Sicilian Pizza With Pepperoni and Spicy Tomato Sauce Recipe

A Sicilian pizza that's as close as you're going to get to the famous one at Prince Street Pizza in New York City.

Two square slices of Sicilian pepperoni pizza on a cream colored stoneware plate.

Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

Why It Works

  • Using the food processor to make dough very rapidly builds up an elastic gluten network for good texture.
  • Letting the dough rise in a pan coated with olive oil ensures that it doesn't stick while baking and that it acquires a crunchy, golden-brown crust.
  • Layering the cheese under the sauce prevents the crust from getting soggy.
  • Natural-casing pepperoni curls as it bakes, giving you textural contrast from the crispy edges.

You want to show your friends and family that you really love them (or, at the very least, are willing to buy their affection and admiration with pizza)? This is the recipe for you. It's easy, it's insanely delicious, and it feeds a crowd.

这是中间的一个星期日的下午。我already weeded the garden and walked the dogs around the block of San Mateo that I now call home. Suddenly I get that aching, irresistible itch for a slice of great pizza. And not just any pizza. Times like these, there's a hole in my belly, and it's shaped like a big, fat, pepperoni-topped square. I'm talking about the Spicy Spring from Prince Street Pizza in Nolita. It is, I can say with confidence, the greatest slice of Sicilian-style (read: thick and square) pizza in New York City, and, by extension, the world. (Fight me on that, I dare you.)

The crust is thick, slightly chewy, and packed with big bubbles, like the interior of a good baguette. For a piece of bread an inch thick, it's remarkably light, but it's still gonna fill you up. It's baked inside an oiled baking dish so that it ends up with a crisp, golden-brown, almost fried texture on its underside. The toppings are simple: melted aged mozzarella cheese (that's layeredunderthe sauce to keep the dough from getting soggy), a sweet-and-spicy fra diavolo–style tomato sauce, ground Pecorino Romano cheese, and, most importantly, atonof pepperoni. And not just any pepperoni. We're talking spicy, natural-casing pepperoni. The kind of pepperoni thatAdam Kuban, former Serious Eats managing editor and proprietor of Margot's Pizza, refers to as "crispy grease chalices," for the way in which they cup up and fry around the edges, their interiors glistening with pools of rendered pepperoni fat.

It's an incredibly good pizza that has only two problems. First, with all the toppings and that olive oil–packed crust, it's heavy enough that you can't eat it more than, say, once a month. The second problem is that it doesn't exist anywhere else.

I'd rather have the first problem than the second, and, for anyone living outside of Lower Manhattan, the second problem pretty much solves all the issues brought up by the first, so today I'm going to focus on solving that second problem (so that we can reintroduce the first). That's right. My goal is to be able to produce a (reasonably good) facsimile of this pizzaanywhere in the world.*

*Except for, you know, the 70% covered by water, and perhaps other high-altitude locations, where making great pizza is not just difficult but seemingly impossible for a man of my means.

Know the Dough: How to Build the Right Crust

Making Sicilian-style pizza dough in a food processor

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

You can't make a great sandwich with bad bread. Likewise, the most important step for making great pizza is starting with great dough. Fortunately, I've beenstudying pizza doughlong enough to know the kind of ballpark I want to be playing in.

For this pie, I started with mybasic square pizza dough, which is quite similar to myfoolproof pan pizza dough. It starts with all-purpose or bread flour, along with some salt and yeast. There's a little olive oil, which adds flavor and tenderness, and a good amount of water. My original pizza dough recipe has a hydration level of 70%—that is, for every kilogram of flour, I would add 700 grams of water. With this much water, you get a huge number of large bubbles in the dough. I wanted this particular pie to come out a little denser and chewier (to be able to stand up to the heavy toppings), so I cut the water back to 65%. It's important that youuse a scalewhen mixing dough for pizzas, as volume measurements for flour are notoriously inaccurate.

To mix the water in, there are three basic methods:the food processor,the stand mixer, and the no-knead method. The food processor is by far my favorite if quick and easy results are what I'm after. The violent beating that dough gets inside a quality food processor will very rapidly form the gluten network that gives good pizza dough its structure. A stand mixer will do in a pinch, though the gluten formation is never quite as good.

