Almost every Italian town and region has some specialty for Carnevale, the revels people hold to steel themselves for the privations of Lent. This recipe is from Rieti, in the Abruzzo. To serve 8 you'll need:
Make a mound of the flour on your work surface, scoop a well in it, crack the eggs into the well, add a pinch of salt, and mix; knead the resulting dough vigorously, until it is smooth and elastic, then cover it and let it sit for 20 minutes.
Heat half the oil in a large skillet. Remove the sausages from their casings and crumble them into the skillet, together with the pancetta. Brown the meat for 4-5 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 360 F (180 C)
Roll the dough out about 1/8 of an inch thick (3 mm). Spread the remaining oil over the sheet, then distribute the sausage and pancetta evenly over the sheet as well. Season the meats with salt and pepper to taste (go easy on the salt because the meats are seasoned to begin with), dust very lightly with cinnamon, and roll the sheet up to make a snake. Coil the snake, pressing gently in the center section of the snake to give the pizza a uniform width, put the snake on a cookie sheet lined with oven paper, and bake it for 30-40 minutes, or until the pizza is nicely browned. Serve it hot.
- 4 1/5 cups (500 g) unbleached all purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 10 ounces (250 g) mild Italian sausage
- 6 ounces (150 g) thinly sliced pancetta
- 4 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
- A pinch of powdered cinnamon
- Salt and pepper
Make a mound of the flour on your work surface, scoop a well in it, crack the eggs into the well, add a pinch of salt, and mix; knead the resulting dough vigorously, until it is smooth and elastic, then cover it and let it sit for 20 minutes.
Heat half the oil in a large skillet. Remove the sausages from their casings and crumble them into the skillet, together with the pancetta. Brown the meat for 4-5 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 360 F (180 C)
Roll the dough out about 1/8 of an inch thick (3 mm). Spread the remaining oil over the sheet, then distribute the sausage and pancetta evenly over the sheet as well. Season the meats with salt and pepper to taste (go easy on the salt because the meats are seasoned to begin with), dust very lightly with cinnamon, and roll the sheet up to make a snake. Coil the snake, pressing gently in the center section of the snake to give the pizza a uniform width, put the snake on a cookie sheet lined with oven paper, and bake it for 30-40 minutes, or until the pizza is nicely browned. Serve it hot.