' s t h a n k s t o t h e m I g o t t o know this amazing dish, which isn't quick nor easy to m a k e , b u t i s w o r t h e v e r y inch and gram of effort you put into preparing it. So, let's give it a go! I n g r e d i e n t s ( 6 t o 8 servings) For the dough: 2 lbs of All Purpose flour 5 0 g r a m s ( a b o u t 4 1 / 2 tsp) of active dry yeast, to be Even if it looks like pizza, sfincione is not the same! Photo: Roberto Maggioni/Dreamstime Sfincione: street food, Made in Palermo Continued to page 32

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