Sicilian pizza — thick, square, chewy, generously sauced — occupies a specific place in the American pizza pantheon. It's not New York style. It's not Detroit style (though the two are related). It's its own thing, and Philadelphia has a proud tradition of making it well.
What Is Sicilian Pizza?
The Sicilian pizza that most Americans know is actually a Sicilian-American invention, distinct from the sfincione that you'd find in Palermo. American Sicilian pizza is baked in a rectangular pan, has a thick, oily, bready crust, is typically topped with sauce and low-moisture mozzarella, and is cut into squares. The bottom should be crispy from the olive oil in the pan; the interior should be airy and light despite the thickness.
The Philadelphia version of Sicilian pizza has its own character. It tends toward a thicker, doughier crust than the New York Sicilian (which can be quite thin and crispy relative to other Sicilians), and it often has more sauce — sometimes applied in the tomato-pie style, after the cheese.
What Makes a Great Sicilian?
The dough is everything. A proper Sicilian dough is highly hydrated — 75-80% hydration is not uncommon — which gives the interior its open, airy crumb structure. It's enriched with olive oil, which contributes to the bottom crust's characteristic crispiness and richness. And it's fermented for a long time: a properly made Sicilian dough should have a subtle sour complexity from at least 24 hours of cold fermentation.
The sauce should be assertive. A thick, bright, tomato-forward sauce works well on Sicilian pizza because the crust can absorb it without going soggy. Thin, watery sauces get lost. You want something with texture and presence.
The cheese should be distributed evenly — edge to edge, no skimping. One of the pleasures of Sicilian pizza is the cheese-to-crust ratio: more cheese per square inch than on a Neapolitan, and it should feel intentional rather than accidental.
Sicilian vs. Detroit
The two styles are related and sometimes confused. Both are baked in rectangular pans. Both have thick, focaccia-like crusts. But they're different in key ways.
Detroit pizza traditionally uses brick cheese (a Wisconsin cheese that melts beautifully and gets wonderfully crispy at the edges), has sauce applied in strips on top of the cheese, and achieves a specific caramelized cheese ring (the frico) where the brick cheese meets the edge of the pan. Sicilian pizza uses mozzarella, typically has sauce under the cheese, and doesn't aim for the frico effect.
At The Philly Pizza Project, we rank them separately for this reason. They're different products with different standards.
Where to Find It
The best Sicilian pizza in Philadelphia tends to be found in the same places as the best tomato pie: old-school South Philly shops, Italian-American neighborhoods, and bakeries that have been making the same product for decades.
As we work through our review schedule, we'll be covering Sicilian spots specifically. Watch our reviews page for updates.