Pizza Calabrese

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This pizza is an ode to my favorite pizza place of all time: Pizzeria Bruno in San Diego, which unfortunately closed this last year. I will forever hold a spot in my heart for that place, as we celebrated many a birthday there, drank too much red wine with friends, and spent romantic date nights at their small candlelit tables, watching the flour-covered chefs pull pizzas in and out of their beautiful black and white tiled wood fired oven. You know those times when you have to find your “happy place”? Well, that is mine.

They were known for their Neapolitan-style pizza, and although I haven’t been to Naples (yet), I’m pretty sure this was as close as it gets. And although I don’t have a wood fired oven (yet) and can’t replicate the crust exactly at home, I have gotten fairly close with lots of experimentation. The next step is to really work on my pizza dough, but it needs several days to proof to really get the right chew, and well, I haven’t had the time for that recently. So store-bought dough is the next best thing, because guess what… It’s basically proofing all those days that it’s sitting on the store shelf. We found that Whole Foods dough is the absolute best, so if you are near one I highly recommend it. 

The next best thing I can recommend is a high heat oven. We go 450, and we bake thecrust a bit before topping so as not to have a soggy crust. Lastly, and very importantly, a high quality olive oil is the only way to go. My absolute favorite is California Olive Ranch, their Global Blend.

I could talk to you about pizza for hours, as it has always held a core place in my being, but what I really want you to do is go make this special pizza. It has some heat from theCalabria peppers, but it balances so nicely with the creamy ricotta and flavor from theSoppressata. And don’t forget the wine.

What You'll Need

Store-bought pizza dough - 1/2 the dough ball

Pizza sauce - 1/3 cup

Mozzarella - 1 cup, shredded

Soppressata - about 10 small slices

Red onion - 1/8 onion, sliced thin

Calabria peppers - 1 Tablespoon, chopped (these are found jarred in olive oil)

Ricotta - 6 Tablespoons

Olive oil - 1 Tablespoon

Flaky sea salt - pinch

What You'll Do

1. Cut dough ball in half, and set out on counter for at least an hour prior to cooking.

2. When the dough is room temp, drizzle olive oil on baking sheet and place dough on pan. Making sure your hands are coated in olive oil, spread dough out to about a 10” round. If it resists, let it sit longer, on top of the oven while preheating, helps.

3. Preheat oven to 450.

4. Bake pizza dough for 10 min, until just starting to get golden brown.

5. Remove from oven and top: sauce, cheese, soppressata, red onion, calabria peppers, and ricotta. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.

6. Bake 10-12 min, until cheese is golden.

7. Top with a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt.

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