Sfincione di Bagheria are crunchy, goey, savoury, thick-based pizza. And we've got a 'Pasta Grandpa' this week to show us how to make them: meet Nicola whose recipe is below. In season he uses a fresh shallot called scalogno; obviously this is tricky to find outside Italy, so the next best thing are fresh (green) onions, which are also called scallions in America and spring or salad onions in the UK. And of course, if you only have red, white or brown skinned onions, use them instead. Try and find fresh onions for the breadcrumb mixture.
For the sfincione dough: 1 kilo of semolina/semolo rimacinata flour, 10g fresh yeast 20g of sugar 24g of salt, 24g of extra virgin olive oil. 700ml water
3kg of onions, peeled, finely sliced, 150ml olive oil, 150ml water (add more if needed)
For the other topping ingredients: 100g anchovies, 500g primo sale cheese,
one loaf/1 kilo fresh breadcrumbs, 300g grated caciocavallo cheese, 1 teaspoon salt, 75 ml olive oil (more may be needed, depending on your breadcrumbs) and 3 teaspoons dried oregano, 3 green onions sliced.
These quantities make roughly 5 sfincione