# Sicilian Pizza **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2000, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225 "2000-04-12T00:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/1 "2000-04-12T00:20:00Z")
Sicilian Pizza. It’s the Other Option in NYC pizza joints. You go in for a slice, you’re feeling a little extra-hungry, you opt for the Sicilian. Maybe it’s an extra nickel, maybe it’s the same as regular…depends on the last time they raised the prices. Sicilian pizza in New York City is the thick kind. A regular slice is triangular, cut from the wheel of a nice thin-crusted pie. The Sicilian is rectangular. About the same amount of cheese and sauce, but the underlying bread is three or four times as thick. Chicagoans visit New York and think Mmmmmm…thick pizza! And order a slice and are dreadfully disappointed when all that thick turns out to be dough instead of cheese and tomatoes and pepperoni. Having recently returned from Sicily, and having eaten Real Sicilian Pizza, I have learned that it is no different from Neapolitan, or classic, pizza…that is, VERY thin, almost crisp, crust (spotted with char from the hot hot brick oven), covered with sauce and mozzerella (called Margherita) or sauce, mozzerella, and anchovies (called Neapolitan). So, here’s the General Question: Who in NYC originally decided to make a fat-crusted pizza, and why was it designated “Sicilian” when Sicilians don’t make pizza that way? * * * Uke ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/2 "2000-04-12T14:22:00Z")
Maybe it was called that as a reference to its resemblance to the concrete shoes that people of Sicilian extraction have been known to custom-make. ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/3 "2000-04-13T05:40:00Z")
I dunno, Uke, but you’re makin-a-me hungry! * * * I’m your only friend I’m not your only friend But I’m a little glowing friend But really I’m not actually your friend But I am ---
**Author:** ![Wicked\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/2acd7d/32.png) [@Wicked\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wicked_Blue)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/4 "2000-04-13T05:54:00Z")
## Man, you’re making me homesick. Here in Assboink, Massachusetts all I can get is crappy round slices. All the pizza here tastes like Pizza Hut. There is nothing better in life than a slice of Sicilian from L & B , with a nice bottle of Manhattan Special to wash it down. Damn… I can’t wait to get back to Brooklyn. Rose I told you not to be stupid, you moron. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/5 "2000-04-12T20:37:00Z")
Come on, guys. You KNOW I love **Mjoll** and **Ace** like a coupla brothers, and **Blue Twylight** like…{peeks}…a sister. But INFORMATION is what I crave. I’m not fooled…I read the food threads in MPSIMS, I know approximately what percentage junk food makes up the Doper set’s diet. ONE OF YOU knows this answer. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/6 "2000-04-12T21:03:00Z")
Ike, I bet it is a marketing thing. Whoever originated the style needed a name to set it apart from the regular pie, as well as to justify the higher price. He probably thought hey! Sicilian! sounds exotic and dangerous! ---
**Author:** ![ignatiusjreilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@ignatiusjreilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatiusjreilly)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/7 "2000-04-12T21:15:00Z")
Pinocchio’s in Harvard Square has the best Sicilian pizza in the world. Just thinking about it makes me wistful for good 'ole Cambridge… Of course, we never called it “Pinocchio’s” - it was always “Nokes”… OK - Field Trip! Let’s go! ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/8 "2000-04-12T21:24:00Z")
Okay, instead of waxing poetically about the perfect slice, I will try and answer the OP with a certified WAG… Neopolitan Pizza (which is what the round things are technically called) is a very loose approximation of the stuff you get in Italy. It is an American invention based upon a foreign food, much like a good portion of the Chinese food we all are familiar with originated in New York City as opposed to Tokyo. Needless to say Sicilian Pizza ain’t like either the Neopolitan or the original Italian stuff, so to differentiate between the two, some marketing guy came up with “Sicilian,” as it sure beats calling it “Pizza with too much goddamn bread” or “Chicago Style” - Oops! Sorry about the redundancy there… 😃 * * * Yer pal, Satan [http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif](http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif) _I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR: Three days, 19 hours, 24 minutes and 10 seconds. 152 cigarettes not smoked, saving $19.04. Life saved: 12 hours, 40 minutes._ ---
**Author:** ![Kvallulf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@Kvallulf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kvallulf)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/9 "2000-04-13T01:58:00Z")
Chinese food comes from Tokyo? ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sicilian-pizza/10225/10 "2000-04-13T02:16:00Z")
Um… Okay… You got me… But everything else stands (until someone ELSE comes along and tattters it with a single crushing sentence… :o * * * Yer pal, Satan [http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif](http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif) _TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING: Four days, 14 minutes and 18 seconds. 160 cigarettes not smoked, saving $20.05. Life saved: 13 hours, 20 minutes._