This recipe is an excerpt from my cookbook Simposio: Southern Summer, where I celebrate the traditional flavors of Southern Italy’s summer kitchen.
This is Campania’s focaccia ripiena, a traditional savory pie stuffed with the goodness of local ingredients and served as a delicious snack or light lunch. The pizza di scarola napoletana recipe is especially beloved around Christmas, but in many southern kitchens, it’s made year-round.
I have a friend with a wonderful villa in Vietri, on the Costiera Amalfitana, and every time we go there—usually for his birthday in June—we find a pizza di scarola, homemade by his mom or bought from the local bakery.
Watching her slice it, wrap each piece in a paper napkin, and hand it to us the moment we arrive—always with a glass of chilled white wine—is one of my most treasured culinary experiences.
Consider that the villa has a stunning view over the sea, is surrounded by giant trees, and that every corner of the house holds a story: of his family’s past generations and of our recent stays there. It’s a happy place.
Does food taste better in those places?
Probably. But I also think it’s about our state of mind once we get there.
And that, I believe, is the same state we should bring into the kitchen when making pizza di scarola at home.
Music and a glass of chilled white wine might help. So would turning off anything that beeps.
“Mettere le mani in pasta” is an Italian expression that means getting your hands dirty—but literally, it means to put your hands in the dough. It was born in bakeries, of course.
Put your hands in that dough and reclaim that lost pleasure.
Once worked with your bare hands—and that is therapeutic already—you must let it rise in the fridge overnight. And waiting, amici miei, is another lost pleasure.
Going to bed anticipating a culinary experience… how often do we allow ourselves that?
How often do we step back after sliding something into the oven, and just sit, reading, waiting for the fragrance to surprise our distracted nostrils?
This authentic Campanian pizza di scarola is the kind of dish that brings you back to the essence of home cooking.
Pizza di Scarola Recipe
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 140 g 5 oz or just under ¾ cup hot tap water
- 6 g 0.2 oz or ½ tsp fresh baker's yeast
- ½ tsp sugar
- 250 g 8.8 oz or just under 2 cups 00 flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
For the filling:
- 1 head of curly endive scarola riccia
- ½ garlic clove
- 2 tbsp black pitted olives Gaeta, if you find them
- 1 tsp salted capers rinsed
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 3 anchovy fillets
- 1 tbsp raisins
- Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
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Start by preparing the dough and letting it rest overnight. For full instructions, see the cookbook link below.
To read the full recipe and discover more authentic Southern Italian classics like colatura di alici, insalata di riso, and Salerno’s lemon cake—plus stories and recipes inspired by my travels across Southern Italy—get the complete Simposio: Southern Summer cookbook on Amazon: