Sicilian Pizza Recipe
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This Sicilian pizza recipe is homemade in a sheet pan and loaded with sauce, cheese, and toppings for a meal the whole family will love. It’s delicious a dish that my Sicilian grandmother made fairly often.
We eat a lot of Italian food in our house. From pasta to pizza, we love it. If you want to try some Sicilian recipes, you must try my Pasta alla Norma or Sicilian Style Swordfish.
Sicilian Style Pizza
Sicilian Pizza is a “sheet-pan pizza” where pizza dough is formed in the pan and then topped off with sauce, cheese, and toppings, and then baked to form a golden brown crust.
My grandmother’s style was much thinner, but I, however, love the homemade thick style better. Once your dough has risen, you simply push it, pull it, and smash it to form it into the sheet pan, hence the sheet pan Sicilian pizza. There is no limit or creativity on toppings, so once the dough has been formed, the rest is up to you.
Sicilian style sheet pan pizza is very similar to cioppino or chicken parmigiana. There was a base recipe in Sicily, in this case, pizza, and then was adapted by Sicilian American immigrants to the style of pizza we have in the United States, which is baked in a sheet pan.
This could have been adapted due to oven or pizza baking constraints since I’m guessing not too many homes in New York had a wood-burning pizza oven in their apartment.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Flour – I use plain all-purpose flour in this recipe. You can also use bread or 00 flour, but you need to increase the amount of water by 5%.
- Water – You will need water at warm temperatures between 110° and 115°
- Salt – I always use coarse salt in my cooking and baking
- Yeast – I use active dry yeast in this recipe. However, you can use instant yeast.
- Sugar – Regular granulated sugar is used to help feed the yeast.
- Oil – Any olive oil will work for this dough.
- Sauce – I’ve got a great pizza sauce recipe. However, I used plain crushed canned tomatoes in this recipe. you can use a store-bought or your favorite homemade recipe.
- Cheese – I used a combination of sliced and shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Toppings – This is entirely up to you, but I used bacon, pepperoni, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, fresh basil, and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
How to Make Sicilian Pizza from Scratch
Add the flour, salt, sugar, olive oil, yeast, and water (110° to 115°F) to a standing mixer with the hook attachment and mix on medium speed for about 2 to 3 minutes, or until a single, cohesive dough ball forms.
From there I usually just cover it with a kitchen towel and go hang out somewhere for about 90 minutes or until the Sicilian pizza dough doubles in size.
Once the dough is doubled in size, simply form it onto the sheet tray you are cooking in. Remember to brush the inside of the pan with olive oil first.
For the crust, I like to mix some finely minced garlic with some olive oil first and then I brush the top of the Sicilian pizza dough with that. It just gives it that extra bit of love I feel.
Then I add on some crushed tomatoes as that is really my sauce. If you have some age-old pizza sauce that you use, then awesome. If you have a sauce you’ve been dying to try on this Sicilian pizza, then please use it. I love the simplicity of crushed tomatoes and think it is just so good with it on this Sicilian pizza that I only ever use that and then season it a bit with salt and pepper before adding on all of the toppings.
I usually use three different kinds of cheese, shredded mozzarella, sliced mozzarella and grated parmesan cheese for an incredibly delicious combo on this Sicilian pizza. The combination of cheeses adds some good fats and saltiness to the pizza for an unbelievable flavor.
Add on your desired toppings and bake.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can make this pizza up to 30 minutes ahead. Keep it warm at very low temperatures in the oven, e.g., 150 to 160°.
How to Store: Cover it in plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Freeze it covered in plastic for up to 2 months.
How to Reheat: Preheat your oven to 350° and add the pizza still in the pan or directly onto a cookie sheet tray or preheated pizza stone and cook for 5-7 minutes or until hot and the cheese has melted.
How to Reheat from Frozen: Add the frozen pizza back to a preheated oven with a pizza stone and cook at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes or till hot and the cheese is melted.
chef notes + tips
- You can also knead the dough by hand if you do not have a stand mixer.
- Feel free to use any of your favorite toppings, including vegetables, cheeses, or meats.
- You can also get creative with the cheeses as well including using things like pepper jack or fontina.
- The main difference of this recipe is in the forming of the dough. A traditional pizza dough would be formed and rolled out into a circle and then baked on a hot stone. Sicilian pizza is where the dough is formed into a sheet pan and baked directly in that pan.
- Neopolitan pizza from Italy is usually round with a thin center and a thicker outer crust on the chewier side. Sicilian pizza is similar to focaccia and is very thick and the dough is bread-like in texture.
More Italian Recipes
Video
Sicilian Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon active yeast
- 1 ¾ cups warm water, 110° to 115°
For the Toppings:
- 6 cloves finely minced garlic mixed with 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- ½ cup crushed tomatoes
- 8 ounces shredded mozzarella
- 8 ounces sliced mozzarella
- ¼ pound crisp cooked bacon, cut into 2” pieces
- 10-12 pepperoni slices
- ¼ pound raw loose sausage separated into chunks
- 1 sliced Roma tomato
- 2 sliced domestic mushrooms
- ½ peeled and thinly sliced green pepper
- ¼ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- 15-20 fresh basil leaves
- coarse salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Dough: Preheat the oven to 500°.
- Add the flour, salt, sugar, olive oil, yeast, and water to a stand mixer with the hook attachment.
- Mix until just combined on low speed and then knead on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove the bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it double in size, which takes about 90 minutes.
- Next, drizzle some olive oil onto the sheet pan that you will be cooking in, I used a 12”x18”x2” sheet pan. If you have smaller sheet pans, divide the dough and make 2 pizzas, or reserve the remaining dough in the freezer.
- Form the pizza dough into the sheet pan so that it is completely covered.
- Next, evenly spread the garlic and olive oil mixture all over the pizza using a pastry brush making sure to leave a 1” crust around the outside.
- Evenly spread on the crushed tomatoes, leaving a 1” edge around the outside, and then layer on as follows shredded mozzarella, sliced mozzarella, bacon, pepperoni, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, parmesan cheese, basil leaves, salt, and pepper.
- Cook the pizza for 12 to 18 minutes at 500° on a middle rack in the oven or until browned and cooked throughout.
- Slice and serve.
This is our FAVORITE pizza recipe! Thank you! Friends and family request it! I even made 10 of them for a fundraiser dinner! I want to bake this pizza at high altitude do I need to change anything?
Best pizza dough recipe!
I make this twice a month with different toppings!
Family can’t get enough of this dough.
Fantastic!
Hi Billy
Love your recipes and style! What pan did you use for the sicilian deep dish pizza?
I want to make this soon!
I used a 12”x18”x2” sheet pan.
Hi there,
Could I put my oven on convection? If so, would it be better to adjust the temp or the time?
Thanks in advance,
Marie
yup. 25° lower
I’ve made this numerous times, why do I get pools of water on the top? Thank you.
pools of water? What do you mean? On the cheese?
Yes, just on top of the pizza. I am going to make this again and use two sheet pans instead of the one big deep sided pan I’ve been using. I’m curious how this way will turn out. Thank you.
This was amazing! A bit longer cook time than anticipated but love that it’s a big portion pizza recipe. Perfect for my 5 boys!
Fantastic!
We have used this recipe as our go to pizza dough. Love the flavor of the dough and makes a great pizza. Thanks for sharing this recipe Chef.
fantastic!