Lindsay Marie Morris

A thick and spongy savory tomato pie, sfincione is the grandmother of what Americans call Sicilian pizza. As is typical in Western Sicily, my nonna would top hers with anchovies, onions, breadcrumbs, and cheese. We looked forward to enjoying it with our Christmas Eve feast, always saving some room for her cookies.

Nonna rarely wrote her recipes; when she did, there were never any measurements. Luckily, folks like Italian-American siblings Michele and Joe Becci of Our Italian Table are doing their part to preserve food traditions. Their recipe for sfincione is approachable, and the result resembles what Nonna would have prepared.

I recently corresponded with Michele and Joe, who shared their background and connection to this recipe, how sfincione differs from pizza, favorite side dishes, and more.

 

 

Tell us about your background.

We are two siblings who grew up as second-generation Italian Americans in the small town of Phillipsburg, New Jersey—a place that welcomed a large influx of Italian immigrants in the early 20th century. Our love of cooking began in our childhood, helping our mother in the kitchen. Standing on chairs, we would roll pasta dough, shape gnocchi, or (gently) stir the simmering pot of passatelli. Together, we rolled meatballs, kneaded dough, helped make the sauce, and fried eggplant. Our mother was forever sharing her specialties with family and neighbors, near and far. Thankfully, she passed on her passion for cooking to us.

 

Our grandparents emigrated from Sicily, Naples, and Marche in Italy. Their arduous journey across the sea to a new life only deepened their desire to continue the traditions and rhythms of their former lives in a new land and build a life surrounded by the love of family. Growing up, large family gatherings were the norm, and good food was the foundation for a lifetime of memories filled with laughter and love. 

This celebration of family, tradition, and Italian culture is at the heart of everything we do, which is why we first launched Our Italian Table, our food blog, over 15 years ago. Working from opposite coasts—Joey in California and Michele in Pennsylvania—our blog has brought us great joy, allowing us to share our passion with our readers. Today, Our Italian Table has grown to include our annual magazines (our most recent issue, "From Sicily, With Love," is over 100 pages dedicated to the land of our maternal grandparents, Sicily) and our recently launched podcast, A Tavola, along with an online shop that features carefully curated Italian products from artisans we know and love—items we proudly use in our own homes and kitchens here in the U.S.   

 

What is your connection to this recipe?

Our mother's family is from Santo Stefano di Camastra in Sicily. Many from her village immigrated to the town in the U.S. where we grew up, Phillipsburg. There was a bakery called the New York Italian Bakery, an institution that had been around for over 40 years. We can still remember how excited we would be when we would jump in our Dad's station wagon for a trip to the bakery. The aromas in the bakery were magical—the smell of the piles and piles of breads and Italian cookies gleaming behind the glass display cases—but our favorite display case was the one that held the trays of Sicilian pizza, oily and thick and tomatoey. Whenever our parents allowed us to have a slice of pizza, they would scoop a slice out of the pan and hand it over to us, oily against the parchment paper. We were made to wait until we were back in the car to eat our prized possession, and we devoured it.  

 

How is sfincione different from pizza?

Sfincione, often called "Sicilian pizza," is quite distinct from the classic pizza most people know. It's not the thin, crisp-crusted Neapolitan or New York-style varieties. Sfincione has a thick, soft, and fluffy crust, more akin to focaccia. It's baked in a rectangular pan, which helps create a thick, spongy base that's both light and substantial. The name "sfincione" itself hints at its texture, derived from the Latin word spongia, meaning "sponge." 

 

The dough is covered with a mix of onions sautéed with tomatoes, anchovies, and breadcrumbs, which add a bit of savory crunch. Cheese—usually grated caciocavallo or pecorino—is sprinkled over the top. The anchovies, onions, and robust cheese provide a savory punch, while breadcrumbs on top add texture and a rustic finish. Oregano, Sicilian oregano if you can find it, is used in the sauce, giving it a unique Sicilian flavor. 

 

What are some popular sfincione side dishes?

We love to serve sfincione as part of an antipasti board that includes maybe a simple mix of briny olives, cured meats, and cheeses. When served as a meal, we love to serve a bright, lemony salad, perhaps peppery arugula dressed lightly with lemon juice and shaved Parmigiano. A classic Sicilian fennel and orange salad also works beautifully to add brightness alongside the deep flavors of the sfincione. Occasionally, when we have a larger crowd, we might also serve a platter of seasonal grilled vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, and peppers drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar. 

 

What do you hope readers take away from your recipe?

We want readers to come away with a sense of Sicily's culinary soul and an appreciation for the simplicity and depth of flavors that define traditional Sicilian dishes. Sfincione isn't just a "Sicilian pizza"—it's a rustic, satisfying dish with a story, a connection to Sicilian street food culture, and a distinct personality… a taste of Sicily in its most comforting form, a reminder of the island's ability to transform humble ingredients into something memorable and delicious. We also hope that our readers will feel inspired to make sfincione at home and to gather and enjoy it like in Sicily, where sfincione is meant to be savored slowly, with friends and family, in the warmth of community.

 

>>Get Our Italian Table's sfincione recipe here!<<

 

 

 

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A fixture of Milwaukee's Bay View, Pietro's Pizza has been serving pies since 1973, when Sicilian baker Filippo Tarantino finally saved up enough to open its doors, 14 years after he arrived in the United States. He named it after his son Pietro, who still now owns the popular business. 

