Erica De Mane

Recipe below: Scacciata with Broccoli Rabe, Caciocavallo, and Black Olives

I’ve never met a savory vegetable torta I didn’t like. I keep coming back to them. They’re my idea of a perfect food. They can be knife-and-fork or portable, but they’re always contained. For me the best ones include greens and herbs, preferably with a bitter element tucked in, too. Anyone who’s been following my cooking over the years knows my love of torte filled with Swiss chard or escarole, punctuated with salty or sweet, such as capers, olives, anchovies, or, at the other end of the spectrum, pancetta, pine nuts, pistachios, raisins, bit of dates.

My olive oil and wine torta crust is a legend in my own mind, my go-to encasement for a savory torta. But this time I fashioned a Sicilian scacciata, a double-crusted filled pie that takes a yeast dough and usually semolina flour, plus either lard or olive oil. It’s basically a flat calzone, most often made with vegetables, depending on where in Sicily the cook lives. Cauliflower, eggplant and tomato, potato, and broccoli are all typical. I chose broccoli rabe for its beloved bitterness, adding anchovy, olives, pine nuts, fennel seeds, caciocavallo, marjoram, scallion, and garlic—a whole pantry load. I’ve also made one using cauliflower instead of the broccoli rabe. It was good, but not as good.

I’ve seen these things done round on a pizza tray or, my preference, rectangular on a half sheet pan. You should roll the dough thin, which can be a bit tricky except that you can easily patch up little holes with a pinch of the fingers.

Scacciata with Broccoli Rabe, Caciocavallo, and Black Olives

For the dough:

1½ cups regular flour
1 cup semolina flour, plus a little more for kneading and rolling
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 packet yeast
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus a drizzle mixed with a little water to brush on top

For the filling:

2 bunches broccoli rabe, the thick stems removed
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 scallions, cut into thin rounds, including some of the tender green part
3 oil-packed anchovy fillets, chopped
A palmful of pine nuts
1 large fresh garlic clove, thinly sliced
A palmful of fennel seeds, ground
Salt
Aleppo pepper
About 1 cup grated caciocavallo cheese  
A handful of black olives, pitted (I used the shriveled Moroccan type)
A few large sprigs of marjoram, the leaves chopped

To make the dough, put both flours in the bowl of a food processor. Add the salt, sugar, and yeast, and pulse a few times to distribute everything. Add the warm water and the olive oil, and pulse a few more times until it all comes together in a sticky ball.

Sprinkle a little semolina on a work surface, and tilt out the dough. Knead the dough until it’s nice and smooth, adding more semolina if necessary to prevent sticking, probably 7 or 8 minutes. Drizzle a little oil into a big bowl. Turn the dough over in the oil to coat it well. Cover the bowl with a kitchen bowl and let it rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Then punch the dough down, cut it in half and let it rise again for about a half hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. While the dough is doing its second rise, set up a large pot of water, add some salt, and bring it to a boil. Add the broccoli rabe, and blanch for about 4 minutes. Drain it into a colander, and run cold water over it to stop the cooking and set its lovely green color. Squeeze as much water out of it as possible, and then chop in well.

In a large sauté pan, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the scallion, anchovy, pine nuts, garlic, and ground fennel seeds, and sauté until just fragrant, only about a minute (you want to keep the flavors fresh). Turn off the heat, and add the broccoli rabe, seasoning it with salt and Aleppo, mixing everything around well, and adding another little drizzle of fresh olive oil. Let it cool for a few minutes, and then add the cheese, the olives, and the marjoram, mixing well.

Coat a half sheet pan with olive oil. Roll one of the dough pieces out into a large rectangle, and drape it onto the sheet pan, pressing in out to the edges as best you can. Spoon on the filling, leaving about a half inch all around. Roll out the other piece of dough, and drape it over the top, pressing down around the edges to seal it. Trim all around to make a nice uniform shape. Next crimp the edges to help seal it further and make it look pretty and finished. Make a bunch of little air holes on the top (I used a barbecue skewer), and brush the top with the olive oil water mix. Bake until the top is nicely golden, about 20 minutes.

You can serve the scacciata, hot, warm, or at room temperature. I like to cut it into squares.