I love bread, so much so that I will devour a good find with no spreads, dips, or accompaniments. Our vacation to Sicily was a much-deserved ‘getaway’, not just to escape the miserable Manchester weather.
But for me, it was to be something of a food tour if you will. I intended to explore the beautiful Sicilian beaches but most importantly pay some much-awaited visits to the gems hidden in plain sight known to the rest as ‘street vendors’.
If you look past the bad advertisements from fearmongers about getting sick (depending on the country of course) from eating street food. Then you might agree that some of the most delicious food does come from street vendors.
"Explore the beautiful Sicilian beaches and gems hidden in plain sight otherwise known as ‘street vendors’." Share on XI had had enough of hunting in vain for arancini remotely close to what we had in Catania. Eh ehm, that in no way means there isn’t a decent arancini in Palermo. We just didn’t have time or the energy to go around as many places as we could- hence giving up.
So I decided to try something new. A close family friend had insisted we not leave before trying the famous sfincione and so we did.
Do you know how they say you kiss a few frogs before you get to the prince? Well, this was something like that. I had spent the day in disappointment from eating foods that didn’t quite get me on a ‘happy high’.
But one bite into that sfincione made the wait all worthwhile. In simple terms, it’s focaccia with an anchovy tomato topping sprinkled with some caciocavallo (local cheese) and dried oregano. However, that recipe might differ in various establishments.
This sfincione recipe only uses 3 anchovies, so here are some ideas on what you can use your leftover anchovy– enjoy!
Please give the sfincione a thumbs up below.
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Sfincione
(+20 rating, 4 votes)
Loading...Sfincione is an upgrade to focaccia with an anchovy tomato topping sprinkled with fragrant dried oregano and a mixture of pecorino parmesan cheese.
Ingredients
- DOUGH
- 250g White bread flour plus 4 tbsp during kneading
- 7g Active dry yeast
- 175ml Lukewarm water
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 4 tbsp Olive oil
- SAUCE
- 23g/3 tbsp finely diced brown onion
- 4 tbsp Olive oil
- 115ml Passata/ pureed canned plum tomatoes (without seeds)
- 3 Anchovies
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- BREADCRUMB MIXTURE
- 10g Natural breadcrumbs plus 1 tsp divided
- 1/2 tsp Dried oregano
- 9g Grated Parmigiano reggiano
- 9g Grated pecorino
Instructions
PREPARE THE DOUGH
Sift bread flour into a bowl and make a 'well' in the middle.
Stir the yeast to the warm water and leave to activate for 5 minutes or until it froths up like a beer
Pour it into the flour well and slowly knead to form a shaggy lumpy dough. Then let it stand for 10 minutes, after-which pour in the salt and 4 tbsp of oil and begin to knead until it is smooth and springs back when pressed. You could put some oil on your hands as well to help with any stickiness. If using a stand mixer you can knead it at medium speed for at least 8 minutes.
Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a lightly oiled bowl for an hour or until it doubles in size in a warm place
In the meantime, get the mise en place for your sauce and breadcrumb mixture ready
COOK THE SAUCE
Very finely dice the anchovies and onions
Puree the canned plum tomatoes (if using) and sieve out the seeds
Heat the olive oil and sauté the onions over medium high heat until translucent then toss in the anchovies to fry for 1 minute
Pour in the passata, add a pinch of oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Now cover and leave to simmer, thickening over medium high heat for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to avoid the sauce sticking to the bottom of the pan
When the 10 minutes are done or the sauce seems to have gotten a thick consistency take it off the fire and leave to completely cool
MAKE THE BREADCRUMB MIXTURE
Mix the grated pecorino, parmesan, 10g bread crumbs and a pinch of oregano
BRING IT ALL TOGETHER
After the dough has risen to double its size, prepare a non-stick baking tray (with a measurement of 40cm x 28cm) by spraying it with a little olive oil
Gently tip the dough onto the tray and with your finger tips try to evenly spread out the dough to each corner.
Cover with cling film to rise for another 30 minutes
Preheat the oven to bake at 220C
Using a silicone pastry brush, very gently smear the sauce onto the dough making sure to bust as few air pockets as you possible
Then evenly sprinkle the cheese-breadcrumb mixture over the sauce, then another 1 tsp worth of breadcrumbs only on top of that
Bake for 20 minutes in the middle wrack, flipping once halfway
SERVE
Leave to cool then sprinkle a little dried oregano and pecorino
Notes
If using canned tomato, you may need to stop cooking your sauce a few minutes than you would if using passata. Because passata is a little thicker than pureed canned tomato.
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