 

A longtime member of Milwaukee's Italian Community Center who also served multiple terms on ICC's board of directors, Pietro co-hosted the public radio program Italian Hour with his sister, Enrica Tarantino-Woytal, for 25 years. He also served as the liaison between the Italian Community Center and Chicago's Consulate General of Italy and was part of the Comites, the Committee of Italians Abroad. In 2019, he earned the rank of Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia, one of Italy's highest civilian honors. 

 

Pietro is what we Sicilians would call a paisano. He hails from the town of Porticello, where my grandparents grew up and where I still have family. We recently discussed how Pietro ended up in Milwaukee, his memories of Sicily, and, of course, pizza.

 

 

Tell us about yourself and how you ended up in Milwaukee.

I was born in Porticello and attended school there. When I was 15 years old, I came to the U.S. in 1969.

My father had already lived in Milwaukee for 10 years, working for Grebe's Bakery. He came here in 1959 on a labor contract visa. He was a master baker in Porticello, with his own bakery not too far from the tobacco store.

 

Some of my family on both sides, on my father's side and then on my mother's side, had been in Milwaukee. Actually, my grandfather on my father's side was here in 1895 and left in 1905. He was here for 10 years. Then, my grandfather, who was on my mother's side, was here from 1922 until 1933. So there were some roots here, and my great aunt lived there. That's why he came here.

 

In Milwaukee, my father also worked at Angelo's Pizza, where he was the dough maker. He used to go there every day from noon until two or three to make their pizza dough. Then he would come home, have a cup of coffee, hop on the bus again, and go to Grebe's Bakery. He started working around 4:30 in the afternoon.

 

Tell us about your memories of Porticello.

Porticello? It's a dream. When you live there, you don't know what kind of treasures you have. It's just like when someone is free and doesn't know what freedom is until they go to another country where they've been controlled. You know what I mean? That town is a gem.

 

When I return, I always go to the old side, not the new one. And a lot of people ask me, "How come you're hanging around the old portion of town?" Well, that's where my memories are. That's where my youth was. That's where I used to walk with my grandfather. That's what I played with the other kids. We used to play around in Punta Santa Nicolicchia. 

 

So that is Porticello. It's a sweet place. It's a dream. I mean, all of Sicily is like that. You look to the right, and there is water; you look to the left, and there are mountains. And the beauty is that within 10 minutes of traveling, there is so much diversity. That's unbelievable. You go from flowers all the way up to pine trees and then on top of the port to those ruins at Solunto. One does not know what you have until you leave.

In Porticello, at night, you can open your windows, close your eyes, and hear the waves hitting the rocks. You don't need to have the TV on. You don't need to go to the nightclub for heavy music. Nature is to be appreciated. And then, of course, fresh fish comes there daily. And you can eat that fish. You can actually eat fish at eight o'clock that were caught maybe at four or five. So when you cook it, it's still alive. So that's the beauty of it.

 

You know what? You can take me away from Porticello, but you cannot take Porticello away from my heart.

Unless you are an immigrant, you really don't know the feeling of going away from the way life was. It's my culture, even though I've lived in America for 55 years now.

But Milwaukee is part of my life as well. 

 

Let's talk about Milwaukee.

Milwaukee has been good to the Italians. Milwaukee is a good community: nice, quiet, clean. They accept everybody—Milwaukee's good, period. And you know where the Italians went? Most of it went to the east side, and the other portion went to the Bayview area. We went to the Bayview area.

I've done a lot in Milwaukee. I went to school, I got my degrees, I did numerous jobs, and I made sure that the pizza place stayed open in order to hit 50 years. Right now, it's 51 years.

 

What are some of the ingredients and techniques that reflect your father's legacy?

The dough is the main thing. And I had to master that because with my dad, he never measured anything. It was just a little bit of this, a little bit of that. So it was very difficult. But I had to learn and ask questions because making dough is very difficult. You have to check the temperature and humidity, which tells you how much yeast or the temperature of the water you have to use. You need to know what kind of flour you need, even though it's the same brand. So you have to be careful.

 

That's the main thing that my father mastered. After all, when my father was a baker, it's not like nowadays, where you dump your dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and have the water that's already been measured, and you're done. They'd make their own yeast, what they call lievito madre. I remember my father used to go at 11 o'clock at night to do that. 

 

What's your signature pizza? 

I'm dealing with an American clientele, so the pizza we sell the most is cheese, sausage, mushrooms, and onions. But my father's signature was sfincione.

 

We make sfincione for the Italian Golf Invitational. And I make it every year. 

 

What do you hope your customers will take away from their dining experience?

Well, first of all, it's very fresh. I mean, I make dough every day right now. I use the freshest ingredients that I can. The vegetables and sausage are fresh, too. I get it delivered every week. Nothing is pre-cooked.

After being in the same location for that long, I've built rapport with all the people in Bay View. Some of the customers are the grandkids of the people we served when we started.

 

You have that kind of relationship with the clientele; that's the best thing, the human side of it. It's fantastic. It actually helped me grow. That's why I love Milwaukee as well.

 

 

 

 

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