SETH: Chef.

AMY: Hello.

SETH: Nice to meet you.

AMY: Nice to meet you.

SETH: I'm always in the mood for great Italian food.

But, what are you preparing today.

AMY: Today we're gonna make scacce, which is our signature dish at Piccolina.

SETH: Scacce.

I can't say I'm actually familiar with that.

AMY: So, this is something I discovered from Sicily.

It's actually from the town of Ragusa, and it is, um, their signature dish.

So, it's a very thin rolled, uh, sheet of dough.

And, it's layered with ingredients.

SETH: Well, a signature dish all the way from Sicily.

I can appreciate that.

So, how do you get started here?

AMY: So, this is a dough made out of flour, olive oil, yeast and water.

And, then we're just go about rolling it out.

And, as you can see, there's a lot of olive oil in it, and water, which makes it really, um, flexible and pliable.

You can also see the little air bubbles.

That's the yeast doing its thing.

So, the idea is here is we want to get it as thin as possible.

And, then, it's gonna be rolled over and over again.

So, when you do that, it creates layers of flaky pastry.

SETH: This is not gonna be a doughy pastry.

AMY: Nope.

SETH: It's gonna have a nice sort of crackly feel to it.

AMY: This is gonna be crackly and crispy, and as light as a stuffed pizza-esque dish can be.

So, we're just gonna make into, kind of, a perfect rectangle.

And, we're gonna put a little semolina flour on it.

Basically, what you're gonna do is take a little bit of tomato sauce.

And, then, we're gonna add broccoli rabe, salt and pepper.

This is fennel sausage.

So, you're gonna put it in raw.

SETH: Okay.

AMY: And, then in the oven, you know, it'll cook the rest of the way.

And we have mozzarella.

SETH: It is looking quite pizza-y at the moment.

AMY: It is.

Okay, so we have caciocavallo, here.

A little bit of basil, little oregano.

And, then we're gonna fold it over.

Now, the good thing about this pastry is, is that it can be messy and still be delicious.

So, that all the raggedy edges that aren't perfect, end up becoming crispy or there's a hole, like, the mozzarella will shoot through it.

And, it's all good.

SETH: Caramelize the outside.

It's just an explosion of flavor.

AMY: So, yeah.

Exactly.

It's meant to be imperfect.

So, the second layer, we'll put a little bit more mozzarella.

I put a little hot pepper.

And then we're gonna roll it over again.

Tamp it down.

SETH: One more layer of flavor.

AMY: Yeah.

This one's gonna get all the works.

And, then, you know, you'll want to take it easy with the sauce, because that's gonna end up making it soggy.

So, we don't want that.

SETH: Still keep that crackly crust.

AMY: Yeah.

SETH: All right.

AMY: Exactly.

SETH: I like the idea of just folding these flavors on each other.

AMY: Yeah.

SETH: Making these little pockets.

AMY: So, somebody called it a gl, a fancy hot pocket.

And, you know, I mean, listen.

It's not my... SETH: Hey, hot pockets are delicious.

AMY: It's not my best, uh, you know.

It's not the best description.

But, it works.

Okay.

And, then this is the final layer.

Just cut it.

You want to seal off the edges.

That's it.

So, I'm gonna flour up the pizza peel.

Now we're gonna put it on the peel.

So, why don't we walk this way and I'll show you how to put it in the wood oven.

SETH: Sounds great.

Let's do it, Chef.

Oh.

Wow.

Chef.

There is a lot of heat coming off this oven.

AMY: Yes.

SETH: What is this thing?

AMY: So, this is a huge wood fired oven.

And, as you can see it's really steady, constant heat.

SETH: I can see it.

I can also feel it.

AMY: Very hot.

This is definitely not for the faint of heart.

SETH: Heh, heh.

It's definitely not for me, either.

I definitely wouldn't be able to do this.

AMY: In terms of the way that it cooks, it has a dry method of cooking.

So, instead of a traditional oven with gas, where you have a closed door, this takes the moisture and humidity out.

SETH: So, it's not gonna steam as much.

You'll get that nice, kind of, crackly... AMY: More caramelization.

SETH: Caramelization is always good.

AMY: Yeah.

Whether it's a piece of fish or a pizza, or, yeah.

SETH: Got it.

Got it.

AMY: We always want to position the logs in the corner so that you have good air circulation.

SETH: You want the air, kind of, circulating across the top of the oven.

AMY: Yeah.

Yeah, you... SETH: Just like...

Okay.

So, it, it's kind of like a pizza oven in that sense.

AMY: Oh, yeah.

Alright, so, now that these are hot, we're gonna put the scacce in the oven.

So, we're just putting it right on the deck.

It's gonna take about, I'd say, somewhere between five and, five and 10 minutes, until all the layers are cooked inside.

And, we're gonna turn it, like, one or two times, to get it crispy all the way around.

SETH: Wow, Chef, this looks terrific.

AMY: My pleasure.

My pleasure.

SETH: Glad we could come to maybe come to a cooler spot to, uh, to dig in.

So, how did you even get started on something like this?

AMY: Fork and knife.

SETH: Oh.

AMY: Yeah.

SETH: Look at that melty cheese.

AMY: Help yourself.

SETH: There we go.

Ho, ho, ho.

You can even hear when you were cutting it.

I could hear the crackle.

Mmm.

AMY: Mmm.

SETH: Wow, Chef.

That is fantastic.

Heh, heh.

My, uh, my frame of reference is a calzone.

I've had so many doughy calzones in my day.

AMY: Mm-hmm.

SETH: But, it almost has that, yeah, that flat bread, that cracker like consistency on the outside.

That's really terrific.

AMY: Thank you.

SETH: I like the broccoli rabe.

You know, I'm not always a broccoli rabe fan.

But just that little bit of bitterness... AMY: Mm-hmm.

SETH: That it gives to it is really nice.

AMY: Punctuates the other flavors.

SETH: So, is this the, uh, the Sicilian way of making scacce?

AMY: They are so many different ways that they prepare this in Ragusa, the home of scacce.

You know, so this is sort of a more traditional, like, Neapolitan pizza-esque flavor going on here.

SETH: You know, unlike a pizza, you could just pick this up and eat it as you're walking down the street.

AMY: You could definitely pick it up and walk right out the door, and keep going.

(laughs).

And I see all this other beautiful bread.

AMY: Yes.

There's, Piccolina was meant to be a project around bread and all kinds of different doughs.

So, everything is hand crafted.

The bread is made in-house.

And, you know, I really wanted to have a beautiful, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner spot that people could feel relaxed in and enjoy, like, really terrific food, um, without fuss.

That's it.

SETH: Well, I love it, and this is delicious, thank you so much.

AMY: Thank you.