For those interested, here's a link with a sfincione recipe:
http://www.ricettedisicilia.net/piatti-unici/lo-sfincione-la-vera-pizza-dei-palermitani/ The guy that sent me this link was born and raised in Palermo, and is also a member of the Pizzarium group on facebook. He proudly states that "sfincione is the true pizza palermitano", and refers to it as "his pizza". Here's the recipe translated (thanks to Google):
In ancient times, in Palermo, the peddler with his wheelbarrow recited the Sfincione with: "go tastalu! Scarsu r'ogghiu and Chinu the pruvulazzu "(assaggialo! Poor oil and full of the dust of the road), but today with the evolution of time, the wagon has become the" lapa "(the bike Ape Piaggio) and changed" the abbanniata "(the cry of the seller) in:" Who ciavuru! You colures u c 'has taliari! chisti sunnu so beautiful Vieru ra! "(That smell! Thou, the color you see, things are really nice!). The Sfincione is the Sicilian pizza and was typical of the Christmas holidays.
Born among the poor people to change the usual dish, represented by "schittu bread" (bread without any seasoning), on the occasion festive table presented in a suitable dish to that point.
The origin is probably Saracen while the name of "sfincione" is purely siculo. In fact, in our country, when you want to define something very soft is there a way to tell that defines it quite well: "It is muodda com 'na sfincia" (it is as soft as a "sfincia" - which is another product of Sicilian cuisine which we describe in the recipes of sweets and soft as that resembles the consistency of sfincione).
It seems that this delicacy was invented by the nuns of the monastery of San Vito di Palermo.
The recipe that we suggest undergoes small variations compared to the traditional one, because in my opinion it is much more digestible.
The recipe for a large baking pan (gives around 12 servings)
For the dough:
500 grams of flour, semolina (durum wheat)
500 grams of flour 0 (better yet manitoba flour)
half a liter of warm water
20 grams yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
½ glass of olive oil
20 grams of salt
For the sauce:
500 grams of peeled tomatoes into large pieces
6 anchovies (rinse the salt or sardines in oil)
300 grams fresh cheese (to eat)
300 grams grated cheese semi fillets
Sale q.b
Fresh oregano
2 bunches of onions shallots
Procedure for the dough:
Put the sifted flour on a work surface and add the yeast chopped into small pieces with sugar.
Add a little warm water, mixing with his fists, until the mixture is fairly compact. At this point, start adding small amounts of salt on a work surface with a little warm water. Kneading, always with his fists, adding little by little the oil and turn over the dough on itself until you get a soft dough, elastic and well blended. At this point you will see the bubbles rising. Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cut the surface with two cross-cuts cover the bowl with plastic wrap, put it in a warm place covered with a woolen cloth and let rise for two hours (should double in volume).
Immediately after placing the mixture to rise, preheat the oven to 250/300 degrees.
Procedure for the sauce:
Put the tomatoes in a bowl and season with salt, pepper, onion (if using onion shallots cut into strips, if you use another type of onion cut thinly and put it to soak for about twenty minutes, with water and salt, then squeeze it and add it to the tomatoes), plenty of oil, and oregano, if you like, two teaspoons of sugar to remove the acidity of the tomato.
Oil the baking dish, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, stretching out the dough (it should be about an inch high). Sprinkle over the anchovies into small pieces, the fresh cheese cut into squares (about ½ cm thick). With a ladle cover sfincione with the sauce before. Sprinkle with grated cheese and finally the breadcrumbs. Press down lightly with a spoon so that the breadcrumbs absorb the moisture of the sauce (and therefore does not burn). Drizzle with a little olive oil and let rise for at least ½ hour, then bake for about twenty minutes checking the stages of cooking.
Serve hot sprinkled with fresh oregano. It is also delicious warm or cold.
