FOOD NEWS
The Origin Story Of Sicilian-Style Pizza
BY AUTUMN SWIERS
Sicilian-style pizza may have first originated in Bagheria, a town just outside of Palermo, where Prince Giuseppe Branciforte di Butera retired in 1650.
His mansion employed the Monsù people, who often made a recipe created by the nuns of the monastery of San Vito. This proto-pizza included toppings like bechamel, peas, and offal.
By the mid-1800s, the Sicilian pizza (known as sfincione) was cemented as a gastronomic staple in Palermo, where it remains a quintessential street food.
When Sicilian immigrants brought sfincione with them to the U.S. during the 1890s, mozzarella was added to the recipe, as the U.S. dairy cow industry was booming.