If you are a regular reader, you will know that I have spent almost every summer holiday in Sicily up until I moved to Australia. I used to stay at a place called San Vito lo Capo, the same place where the Couscous Fest takes place. It is a beautiful little village with one of the most gorgeous beaches in the Mediterranean area. If you are curious to see what it looks like, click here. Just before arriving in San Vito, there is a smaller village called Macari where there is a little trattoria from where you can enjoy the best sunset I have ever seen. Sitting on a terrace having a delicious dinner and watching the sun go down and disappear in the sea is my idea of perfection. This trattoria, called Azzurra Makari, serves all the popular local dishes like couscous, rianata, busiati… and other traditional dishes that are not as well known outside the area. Among the latter are cabbuci (or cabbucetti, if smaller). They are very similar to pita, but they are made with durum wheat flour and cooked in a wood fired oven, just like the local pizza. They are often used to make sandwiches or served warm, like bread, with another Sicilian specialty: caponata. This is my homemade version of cabbuci and this week’s pick for my Regional Italian dish series. Enjoy!
Ingredients (makes 6-8):
450 gms – 16 oz. durum wheat flour
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp of salt
250 ml – 1 cup lukewarm water
1 sachet of dry yeast (7 gms – 1/4 oz.)
1 tbsp of sugar
Put the yeast and the sugar in 250 ml – 1 cup of lukewarm water and set aside in a container at least twice that size so the yeast can activate (2). In the meantime put the flour, salt and extra virgin olive oil in a mixer with a dough hook (1). When the yeast mixture is frothy (refer to the picture – 3), pour it into the mixer (4). Knead for a couple of minutes, till the dough looks smooth. It must feel soft and elastic when you touch it. If you do not have a mixer, you can knead all the ingredients by hand for 5 to 10 minutes. Make a ball with the kneaded dough, dust it with flour and set it aside (5) in a large bowl covered with a dry cloth to rise for at least 2 hours or until it doubles in volume (6).
Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface, divide it into 6 to 8 pieces (1-2) and shape each piece into a ball. Roll each ball into a 1/8-inch (0.3 cm) thick oval, about 7-inches (17.5 cm) in length (3). Remember to keep the remaining balls of dough covered with a sheet of plastic wrap. Put the ovals on a large baking sheet without overlapping them and cover them with a lightly damp towel. Let them rise for 1 hour until puffy (4).
Bake in a pre heated oven at 500º F (260º C, or the maximum temperature your oven allows if less than 260º C). I have used my pizza stones and have put the cabbuci directly on the stones. They cooked perfectly and puffed up nicely without having to even turn them over. You can also bake them on baking sheets for about 5 minutes. Take the cabbuci out of the oven and stack them 3 or 4 at a time and wrap them in clean kitchen towels.
They are best eaten warm with caponata, but they are good also at room temperature, like bread.
Well wrapped cabbuci can be kept for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Enjoy!
I cabbuci sono una delizia tipica della Sicilia Occidentale
Hi Manuela!
Today one of our customers showed us your website and after I read this wonderful article, we wanted to thank you for what you wrote, and it’s very nice your recipe for cabbuci!
I hope to have you as a customer in our restaurant again!
See you soon 🙂
Ciao a tutti!!! E uno saluto particolare a Margherita! Sono la figlia di Zangara… dall’Australia! <3 Grazie per il messaggio, mi ha fatto molto piacere!
Ciao Manuela!
Io sono Alessandra, la figlia di Mario (e cugina della tua cara Margherita)!
Adesso ho capito chi sei (perdonami ma per me non è stato semplice eheh!) e ti posso dire che il tuo articolo in questo bellissimo blog ci fa doppiamente piacere! E’ bello sapere che anche dall’altra parte del mondo qualcuno porta ancora con sé i sapori della propria terra! Soprattutto mi fa piacere che tra i tuoi ricordi ci siamo anche noi.. 🙂
Per ringraziarti ho pubblicato il tuo articolo sulla nostra pagina facebook proprio ieri, se volessi visitarlo ecco il link!
http://it-it.facebook.com/pages/Azzurra-Makari/132340896791850
Un forte abbraccio dalla Sicilia!! Ti salutano tutti quanti, i miei genitori (soprattutto mio padre!) e Margherita ovviamente!
A presto!
Very interesting! I loved the photos of the dough – it is hard to understand bread techniques, so this is helpful!
Thank you!
What a wonderful recipe!! I’m thinking I could polish off a batch of these without sharing… probably not a good idea. We’ve got all the grandparents coming next weekend for dinner, these will work into the meal beautifully. Thank you!
I have never heard of these breads, but they sound delicious! I imagine they are quite wonderful stuffed with things!
San Vito lo Capo looks like a little slice of heaven, Manu, as does this gorgeous bread. Hubby is the resident breadmaker so I’m getting him to make this.
Manuela: sono meravigliosi! ma soprattutto grazie per avermi fatto scoprire San Vito… non conoscevo questa localita’ (magari, un giorno ci andro’)
They look like the bread we call arabo! I have to try them!
It is very similar… not sure if arabo is made with durum wheat or “normal” flour, but they taste similar! 🙂
This looks amazing! I just pinned it to my Food to Make board on Pinterest! 🙂
These do look good , they could almost tempt me to make them….. Id rather you make them and I eat them!
Hi Manu, after long time i’m here Bread looks fantastic, i like different type of breads. u make very well this!
That looks gorgeous, Manu! I love all kinds of bread and this one is just so tempting… would it work without the durum wheat flour? Do let me know! Great pictures 🙂
Hi Marsha! All purpose works as well, but the taste is going to be a bit different. Durum wheat flour is atta flour… so you should be able to find it easily in India! 🙂 Let me know!
Ciao Manuela!
Io sono Alessandra, la figlia di Mario (e cugina della tua cara Margherita)!
Adesso ho capito chi sei (perdonami ma per me non è stato semplice eheh!) e ti posso dire che il tuo articolo in questo bellissimo blog ci fa doppiamente piacere! E’ bello sapere che anche dall’altra parte del mondo qualcuno porta ancora con sé i sapori della propria terra! Soprattutto mi fa piacere che tra i tuoi ricordi ci siamo anche noi.. 🙂
Per ringraziarti ho pubblicato il tuo articolo sulla nostra pagina facebook proprio ieri, se volessi visitarlo ecco il link!
http://it-it.facebook.com/pages/Azzurra-Makari/132340896791850
Un forte abbraccio dalla Sicilia!! Ti salutano tutti quanti, i miei genitori (soprattutto mio padre!) e Margherita ovviamente!
A presto!
If I wanted to cook this in a wood fire pizza oven, what temperature should I do it at?
Hi Lauren. I am not really sure as I do not have a wood fire oven, but the trattoria I usually eat them at, makes pizza in the same oven so I would guess they cook them together at the same temperature. Hope it helps! 🙂
It may be interesting to know the route of the bread in the world. As you mentioned cabucci is like pita bread, but it’s not, ok, maybe as you are in Europe (I mean Italy is), it’s near the countries were pita is common, but you know something, we have a bread that is very similar, and it’s a bread from the Andes towns, very very far away from Italy…
I will definitely try to go to that trattoria the next time I am in the area, althought that doesn’t happen too often.
Loved this recipe, Manu. Good to know that we can make sandwiches out of them. Waiting for the Caponata recipe as well!