I have a friend with a wonderful villa in Vietri, on the Amalfi Coast, and every time we go there — usually for his birthday in June — we arrive to find a pizza di scarola waiting for us.
Sometimes homemade by his mother, sometimes 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 memories.
The villa overlooks the sea, giant trees surround the house, and every corner seems to hold stories from both his family’s past generations and our more recent summers there.
It’s a happy place.
And yes, food probably tastes better in places like that.
Though I also believe it has something to do with our state of mind once we get there.
WHAT IS PIZZA DI SCAROLA?
Pizza di Scarola is Campania’s focaccia ripiena: a savory pie traditionally stuffed with escarole, olives, capers, anchovies, raisins, pine nuts, and olive oil.
In Naples, it is especially beloved around Christmas, though many southern Italian kitchens make it all year round.
It is salty, slightly bitter, sweet in unexpected moments, deeply Mediterranean, and somehow both rustic and elegant at the same time.
The kind of food that tastes of southern Italian kitchens, old ovens, and long conversations.
PUTTING YOUR HANDS IN THE DOUGH
Music and a glass of chilled white wine might help while making it.
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 putting your hands in the dough.
The expression was born in bakeries, of course.
And honestly, I think we should reclaim it.
Once you work the dough with your bare hands — which 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 slide something into the oven and then simply sit down, reading, waiting for the fragrance to surprise our distracted nostrils?
Pizza di Scarola is exactly that kind of food.
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
-
Start by preparing the dough and letting it rest overnight. For full instructions, see the cookbook link below.
The complete Pizza di Scarola recipe — together with other southern Italian rituals, seasonal dishes, and stories — is part of Southern Summer Simposio.