If you don't have any equipment at all, the basic no-knead method will work as well. Just mix the ingredients together in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, let it sit on the counter, and allow time to do the work. Over the course of 12 to 24 hours, the dough will naturally start to bubble and form its own strong gluten network.

Whatever method you use, the next step is simple: Dump the dough into an oiled rimmed baking sheet, cover it, and let it sit.

Collage of spreading Sicilian-style pizza dough in a greased rimmed baking sheet.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

如果你想立即尝试伸展道格h out, you'd find it to be extremely elastic, wanting to pull back into a tight ball. But as the dough relaxes over a couple of hours, its gluten network will naturally slacken, allowing it to slowly fill out the sheet pan. I always make sure to lift up each corner and edge to allow any air bubbles trapped underneath to escape. This is essential if you want to maximize the amount of crispy, golden-brown crust in the finished pizza.

延伸到fi之后ll the pan, I set it aside for a second rise—this will ensure that the pizza is extra bubbly and light; uncovered is fine at this stage—while I focus my attention on the sauce.

At a Loss: Making the Sauce

Collage of making tomato sauce for Sicilian-style pizza.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Frank Morano, the owner of Prince Street Pizza and the man behind the pies, has said that his sauce is made with imported olive oil and tomatoes, garlic, and a few spices, so that seemed like a good place to start. You canseehow much garlic is in the spicy tomato sauce when you order a slice, so I started with a full nine cloves, roughly chopped and sautéed in olive oil. To bump up the flavor, I also added some dried oregano (oregano is one of those herbs that still pack great flavor even when dried) and a hefty dose of red pepper flakes, which is how the Spicy Spring gets its bite. We're looking for hot enough to notice here, not hot enough to destroy you.

Once everything is nice and friendly in the pan, I add a can of tomatoes. For this, you want really good-quality canned whole tomatoes, which have a bright hit of acidity and a natural sweetness. DOP San Marzano tomatoes are consistently a fine choice (they're pricey, but worth it), though, if you have access to Chris Bianco'sBianco diNapolitomatoes, those are good, too. In any case, look for a brand packed withoutcalcium chloride, an additive that is sometimes used to help tomatoes keep their firm shape.

I prefer whole peeled tomatoes to diced or crushed, as it gives you more control over the finished texture. You can chop the tomatoes in a variety of ways. I used to either squeeze them through my fingers in a bowl, or mash them with a potato masher in the pot, but recently I've discovered an even better tool for the job: a stiff-bladed pastry blender. Its firm blades let you efficiently chop up the tomatoes to whatever consistency you'd like, directly in the pan.

Topping Time: Choosing Your Meat and Cheese

Toppings for Sicilian-style pizza: ground Pecorino, pepperoni, and sliced mozzarella cheese.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

With the sauce and dough done, there are only three remaining ingredients: low-moisture (aged) mozzarella cheese, Pecorino Romano cheese, and pepperoni.

The Mozzarella:Typically, New York–style slices are topped with grated aged mozzarella sprinkled over the sauce. I'm talking the dry stuff that comes in blocks, as distinct from the balls of wet fresh mozzarella used to top Neapolitan pizzas. For the Spicy Spring, the key is to useslicedmozzarella and to place itunderthe sauce for even, shingled coverage that offers protection to the dough and prevents the sauce from sogging it out. (This is sometimes referred to as an "upside-down Sicilian" in pizzeria lingo.)

The Pepperoni:Youmustuse a high-quality, natural-casing pepperoni that curls and forms cups as it bakes. Pepperoni curl is caused by the bull's-eye-shaped pattern of varying meat density inside the casing, andthis pattern occurs only in pepperoni with a natural casing. My favorite brand is Vermont Smoke & Cure, though Boar's Head also makes a great, extra-spicy product. Find more recommendations inour sliced pepperoni taste test.

