Growing up, my grandmother wasn't thrilled with the practice and felt that bread shouldn't be something dipped in olive oil (most of us these days on FT probably find extra virgin olive oil quite affordable), and probably felt it was a little wasteful. But, I've always felt the oil & balsamic mixture was fantastic for the pizza crust. Hence, my preference for the Sicilian style where the toppingless and cheeseless portion of the pie is minimized.

One of these days, I'm going to try and prepare her spaghetti carbonara recipe, and hope I don't turn the sauce into scrambled eggs, again.