Sheet Pan Sicilian Pizza Recipe
Published September 12, 2019. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Sheet Pan Sicilian style pizza recipe is homemade in a sheet pan to help feed the whole family! It’s delicious made up of homemade dough, cheeses, and toppings and it’s incredibly easy to make.
My Sicilian grandmother made sheet pan Sicilian pizza fairly often. She was a great baker and it treated every time we got to eat her pizza. She would cut it every time with scissors, which I always thought was so funny.
Sicilian style pizza is a large pizza being stuffed into a sheet pan and can feed quite a few people. With the gigantic family we have (my dad has 40 first cousins), it’s a no brainer to make this.
Sicilian Style Pizza
If you’re reading this and wondering what on earth is Sicilian pizza, don’t worry I’m about 99% positive you’ve eaten it before. It’s not some magical crust with some weird sauce and random cheese being used. No, it’s much simpler than that actually.
It’s simply “sheet pan pizza.” Sicilian Pizza is forming your homemade pizza dough to a large sheet pan and then loading it up with toppings. I’ve seen thin crust, I’ve seen thick crust and have eaten and enjoyed both.
My grandmother’s style was much thinner, but I, however, love the homemade thick style better. There’s just more meat to it and when you make homemade pizza dough, wow is it absolutely delicious! Once your dough has risen you simply push it, pull it, smash it, to form it to the sheet pan, hence 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.
How Is It Different
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.
Is It Really From Sicily
Sicilian style sheet pan pizza is very similar to cioppino or chicken parmigiana. There was sort of 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.
What Is the Difference Between Sicilian and Neopolitan Pizza
Neopolitan pizza from Italy is usually round with a thin center and a thicker outer crust that is on the chewier side. Sicilian pizza is similar to focaccia and is very thick and the dough is bread-like in texture. Both can have variations of toppings so in this case, it is much more about the dough.
How to Make Homemade Sicilian Pizza Dough
Homemade Sicilian pizza dough is seriously one of the easiest things to make. You add 6 ingredients to a standing mixer, or to a clean surface and knead it.
The beautiful thing is you don’t really need to knead the dough too much either, maybe 5 to 6 minutes by hand and 2-3 minutes in a mixer.
- Add the flour, salt, sugar, olive oil, yeast, and water (110° to 115°) to a standing mixer with the hook attachment and mix it on medium speed for about 2 to 3 minutes or until it is combined into 1 big dough ball.
- 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 to the sheet tray you are cooking in. Remember to brush the inside of the pan with olive oil first
Pizza Toppings
There are so many different toppings to put on your pizza that I don’t even really know where to start. You can do a white, traditional red, different types of cheese on it, tons of different toppings, seriously this part is entirely up to you.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Add on your desired toppings and bake
This is salty, it’s fatty, it’s just straight-up fire! The toppings after this are usually all over the place. Sometimes I’m all in for meat, sometimes it’s all veggie, and then like this recipe it’s a combo of both.
Reheat and Storage
How to Reheat: to reheat it 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. You can also simply microwave it until hot, but it will soften up the crust.
How to Store: to store it, cover it in plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Freeze it covered in plastic for up to 2 months. You can reheat directly from the freezer to the oven using the reheating instructions above, however, you will need to cook it for longer times to thaw and heat.
More Italian Recipes
Video
Sheet Pan Sicilian Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of yeast
- 1 ¾ cups of warm water, 110° to 115°
For the Toppings:
- 6 cloves of finely minced garlic mixed with 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- ½ cup of crushed tomatoes
- 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella
- 8 ounces of sliced mozzarella
- ¼ pound of crisp cooked bacon, cut into 2” pieces
- 10-12 pepperoni slices
- ¼ pound of raw loose sausage separated into chunks
- 1 sliced tomato
- 2 sliced domestic mushrooms
- ½ peeled and thinly sliced green pepper
- ¼ cup of grated parmesan cheese
- 15-20 basil leaves
- sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Dough: Preheat the oven to 500°.
- Add all of the ingredients to a standing mixer with the hook attachment or to a clean surface. Mix until combined and knead in a mixer on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes or by hand for 5 to 6 minutes.
- Cover with a towel and let double in size, about 90 minutes.
- Next, drizzle some olive oil onto your sheet pan that you will be cooking in, I used a 12”x18”x2” sheet pan. If you have smaller sheet pans, then divide the dough and make 2 pizzas or reserve the remaining dough in the freezer.
- Form the pizza dough to the sheet pan so that it is completely covered.
- Next, evenly spread on the garlic and olive mixture all over the pizza making sure to leave a 1” crust around the outside.
- Evenly spread on the crushed tomatoes also leaving a 1” edge around the outside and then layer on as followed: shredded mozzarella, sliced mozzarella, bacon, pepperoni, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, parmesan cheese, basil leaves, salt, and pepper.
- Cook the pizza for 12 to 14 minutes at 500° or until browned and cooked throughout.
- Slice and serve!
Notes
- How to Reheat: to reheat it 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. You can also simply microwave it until hot, but it will soften up the crust.
- How to Store: to store it, cover it in plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Freeze it covered in plastic for up to 2 months. You can reheat directly from the freezer to the oven using the reheating instructions above, however, you will need to cook it for longer times to thaw and heat.
Nutrition
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I made this two times in the past 3 weeks for guests. They loved it and it is fun & easy to do, Absolutely delicious !!
thanks for giving it a shot!! Anything that could have been better to make it 5 stars?