佩科里诺干酪Romano:Don't skimp on the good stuff. Look for real, imported Pecorino Romano in solid blocks, and grate it yourself at home. You can either roughly chop it and finish it off in the food processor, or use the grinding faces of your box grater. (You know, those faces with the poke-y bits that you didn't think had any purpose? That's what they're for.)

Collage of assembling a Sicilian-style pizza in the proper order, with cheese underneath the sauce.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

By the time you've finished making the sauce and preparing the toppings, your pizza should be through with its second rise and ready for assembly. Shingle on the mozzarella, spread out the sauce (you want it thicker than on a standard New York– or Neapolitan-style pizza, but don't go overboard), then cover the face with pepperoni. And I meancoverit. The pepperoni shrinks as it cooks, so 70–80% coverage from the get-go is a good goal to aim for.

At Prince Street Pizza, they use ovens that hit up to 750°F (400°C), though I'm fairly certain that they typically run a little cooler than that. At home, my oven maxes out at 550°F (290°C), but that's still plenty hot enough for a thicker, pan-style pizza like this to crisp up without drying out—a real danger when it comes to thinner styles of pizza.

The trick is to bake it close to the floor of the oven, where it will get the most radiant heat out of the base, helping that bottom crisp up to an extra-crunchy golden brown.

Close-up of pepperoni on top of Sicilian-style pizza

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

If all goes well, that'll be just about the same time that the pepperoni on top of the pizza is reaching maximum crispness and the cheese is starting to bubble up through the sauce and brown in spots. I mean, just look at that. Isn't it almost worth flying across the country for?

No? Let me try to make my case a little stronger:

Removing a slice of pepperoni-topped Sicilian-style pizza from a sheet pan.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

How do you feel about that now? Not a stretchy-cheese person? How about a little of that crispy underbelly?

Image showing the crispy underside of a slice of Sicilian-style pizza

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

That's the stuff.

You know what the best part of my job is? I get to make and eat pizza and call it "research." Don't get me wrong: I'm still going to be hitting up Prince Street Pizza every time I come back into the city (for research purposes, of course). I may just be doing a little bit of extracurricular studying back home in the meantime.

May 2016

Recipe Facts

4.6

(49)

Prep:15 mins
Cook:35 mins
Active:30 mins
Rising Time:2 hrs
Total:2 hrs 50 mins
Serves:6 to 8 servings

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For the Dough (see note):

  • 500gbread flour(17.5 ounces; about 3 1/2 cups)

  • 14gkosher salt(0.5 ounce; about 1 tablespoon); for table salt use same weight or half as much by volume

  • 6ginstantor rapid-riseyeast(0.25 ounce; about 1 1/2 teaspoons)

  • 60gextra-virgin olive oil(2.1 ounces), divided

  • 325groom-temperaturewater(11.5 ounces; about 1 cup plus 7 tablespoons)

For the Sauce:

  • 20gextra-virgin olive oil(0.70 ounce; about 2 tablespoons)

  • 9 medium clovesgarlic(45g), roughly chopped

  • 1tablespoondried oregano

  • 2teaspoonsred pepper flakes, or more to taste

  • One 28-ounce (800g) canwhole peeled tomatoes

  • 1teaspoonsugar

  • Kosher salt

To Assemble and Bake:

  • 1 pound (450g) sliced deli-stylemozzarella cheese

  • 12 ounces (325g) natural-casingpepperoni, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices

  • 4 ounces (115g) groundPecorino Romano cheese

Directions

  1. To Make the Dough in a Food Processor (recommended):Combine flour, salt, yeast, 20g olive oil, and water in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade or dough blade attachment. Process until a dough that rides around the blade forms, then continue processing for 30 seconds. Continue with Step 4 below.

    Dough formed inside food processor, with dough ball riding on top of the blade.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  2. To Make the Dough in a Stand Mixer:把面粉,盐,酵母,在t和20克橄榄油he bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk to combine. Fit mixer with dough hook attachment. Add water to mixer and mix on medium speed until dough comes together and no dry flour remains. Increase speed to medium-high and mix until dough is stretchy and smooth, about 6 minutes. The dough should stick to the bottom of bowl, but pull away from the sides. Continue with Step 4 below.

