PrintHas anyone ever heard of an Italian "Christmas" pizza?
Over Labor Day weekend 2008, I caught part of a Food Network show on types of pizza. One place they went, showed how to make a "traditional" pizza they claim is normally baked only @ Christmastime. It's a rectangle-pan pizza (pan is oiled first), and the dough - a very simple yeast/flour/water dough - is made to rise twice rather than once before it's pressed into the pan. Then a heavy tomato sauce is ladled on, then mozzarella, and then a 2nd pan is placed atop the pie. In the pizzeria, it's baked for only a few minutes. Then it's removed, additional toppings are added, and it's put back in, but now without its lid. My grandmother made many kinds of pizza, but neither I nor any of my cousins have ever heard of this one. It may be called a "sphignone" or "sfignone" or something like that. (I read through your List of Regional Pizza Styles, but nothing looked like it. Googling brings no results; Googling "Christmas pizza" brings up dessert pizza. This is *definitely not* a dessert pizza!!
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6 Comments:
do you remember what show you were watching?
pjracz10 at 2:54AM on 09/04/08
The number of regional pizza styles never ceases to amaze!
HeartofGlass at 5:55AM on 09/04/08
I think this was The Secret Life of Pizza, and I think the Christmas pizza was from Ray Bari's, but I don't remember the name of the pizza.
jonfoxx at 11:01AM on 09/04/08
I saw the show too, but I don't remember the name of the pizzeria. The Christmas pizza that was made didn't have extra toppings added at the end. Instead, it was covered with a breadcrumb topping, then re-baked for just a few minutes. Go to the TV schedule on FN for Sept.1 and click The Secret Life of Pizza. The web site lists each pizzeria that was visited. You can click on each site to get their e-mail address. Hope this helps.
Josdean at 12:55PM on 09/05/08
Thanks to jonfoxx and Josdean - it *was* The Secret Life of Pizza, and it was Ray Bari's. And it *was* breadcrumbs added at the end, before putting it back in for a finishing bake.
These recipes, though, weren't on the website. I seem to recall that they described the sauce as being different from a traditional pizza sauce, definitely thicker, but I think with a different stretch of ingredients. I'll try their email address (though I don't know that they'll be willing to share.)
Robbo at 1:23AM on 09/06/08
I am having a similar problem. First of all, it definately was The Secret Life of Pizza and it was Ray Bari's. Secondly, I know the name but don't know how to spell it. Phonetically it is said " SVEN-CHON-NI" or "SVEN-CHONI" or "SVEN-CHO-NEE". The "O" is pronounced as a long "O" and the "I" is pronounced as a short "I". The "SVEN" sounds just like the Norwegian male name Sven. Hope this helps everyone or anyone. THAT PIZZA REALLY DID LOOK TASTY DIDNT IT?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could almost smell it through the T.V.
stevealvis at 2:08AM on 02/07/09