If you are looking for panuozzo napoletano, or panuozzo di Gragnano, chances are that you have been to Naples once in your life and you have fallen in love with the taste of this amazing street food!
Unfortunately, as it happens with many Italian typical products, fakes are a lot more common than real ones: panuozzo is not an exception at all! So…
What is a panuozzo?
Searching content in English, you will mostly find what could be described as “panino or panino napoletano”… panuozzo is different from a panino or a sandwich! Panuozzo is made of pizza dough, shaped and cooked in the oven, then sliced lenghtwise and stuffed with savory ingredients like sausage, smoked scamorza cheese and broccoli rabe (friarielli). Finally, the panuozzo is back to the oven to make all the flavors combine into a true gastronomic experience.
Funny note: panuozzo (or panuozzo bread, as many people call it, mostly in the US) is a word from Neapolitan dialect. That maybe is the reason why it is often mispelled, e.g. in panuzzo, pannuozzo or panozzo 🙂
Where is panuozzo from?
Panuozzo, or as they say “o’panuozzo” (the panuozzo in local dialect) is part of the street-food tradition of Campania region. In particular, it is originally from the mountain area between Sorrento and the Amalfi coast.
Not only the place where the best lemons for limoncello come from or where they make an incredibly high-quality pasta, Gragnano is also considered to be the hometown of panuozzo. Definitely not a bad place for the gourmand! Oh, and how to forget one of the most delicious pastries from Italy, zeppole di San Giuseppe!
Panuozzo napoletano: typical filling
Here there’s no need to discuss. It’s like asking to a person from Bologna what is the best sauce for tagliatelle (this, of course).
Same way, in Naples the must-to filling for a panuozzo napoletano is:
- pan-fried sausage (salsiccia),
- smoked scamorza, a typical cow’s milk cheese, usually eaten smoked (affumicata),
- friarielli. This is the way people from Naples call the young leaves of broccoli rabe, sauteed in EVO oil, garlic and chili pepper. It is also an amazing way to have a real pizza napoletana: just ask for salsiccia e friarielli and you will thank me!
Of course, in my recipe I share this same filling! And since I noticed that finding real scamorza cheese abroad is not easy, I made a search for you, and you can replace it with a good provola cheese I found (PS hoping no one from Gragnano is reading this, lol).
If you enjoy my experiments with baking, you may also have fun with:
- a typical pinsa from Rome,
- a homemade version of an authentic Neapolitan pizza… from Naples of course,
- much easier, classic focaccia with rosemary… that you can eat almost everywhere in Italy
- or an authentic focaccia barese, that can be found at its best only in Bari (Puglia) o
But now, less words and more flour! 🙂 Get ready to make at home your first authentic panuozzo napoletano with sausage and broccoli rabe (friarielli).
And if you like this recipe… you can subscribe to my blog (page bottom) or PIN IT, to find it anytime you want! 🙂
Panuozzo napoletano with sausage and broccoli rabe
Equipment
- a bowl
- a spoon
- a whisk
- an oven tray
Ingredients
- 390 gr '00' flour or general purpose flour (not too strong)
- 255 gr water 65% hydration
- 1.5 gr fresh beer yeast or 0.5 dried one (my choice)
- 9 gr salt
- 6 gr EVO oil
- q.s. durum wheat flour Used not to make the dough stick, it is not used in the recipe.
- 500 gr sausage (for the filling)
- 200 gr smoked scamorza (for the filling)
- 1 bunch broccoli rabe (for the filling)
Instructions
- Please consider that ingredients are for 3 people. We start pouring the water into a bowl and adding the yeast.
- Start adding the flour, 2-3 spoons at a time. Use a whisk to mix it, so that it will be easy not to create clumps.
- When you get a certain consistency, add the salt and keep mixing with the whisk.
- Then add the EVO and mix it. Keep on mixing with the whisk until you can, then use a spoon, until there are 3-4 spoons of flour left.
- After that, drop the dough (very sticky at the moment) on the countertop…
- … and start working it with the hands. This will allow to inlcude the remaining flour and to give strenght to the dough.
- Shape a ball and let it rest 30 minutes on the countertop (use the bowl to cover it). After this brief rest, dough is more relaxed. Work it for 1 minute, then make the ball again and put it into the bowl, slightly oiled. Cover with plastic film and make it leaven for at least 4 hours. The oven with the light on is the perfect place.
- During the leavening, cook the friarielli. Friarielli are the leaves of young broccoli rabe, sautè with EVO oil, garlic, red hot chili peppers. Very simple preparation, but one of the most characteristic flavors of the traditional food from Campania.
- Simple like that. Cook the sausage in a pan. Remove it when it's almost cooked (consider that it will cook also in the oven for a couple of minutes).
- Briefly work with your hands the risen dough and cut it into 3 (in my case) shapes. Give them a rounded shape the same way you do to make the pizza "panetti". See the video for a suitable technique 🙂 Put the balls into a large box, sprayed with durum wheat flour (semola in Italian) so they don't stick, and cover the box with a plastic film. Let them rest for 2 hours at least.
- 30 minutes before it's time to bake, turn on the oven at maximum heat (about 300 °C). Then, when the dough has rested for 2 hours, shape each of the balls like in the picture (start from the borders to the center). Always use (below and above) some durum wheat flour. The result will be a slightly rectangular shape, with no border, that you will place onto the hot baking tray and put into the oven.
- After 7-8 minutes, remove it from the oven and repeat with the other balls. When all the balls are cooked, cut them in half, fill each of them with the sausage, the friarielli and some chopped smoked scamorza. Some EVO oil on top and back into the oven at 200 °C for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and enjoy an experience! Let me know how does it taste and smell 😉 Buon appetite!
To be honest, this was not the easiest recipe! It requires some experience in dealing with leavening… but it is very satisfying. If you love street food, but you are looking for something authentic, super tasty, but easier, I strongly suggest trying my tigelle (from Modena, Emilia) or my piadina (from Ravenna, Romagna). Let me know in the comments what you think of them 😉
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Buon appetito!
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