Sicilian Pizza Recipe for crispy sheet pan pizza (How to make pan pizza)

This Sicilian Pizza Recipe will help you make the best Sicilian style pan pizza with the least effort and minimal ingredients.This sheet pan pizza has a thick crust with light and airy crumb.

Why you will love this Sicilian style sheet pan pizza recipe

• This one pan pizza is so easy to make..
• In this Sicilian pizza dough recipe we don’t need to knead the dough..
• Delicious Sicilian style pizza is ready to serve in less than two and half hours time
• This one pan pizza makes a large sheet of pizza that can serve a big crowd

What is Sicilian pizza

Sicilian pizza is, pizza prepared in a manner that originated in Sicily,Italy.

Traditional Sicilian pizza is often thick crusted and rectangular, but can also be round and similar to the Neapolitan pizza. 

Authentic Siciliana pizza is often topped with onions, anchovies,tomatoes,herbs and strong cheese.

The sfincione or Sicilian style pizza, eventually reached North America in a slightly altered form, with thicker crust and a rectangular shape.

Sicilian pizza is also known as sfincione.

What is Sfincione

Sfincione is an Italian word which means “thick sponge”.The reason for its name is the crust on this pizza, which features a spongy bread base.

Traditionally Sfincione is not made with mozzarella, it’s made with caciocavallo cheese which is mixed into the sauce or sometimes sprinkled on the pizza base before the tomato sauce.

Authentic Sfincione has a unique flavor as it is topped with anchovies and above all the toppings they cover it with a mix of breadcrumbs.

Sicilian Pizza Ingredients

Sicilian Pan pizza dough recipe

This Recipe for pan pizza dough uses only five basic ingredients

• Flour :455g or 3 and 1/2 cups (loosely packed)
• Lukewarm water :360 ml or 1 and 1/2 cups
• Sugar :1 tbsp or 12.5 g
• Salt :1/2 tbsp or 9 g
• Instant Yeast :1/2 tbsp or 4.6 g (if using active dry yeast use 1/2 tsp extra and make sure the granules are dissolved in water before adding the flour)

For the Sicilian pizza toppings

In this sheet pizza I have used some homemade pizza sauce to top the pizza dough.

Some freshly grated mozzarella cheese and optionally we can add some chopped olives or jalapeño .I have also used some pepparoni to top the pizza dough.

The quantity of ingredients may differ according to the size of the pan and according to our preferences.

• Pizza Sauce (Homemade pizza sauce recipe)
• Cheese
• Few olives and jalapeño peppers

• Olive oil for greasing the pizza pan and the top of the Sicilian pizza dough

How to make Sicilian Pizza

Sicilian Pizza can be made in a number of ways.

In this One pan Pizza Recipe, we are going to make this Sicilian Pizza in a very easy method with a no knead pizza dough in a sheet pan.

In this Sicilian pan pizza recipe, we are making it in five simple steps

1.Prepare the dough

How to make Sicilian pizza dough

There are many different Sicilian pizza dough recipes and this one is one of the easiest to make.

Into a bowl, pour in the lukewarm water(water which is not cold nor hot but just slightly warm; ideally around 95F)

Add in the salt, sugar and yeast.

Stir until they dissolve in water.

Add the flour and combine then all together to form a shaggy mass of dough.

Here I used the rear end of a wooden spoon to mix them all together.It makes the process much easier and less messy.

We can prepare this Sicilian pizza dough in less than 3 minutes.

2.First Proofing

Now cover the dough with a plastic film or a damp cloth.

Keep the pizza dough in a warm environment for 45 minutes to rise.

This proofing time is very flexible.

We can keep this Siciliana pizza dough for up to 6 hours at room temperature or up to 4 days in fridge.

3.Shape the Sicilian Pizza dough

Now let’s see how to make pizza in pan.

After the first proofing, degas the dough.

And to give a little shape and strength to the dough,I just stretched and folded the dough from four sides.

Stretch the dough and fold it onto itself .

Then turn the bowl 90degree and then repeat the stretching and folding.

Then transfer the dough to a well greased baking pan.

The size of the pan I have used is 15 x 10 inch. We can use sheet pan with slight variation in size as well, to make this pizza in a pan.

Small pans give more thick crust pan pizza and larger pan gives more thin crust pan pizza.

Pour some olive oil on top the pan pizza dough.

