The filled panuozzo is a typical dish of the Campania tradition, invented in the city of Gragnano by Giuseppe Mascolo and his family. The panuozzo is a crispy sandwich with a pizza taste, being created with pizza dough. It is good and simple to make, even though it will clearly never be as perfect and as good as the original one. I tried my best, even though I don’t have a wood oven but an electric one, I assure you it still turned out really good! If you like leavened products, you can also try:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 5 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients to prepare the filled panuozzo
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (Pizzeria Caputo)
- 1.5 cups water
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsps salt
- 1 pinch sugar
- 0.2 oz fresh yeast
- 8.5 oz smoked scamorza cheese
- as needed cooked ham
- 3.5 oz bacon (striped)
- 1 radicchio
- 2 tomatoes
- as needed lettuce
- Half golden onion
Tools
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Knife
- Cutting board
- Mixer
Steps to make the filled panuozzo
To prepare the panuozzo, first prepare the dough for the panuozzo. Keep the water at room temperature. In the water, put the fresh yeast and mix with a teaspoon so that it dissolves well. In the mixer bowl, add the all-purpose flour, I chose Pizzeria Caputo flour, then pour in the water with the yeast, a pinch of sugar, and start mixing everything. When the dough starts to come together, add the extra virgin olive oil and finally the salt. The dough should bind well and stick to the mixer hook.
Then transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and work it a little more, trying to give it a round shape, then place it in a large bowl with a little flour at the bottom. Make 3 sets of folds at intervals of 20 minutes from each other. Let it rise until at least doubled, so more or less 3 or 4 hours. After that time, take the dough again, which will have risen nicely.
Transfer it to a well-floured surface, I sprinkled the surface with remilled semolina, divided the dough into 4 balls, each first slightly pressed with hands, then folded over itself to form a ball. Then place the dough balls on a tray with semolina and let them rise for another hour.
After the hour, take the balls again and preheat the static oven to 482°F, spread the balls with your hands on a surface dusted with remilled semolina, you will need to give them an elongated shape, neither too high nor too thin. Now place them on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle the surface with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. When the oven is nice and hot, bake them and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove them, let them cool, then cut them in half with a serrated knife to insert the filling.
Meanwhile, as the bread cooks, prepare the filling. I made different fillings, two I prepared with smoked scamorza, cooked radicchio, and striped bacon. The other two I prepared with smoked scamorza, cooked ham, tomatoes, and lettuce. Thinly slice the onion and brown it in a pan with some extra virgin olive oil, then add the washed, dried, and thinly sliced radicchio. Cook it for a couple of minutes and add some salt. Fill your panuozzo with smoked scamorza, radicchio on top, and finally, the bacon.
Put them back in the oven for a couple of minutes in grill mode to melt the cheese. Be careful not to burn them too much. For the one with ham, I filled it only with scamorza and ham, then at the end of cooking, I added the tomatoes and lettuce.
Your panuozzi are ready to be eaten! Super delicious!
Storage and tips
You can store the panuozzi for one day in the fridge.
If you want, you can also use dry yeast instead of fresh.
You can choose the filling you prefer.
If you want to add more different flours, I recommend using half all-purpose flour and half Manitoba flour.
You can fill them with a classic filling, namely sausage and rapini.