Hope this comment registers as I did not see my initial comment on his website. This is a foolproof recipe that I use often. Love that the dough is in a pan making it so easy. My pizza is vegetarian & great every time! Thank you Chef Billy!
I’m not a bread/dough maker and this turned out GREAT! I just followed Billy’s recipe exactly – changed the toppings a bit. (Wish I could post a photo here. I did on FB recipe comments.) We all LOVED it. I might make 2 smaller pizzas, instead of one big one, next time. Will add this to our family favorites. Thanks Billy.
This is by far the best dough I have ever tried to make for a pizza and I have tried a lot of recipes. The crust came out absolutely perfect. This is the only recipe I will be using. Thank you for sharing it.
Love this recipe! This is the closest recipe I’ve found for Detroit style crust, and we love it. Our local pizza places have gotten so expensive. I can make my family happy with one of these babies for less than $5!
Delicious recipe!
I love your recipes. Thank you. My question is do you have a favorite canned crushed tomato brand. I find a big difference in quality.
whatever’s organic and on sale.
Thank you for a wonderful recipe , easy and delicious 🧑🏻🍳
Delicious! Great recipe and instructions were simple and to the point. A wonderful light crust when baked. Just so you know, my house smelled as wonderful as yours! We will definitely enjoy the leftovers! Thank you so much!
Where do you get your sheet pans? Never seen one with that big of an edge.
what do you do if you don’t have a standing mixer?
knead by hand 🙂
Making for the 2nd time, it’s in the covered stage! We absolutely devoured this the 1st time!! Question, if I placed the pan on my hot pizza stone would that help crisp up the bottom crust in the pan? Thank you!
Got the dough rising now. My question is we usually get a Sicilian with just sauce and parm. Would I put more sauce on top for it or not?
that’s up you, my grandma never sauced the top.
I’m I reading this right? A total of one pound of mozzarella cheese on one pizza?
The sheet pan is larger than a typical one so yes.
Should it be baked close to the bottom of the oven to ensure the crust is browned on the bottom? I have never had luck making pizza. My Italian grandmother’s was fabulous….wish I had paid attention back then. she made it in a sheet pan too( and we always cut it with scissors too). I’m trying this tonight!
I prefer middle or top since that is where it is hottest.
I can’t wait to make this! The altitude where I live is 6000 ft. Will I need to make any adjustments to the recipe?
Always thought this was solid regarding altitude – https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/resources/high-altitude-baking
Hi my family and I absolutely love this pizza dough. I’ve made many attempts at pizza and they’ve all failed. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when your recipe was a success. And it’s a major success!! My question is this: can I roll the dough to make a thinner pizza crust? Sometimes we like traditional as opposed to Sicilian pizza. Thanks!
No, it won’t make for a good thin crust pizza as it will still really rise. I’m going to work on a good thin crust pizza recipe next year.
Could I let the dough do a slow rise in the refrigerator overnight and use it the next day?
Sure can
This was absolutely tasty!! I can’t wait to make it again and perfect it even more. I will keep this one around for sure. Thanks!
This recipe is amazing! It’s so tasty and reminds me so much like East Coast pizza. I now live on the West Coast so its something I really miss. My only question is how can I get the crust crispier? I baked it for 14 minutes and the bottom was still very pale in color. I baked it a few more minutes but the cheese was starting to get dried out so I took it out. I used a Fat Daddio silver sheet pan. Not sure if I should have used a different pan. Thank you.
Where in the oven did you cook it?
if you don’t have your mixer – should I knead and for how long?
Yes, but it’s hard to give you an exact time because it depends on how hard you knead. I would say 8-10 minutes.
Which kind of yeast? Instant or Dry Active yeast?
active, but you can use either.
Hello, this looks amazing! Thinking of making this for a party. Could you let me know whether it would work to make the pizzas the day before but not cook them until the following day? Many thanks
That would not work.
This is an awesome pizza dough recipe. I have been making homestyle pizza for over a decade and was looking for a change. This deep dish style did not disappoint. So easy! The only chage I did was to roll out two pizzas from the single recipe to make a little thinner.
Would you be willing to give a recipe for a thin crust version as well? I would love to try your take on that!
Maybe one day, not a huge fan of thin crust as it’s just 2-3 ingredients.
Have you ever tried this in an anodized pan?
That’s what I always use for Sicilian Pizza.
😅 40 years ago, while I was in the Navy, I got to so an “up and down the boot” tour of Italy (and all around Sicily) tour. Every place we went, I would order “Sicilian style”pizza, as the town I had enlisted from had a Pizzeria that served it – thick and chewy crust, melty cheese, and yummy maliciousness in your mouth. I must have had over 100 different pizzas, and no two were the same, even in Sicily!
LOVE this story, thanks for sharing! It is absolutely delicious!
Hi! This looks incredibly delicious. I have one question. Does using Bob Mills make a difference? I have General Mills organic APF. Can I use that as well?
I love Bob’s and switched for to them years ago. I’ve always felt everything I made was superior and always turned out. I’m sure your flour could work.
This looks incredibly delicious! I love this! looks so good!
Grandmothers always make the best foods! This Sicilian is looks so good! Making me want to have a slice asap lol
I need to make this pizza asap! It looks incredible!
perfect timing……I needed a pizza dinner idea for tonight! this looks fabulous!
Okay this looks AMAZING! I can’t wait to try!