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The Falco pizza
My most well-known pizza. I’ve been riffing on it the world over. It’s straight-up stolen from my great-grandmother. Breadcrumbs were a constant in her cooking. They’re practical and symbolic. Great-grandma Lena made bread daily. By drying and blending the stale, leftover bread, you got the best breadcrumbs, a way to thicken sauce and add texture to dishes gratis. Nothing wasted.
The symbolism comes from Saint Joseph, whose feast day we celebrated with a meatless pasta of favas, fennel, and breadcrumbs, the last symbolizing sawdust in a carpenter’s workshop. I was spared a lot of Catholic indoctrination, but I’m writing this at my desk by a glow-in-the-dark Virgin Mary that belonged to my grandfather, and I wear a Saint Christopher necklace because it was a gift, my father wears one and it’s supposed to protect the wearer while traveling. I don’t put too much stock in it, but these connections are important (and I’ll tell you this, if I open my own place it will be on a Tuesday because that superstition was passed to me too).
Religion and superstition aside, I use breadcrumbs in many pizzas. But on the Falco, they’re the star. They’re layered onto the sauce with a hard cheese and olive oil to create a magical “super sauce” that comes together in the oven. It’s a balance some have difficulty recreating—too much, it’s dry. Not enough? Too wet.
Without mozzarella, this pizza is nothing but full, maximum-strength, nonna mamma mia vibes. It’s a Sicilian flavor profile punch in the mouth.
YIELDS
Ingredients
- 1 (250-g) Thin and Crispy dough ball (page 63)
- 84 grams (6 tablespoons) Basic Tomato Sauce (page 52)
- Pinch Calabrian chile flakes
- 6 grams (about 1/4 ounce) Sourdough Breadcrumbs (page 226)
- 30 grams (about 1 ounce) caciocavallo, finely grated
- 25 grams (about 1 ounces) Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
- 20 grams (1-1/2 tablespoon) extra virgin olive oil, in a squeeze bottle
- 20 grams (about 3/4 ounce) red onions, thinly sliced
Thin and crispy pizza dough:
- 500 grams high-protein bread flour
- 500 grams all-purpose flour
- 30 grams (about 1 ounce) sea salt
- 600 grams (2 ½ cups) water, at 72°F (22°C)
- 150 grams (about 5 ounces) starter (3 to 5 hours after feeding it at room temperature)
- 5 grams cake or fresh yeast (or 1.58 grams instant yeast)*
- 80 grams (5 3/4 tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the container
Basic tomato sauce:
- 1 (794-gram/28ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes (preferably Bianco DiNapoli), drained
- 5 grams (about 1 teaspoon) sea salt, adjust to taste
- 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) extra-virgin olive oil, adjust to taste
- Combine the drained tomatoes and salt in a large bowl.
Directions
Falco pizza:
- Preheat the oven with pizza stones to your oven’s highest temperature setting (usually 550°F/288°C)
- Stretch out the dough according to the Thin & Crispy method (see page 38)
- Using a ladle or a large spoon, spread the sauce onto the entire pizza, leaving about one inch (2-1/2 cm (around the dough’s circumference for the crust. Top with the chile flakes and dust with the breadcrumbs.
- Follow with the caciocavallo and half of the Parmigiano-Reggiano and, using a squeeze bottle, a drizzle of olive oil.
- Finish with the red onions.
- Bake the pizza directly on the pizza stone for 5-1/2 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned, checking the bottom and rotating it halfway through for an evenly colored crust.
- Cut the pizza into six slices and top with the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Thin and crispy dough:
- Weigh all the ingredients in separate containers. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours and salt and mix thoroughly with clean hands.
- In another large mixing bowl, combine the water, starter, and yeast.
- Create a crater in the flour and pour the liquid mixture into the center. Begin mixing with your dominant hand. Start in the center of the bowl and mix in a clockwise fashion until the dough comes together in a ball and the bowl is clean. After it has just come together, add the olive oil and mix until fully combined. Stop mixing and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Rest for 30 minutes.
- Uncover the dough and mix by stretching and folding the dough onto itself for five minutes.
- Lightly oil a large container. Add the dough and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rest for two hours at room temperature. Then gently fold the dough into itself. Rewrap and let sit at room temperature for about three hours.
- Remove the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour your hands and, using a dough cutter and scale, portion it into 250-gram dough balls. Form each dough into a tight ball by folding it in on itself, being careful to handle the ball quickly and gently to not transfer much heat.
- Place the balls on a lightly floured 13-by-18-inch (33-by-46-cm) baking sheet. Lightly flour the surface of the dough balls and cover them with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for five hours or until the balls double in size. At this point you can use them or transfer to the refrigerator and rest for up to 48 hours.
Basic tomato sauce:
- In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, salt and olive oil.
- With an immersion blender, blend until the tomatoes are smooth and sauce is emulsified.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning. Refrigerate until ready to use; best if used same day (after two days, I recommend not using it as it will be considerably less good).
Recipe and image excerpted from Pizza Czar: Recipes and Know-How from a World-Traveling Pizza Chef by Anthony Falco. Abrams Books, 2021. Photographs copyright 2021 by Evan Sung, Molly Tavoletti, and Anthony Falco.