    A four-image collage. The top left image shows two hands spreading oil-covered dough gently inside a rimmed, oil-coated baking sheet. The top right image shows the dough slackened and starting to spread out toward the edges of the baking sheet. The bottom left image shows two hands pressing the dough out from the center so that it fully fills the baking sheet. The bottom right image shows two hands lifting the bottom right corner of the dough and stretching it beyond the edge of the pan.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  3. To Make the Dough Using the No-Knead Method:Combine flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Add 20g olive oil and water and stir by hand until dough comes together and no dry flour remains. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours. Continue with Step 4 below.

  4. Pour remaining 40g olive oil into a 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet and spread over entire inner surface with your hands. Transfer dough to baking sheet and turn in oil until thoroughly coated. Spread gently with your hands. (It will not stretch to fill the pan; this is fine.) Cover baking sheet with plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature until dough has slackened and started to spread out toward the edges of the pan, 2 to 3 hours. Carefully remove plastic wrap from pizza dough. Using oiled hands, and working as gently as possible to maintain air bubbles, push and stretch dough into the corners of the pan by pressing out from the center, lifting each corner, and stretching it beyond the edge of the pan. It should pull back until pan is just filled with dough. Set aside for 20 to 30 minutes while you make the sauce.

  5. For the Sauce:Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until softened and aromatic, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and juices from the can. Using a pastry cutter or a potato masher, break up tomatoes into fine chunks. Stir in sugar. Bring to a bare simmer and allow to cook for about 15 minutes to let flavors meld. Season to taste with salt. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

    A two-image collage. The top image shows garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes in a large saucepan once they’re cooked in the oil and the garlic is softened. The bottom image shows tomatoes added to the same saucepan, being broken up with a potato masher held by a hand.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  6. Thirty minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lower position and preheat oven to 550°F (290°C).

    Rack inside of oven, set to lower position (without anything on it).

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  7. To Assemble and Bake:Shingle slices of mozzarella cheese evenly over surface of pizza. Spoon sauce on top of cheese and spread with the back of a spoon. (You will not need all the sauce; use as much as you like, but be sparing.) Spread pepperoni slices evenly over surface. Sprinkle with half of Romano cheese. Transfer to oven and bake until pepperoni is crisp and curled and bottom of pizza is golden brown when you peek by lifting the corner with a thin spatula, about 10 minutes. With some ovens, you may need to loosely tent the top of the pizza with aluminum foil and continue baking until the bottom is golden and crisp.

    A four-image collage. The top left image shows mozzarella slices shingled evenly over the surface of the pizza dough. The top right image shows a hand holding a spoon spreading sauce over the surface of the cheese slices. The bottom left image shows pepperoni slices spread evenly over surface of the pizza, and sprinkled with half of the Romano cheese. The bottom right image shows the bottom left corner of the pizza being lifted with a spatula after it has baked for about ten minutes, showing off the golden brown bottom of the crust.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  8. Remove pizza from oven. Sprinkle with remaining half of Romano cheese, use a pizza wheel to cut it into slices, and serve immediately.

    Two slices of pizza on a cream colored stoneware plate on a black tiled background.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

Special Equipment

Food processor (recommended) or stand mixer, rimmed baking sheet, pizza wheel

Notes

All dough quantities are given in mass measurements. For best results, I strongly recommend using a precise scale, set to either grams or ounces, to weigh out dough ingredients. If using a food processor, you can place the food processor bowl directly on the scale and tare it, then add the ingredients directly to it.

Nutrition Facts(per serving)
777 Calories
47g Fat
55g Carbs
34g Protein
Show Full Nutrition LabelHide Full Nutrition Label
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6 to 8
Amount per serving
Calories 777
% Daily Value*
Total Fat47g 60%
Saturated Fat 19g 93%
Cholesterol99mg 33%
Sodium1929mg 84%
Total Carbohydrate55g 20%
Dietary Fiber 3g 12%
Total Sugars 4g
Protein34g
Vitamin C 16mg 79%
Calcium 485mg 37%
Iron 2mg 12%
Potassium 511mg 11%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)