Roman Vs Sicilian Pizza: What's The Difference Between These Square Slices?

Pizza style is about more than just triangles or squares. Today, we're deep-diving into two square-shaped classics — Roman versus Sicilian pizzas — to find out, once and for all, what makes 'em unique. (Detroit-style pizza is sliced into squares too, so ... what's up?) To the eye, they appear pretty similar behind the pizza shop's display window, but not indistinguishable. Both are thick, square-shaped, heftier slices compared to ultra-thin, foldable New York-style pizza. Both crusts are also made from a straightforward combination of flour, water, yeast, and olive oil, plus salt for Pizza Romana. 

Their main difference is that Roman pizza dough is lighter and airier compared to chewy, spongy Sicilian pizza dough. Sicilian-style pizza dough typically has lower hydration per weight of the flour compared to high-hydration Roman-style dough. Also below the surface, the airy Roman pizza crust has a large, open crumb structure compared to the denser small-to-medium interior crumb structure of Sicilian pizza – which is baked in a pan coated in olive oil for a charred bottom and moist interior. Roman pizza crust, by contrast, is plush but totally dry.

Perhaps most obviously, Sicilian pizza showcases the bright tomato sauce made from Pachino or Rosso Sicilian tomatoes more than the cheese. Sometimes the sauce is even layered on top. As another visible difference, Roman pizza is also slightly thinner (½-inch to 1-inch thick) than the thicker, toothier Sicilian style (a full inch thick or slightly above).

Roman pizza (aka "Pizza Romana") is deceptively light despite its signature thickness. This unique density (or lack thereof) is thanks to the dough's wide-open large crumb structure, which keeps it texturally airy while still providing enough structural integrity to support lots of toppings. Roman pizza can be dressed in a simple layer of cheese and tomato sauce, or just as commonly fully loaded with imaginative toppings like ricotta, buffalo chicken, meatballs, chicken and pesto, sauteed peppers and onions, or broccoli rabe and garlic. That thick yet airy dough makes a dependable vehicle for culinary creativity and wide-ranging combinations. En Italia, Roman-style pizza is sold by weight "al taglio," aka "by the cut," as a single-serving street food.

Pizza Romana is an art, and as such, its creation cannot be rushed. The dough features ultra-high hydration – 75%-100% water per weight of the flour –  and requires minimal handling during the fermentation process. As a result, the process takes substantially longer to complete compared to Sicilian-style pizza dough, typically a full three days or longer in a refrigerator. After roughly 72 hours of rising, Roman-style pizza dough gets baked in a heat-retaining square steel pan, yielding crisp outsides and a light, pillowy bite within.

Sicilian pizza (aka sfincione) is all about the toothy, chewy, golden dough. "Sfincione" translates to "soft sponge" or "thick sponge," and indeed, Sicilian pizza crust is more similar to focaccia than to what many foodies might think of as a pizza crust. In fact, it wouldn't be incorrect to think of Sicilian pizza dough as the midpoint between Roman-style pizza and bread.

Like Pizza Romana, that thick dough is baked in a rectangular sheet pan and cut into squares to serve. Although, unlike its 72-hour counterpart, Sicilian pizza dough can be made from start to finish in a single day. You can even make it on a sheet pan at home. Still, the process requires multiple hours to complete (no rushing), as Sicilian dough must be double-risen (once after mixing, and once more after being pressed into the pan to expand).

Sicilian pizza hails from deep roots in Palermo and the first wave of Italian immigrants in New York. Detroit-style pizza actually evolves from sfincione. Today in Palermo, the popular street food is topped with vibrant tomato sauce, cheese, anchovies, onions, olive oil, toasted breadcrumbs, and oregano. It's also worth noting that mozzarella isn't the traditionally common choice for Sicilian-style pies because cows aren't native to Sicily. Sheep's and goat's milk cheeses or stronger-tasting offerings like caciocavallo and toma are more often used. Sicilian immigrants didn't start using mozzarella on their pizzas until the early 1900s, as this became the more widely available ingredient in America.