Pepperoni Pizza
Hard to find ingredients but worth the effort.
INGREDIENTS: Serves 2
-
For The Dough
- 1 cup 00 flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp virgin olive oil
- 3/4 tsp active dry yeast
- Slightly less than 1 cup lukewarm tap water For The Sauce
- 1 can Bianco Di Napoli Crushed Tomato Sauce
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 6 fresh basil leaves For the Pizza
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 4 cremini mushrooms sliced
- Handful of Ezzo Pepperoni (supreme if possible)
- 2 cloves of garlic (optional)
- 1/4 cup of parmasen cheese
- Pecorino DOP cheese
- Fresh Mozzarella cheese
- Virgin olive oil
Now Cook:
For the Dough
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flours and salt.
2. In a small mixing bowl, stir together water, the yeast and the olive oil let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.
3. Pour the yeast into the flour and knead with 1 hand approximately 3 minutes until combined. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
4. Knead rested dough for 3 minutes. Shape into a ball by placing your hands knuckes down and cupping the dough. Place on a heavily floured surface, cover with warm dampened cloth, and let rest and rise for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature or for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. (If you refrigerate the dough, sprinkle olive oil on the dough ball and roll the ball in it to cover. This will keep the dough from drying out in the fridge. When ready remove it 30 to 45 minutes before you begin to shape it for pizza.)
5. To make pizza, place dough ball on a heavily floured surface and use your fingers to stretch it, then your hands to shape it into rounds or squares. Top and bake.
For the Sauce
1. While the dough is rising, put 1 can of Bianco Di Napoli Crushed Tomato Sauce in a bowl. Tear the basil leaves and rub them in your hands to bruise them and add to the sauce.
2. Add the olive oil and sea salt and stir. Set aside.
Assembly
1. If you're cooking on your stove, position a rack in the lower third of the oven (remove the rack above it) and place a pizza stone on it. Turn the stove up to its highest setting an hour before you plan to cook. You want the oven as hot as possible.
2. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the sauce on the dough and spread to lightly cover the dough. The sauce should be a fat thumb from the outer edge of the pizza.
3. Cut the Mozzarella into thin slices and put on pizza.
4. Sprinkle the oregano and fennel over the pizza.
5. Lay the pepperoni over the pizza.
6. Add the cremini mushrooms making sure not to cover the pepperoni.
7. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until done.
8. Remove from oven and sprinkle the parmasen cheese and shave the pecorino over the pizza.
9. Drizzle olive oil on top and serve.
Hint: The tomato sauce makes all the difference. It can be found in a few select stores like Sanagans Meat Locker
The pepperoni is the best for pizza I've found. Again, like the sauce, it's hard to find but you can get it at Alimentari Italian Grocery. Ezzo Supreme is better because it has a higher fat content and singes around the edges but harder to find.
If you like your pepperoni well done, a trick I've used is while you are heating your oven, put it in for about 3-5 minutes in an open aluminum pan. Remove from the oven and take the pepperoni out of the pan, keeping the oils from the pepperoni in the pan. When you are ready to assemble your pizza, rub the slices of Mozzarella in the oils to cover them with the drippings of the pepperoni.