And try to flatten the dough as much as possible.

The dough may rebound back while we shape the Sicilian pizza dough.

At this point, leave the dough to rest for 10-12 minutes and then continue to shape and try to fill it into the entire rectangular pizza pan.

4.Second proofing

Cover the pizza sheet pan with a plastic film and let the pizza dough sit and rise for 50-60 minutes.

After the final rising, make some dimples all over the Sicilian pizza dough just like how we do while making a focaccia.

And then top the big Sicilian Pizza with pizza sauce,cheese and anything that you will love to top.I used some olives, jalapeño and pepperoni to top my sheet pan pizza.

While experimenting this Sicilian style pizza recipe,I tried using a kind of cheese which has labelled “modified with vegetable oil” and it didn’t turned out well.

The taste of our homemade pizza largely depend on how well the crust of our pizza turned out and the kind of cheese that we use to make our pan pizza.

I recommend using freshly shredded mozzarella cheese to make this homemade pepperoni pizza.

Now our homemade sheet pan pizza pan is ready to go into the oven.

Sicilian Pizza sauce

Sicilian pizza sauce is usually some tomato paste with some Italian aromatic herbs .We can use it either cooked or raw.

Here,I have used homemade pizza sauce in which I have used sautéed chopped garlic for flavor and some chilli flakes to add some heat and some dried Italian herbs to get that authentic pizza sauce flavor.

5.Bake the Homemade sheet pan Pizza

Place the pan into a 500 F preheated oven and bake for around 20 minutes.

To make the Best pan pizza at home the baking temperature and duration is very important.

How to cook pizza in the oven

Let’s see how to make pizza at home in oven.

For making the best pan crust pizza we need high temperature inside the oven.

Baking temperature for pizza

Preheat your oven to its highest temperature setting or upto 500 F. The high heat will help make a crunchier and more flavorful pan pizza crust.

Make sure your oven is really hot and reached 500 F before you place the pizza pan into the oven. If you have a baking stone or steel, place it in the lower rack of your oven. 

I placed my sheet pan on a preheated baking sheet to make sure it will get proper heat from the bottom.

Pizza cooking time

How long to cook pizza in the oven.

This homemade pan pizza took around 18-20 minutes of baking time to get baked properly.

If the top get baked too fast, it means the position that we placed is closer to the top heating coils and we need to bake it in a lower rack next time.

When I used thin cookie sheet for baking (aluminum),I noticed the pan pizza turned out more crispy and good.In that case it got baked in 18 minutes of baking.

For safety reasons, we should take care and make sure that our pan is oven safe for up to 500 F.

Tips for making crispy sheet pan pizza

1. Preheat the oven to the high temperature 500F possible in your oven.
2. Place the baking sheet in the lowest rack of the oven.This helps to get high heat from the bottom heating coils to get a golden brown crispy bottom crust and at the same time the top part will be farthest from the top heating coils thus preventing the cheese on top getting over browned too fast.
3. Thin cookie sheet can give more crispy crust.

How can I make this no knead Pizza dough ahead of time.

We can make this no knead pizza dough ahead of time.After the first proofing, we can keep this pizza dough covered in the bowl in to the refrigerator.

The pizza dough will stay fresh for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.For best results, use the pizza dough in four days.

And when you want to make a homemade pizza, just take the pizza dough out of the refrigerator and leave it on the counter and let the dough come to room temperature before proceeding.

When the dough come to room temperature,just “stretch and fold” the dough from four sides and then transfer it into the well greased baking tray and then let it rise in a warm environment for 1 hour (Final rising).

After one hour of rising, make dimples on top of the pizza dough.Top it with pizza sauce and with your favorite ingredients.

Bake the Pizza in a pan at 500F preheated oven for 18 -20 minutes.

This no knead pizza dough improves its gluten strength as it sits and ferment in the cold environment resulting in creating a more improved homemade pizza with big open crumb and taste resembling a sourdough pizza crust.

How many slices in a Sicilian pizza

Sheet pizzas are larger in size than regular round homemade pizzas.This Big Sicilian Pizza can be divided into 9 medium sized Sicilian slice.

Watch The Video to see how easy it is to make Sicilian Style Pan Pizza

If you like Homemade Artisan Bread Recipes,I am sure you will enjoy these Easy Bread Recipes.

Sicilian Pizza – Pizza recipe in pan :Printable Recipe