Cooking The Books

Pizzette Fritte Ripiene

I lay in bed recently, having woken up about 6am due to the sunlight, thinking about the fact I'd not deep-fried anything for a while - as you do.  Straight away my thoughts went to buffalo wings, the planned next installment of my fried chicken series that was long overdue.  This thought stayed with me through the first couple of hours of the morning.  I'd got so far as planning a quick 5.30pm supermarket trip for the wings, squeezing it in after work and before I hopped in the car and went to meet the missus for a climbing session, ready for some late night frying.  I was pondering how to treat the wings, did I go with nothing but salt or would a light dusting of flour give the perfect texture, when a random tweet about pizzette fritte ripiene knocked any thoughts of buffalo wings for 6.

If you've not heard of them, and I hadn't, pizzette fritte ripiene are like little mini calzone, tiny folded parcels of pizza dough, sealed to hold their filling but then, and this is the fritte part, dumped in 190C oil until golden.  Pizza already holds a very high place in my food-rankings and I've always said that deep frying improves everything so here was a chance to put it to the test.

Whilst these appear to be the exception that proves the rule (they equal pizza, but could you really improve it?) they are ridiculously tasty.  I'd never fried a bread dough before (and the coating here is just plain white bread) and it takes on the most fantastic texture, a light crunch giving way to dense chew. It seems to soak up very little oil either, remaining remarkably grease-free once drained on kitchen roll.  On the inside the mozzarealla melted as only mozzaralla does, the billowing folds striped with spicy oil rendered from the salami, the edge taken off the richness by the piquant artichokes.  Add the sweet sauce and some salty parmesan and - and I know I'm repeating myself, but - ridiculously tasty.

Pizzette Fritte Ripiene

Makes 10, a snack for 2-3.

Dough

120gr strong flour

70gr water

Big pinch salt

1/2 ts dried yeast

Filling (but you can use what you want)

125gr mozzarella

50gr fiery salami

3 bits of marinated artichoke (this was basically a quarter)

Sauce

The tomatoes from a tin

2 cloves of garlic

Pinch of fennel seeds

Salt

Parmesan to serve

Method

Make the dough, knead till smooth. Leave in a bowl under clingfilm for an hour or two.

For the sauce soften the chopped garlic in a little oil, along with the fennel seeds. Add the tomatoes then simmer for about 30 mins, mashing them up as you go.

Roll the dough out to about 5mm thick and cut into ten pieces, you can go rough and ready but I used a chef's ring.  You could cut into less and make bigger pizzettes too, obviously.

Place a tenth of each of the fillings in the middle of a piece and fold over, sealing well.

Deep fry at 190C till golden, drain well then place a teaspoon of sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan on each before eating.

Potato, Gorgonzola and Thyme Pizza

Through the centuries Gorgonzola was known as 'green stracchino' but on 30 October 1955 the name Gorgonzola was given.  I am not going anywhere with this but I read it last week and found it interesting so thought as like minded fellows you may too.

Getting back on track it's been a while since I put a pizza recipe up.  This one is a little different too as it's lacking in tomato, has no stringy mozzarella and is a carb fest, including potato along with the bread.  Potato pizzas aren't anything new, being traditional in parts of Italy and they also appeared in a Nigel Slater book many moons ago, which is where I heard about them. I'm never one to rush though and it has taken me those many moons to get around to making it.

The result is truly delicious.  The potatoes just make it past the underdone stage so keep a little bite and the full whack oven provides some browning on the edges.  The gorgonzola works perfectly too, the strong salty flavour lifting the bland bread and spud to new levels.  I didn't know what to expect from this but it's a definite keeper.

Potato, Gorgonzola and Thyme Pizza

1 quantity of pizza dough (see below)

6-8 small new potatoes, I used anya

75gr-100gr of gorgozola

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

Method

Slice the spuds really finely, somewhere between 1mm-2mm. 

Stretch out your dough then cover with the potato, looking to have it all covered with some overlapping.

Dice the gorgonzola into 1cm cubes and scatter evenly across the potato.

Strip the thyme leaves from the stalks and scatter these too.  Give the pizza a good grinding of black pepper.

Cook on a preheated pizza stone in an oven as hot as you can get it for 5-7 minutes.

Pizza Dough, 1 pizza about 12"

150gr strong white flour

100gr water

1/2ts dried yeast

1/2ts salt

Glug of olive oil

Method

Mix the dry ingredients together then pour in the liquids and combine into a dough.

Knead for as long as you can be bothered, or until smooth.  Cover and rest for as long as you can, a couple of hours is ideal for texture and flavour.

Franco Manca

As I type this I'm fighting to hold my eyes open, suffering from a severe bout of post-prandial somnolence.  In an effort to digest the masses of sourdough crust, cheese, tomato and pig products the activity of my parasympathetic nervous system has increased and the activity of the my sympathetic nervous system has decreased.  The shift in the balance of autonomic tone towards the parasympathetic system has resulted in a subjective state of low energy and a desire to be at rest.  In short I've got the food sleeps.

I've just come back from Franco Manca where greed got the better of my colleague and me and we ordered three 12" plus diameter pizzas between the two of us and polished them off, just.  Franco Manca burst onto the scene some point last year in a flurry of amazing reviews.  Folk waxed lyrical amount the sourdough bases and wood fired oven handbuilt and shipped in from Naples.  People hopped on the tube to get there between the hours of 12pm to 5pm on a weekday and queued to get in.  With all this hype the place had rather a lot to live up to and when my friend Lizzie (from Hollow Legs) told me about her meal there yesterday she said 'the pizza was good, but not as amaaaaazing as the hype suggests'. 

I think this provided a bit of expectation management for me, a point of reference other than the hype, as I was blown away by the food today.  I'd probably say it's the best pizza I've eaten in London.  The stand out feature is definitely the sourdough crust, light and airy from the immense heat but with a chewy crumb which you can only get from a long fermentation, charred yet soft - I was flabbergasted when the bloke on the table next door left most of his crusts.  For topping one had chorizo (Brindisa, dry and semi-dry), another anchovy, olive and caper one and finally the day's special of ham and artichoke.  The chorizo was good, slices and lumps of the sausage, both yielding to the heat and releasing their paprika red oil all over the pizza.  I sometimes feel that it takes over though, rendering every mouthful identical in flavour - even if that flavour's very nice.  To moisten we had a glass of the red each, cheap at £1.40 a glass but a tad tannic for my palate, it went a lot better with the pizza than it did on its own though.  All this came to a little over a tenner each.  If we'd not been such gluttons, sticking to a single large pizza each, we'd be talking £8 for a fantastic meal.

Franco Manca

4, Market Row
Electric Lane
Brixton
London
SW9 8LD

Salami, Artichoke and Gorgonzola Pizza

I tend to eat pizza quite frequently.  Maybe once every two weeks I get the pizza stone in the oven, have a little knead and get topping and tonight was that night.  I've put base recipes on the blog twice (here and here ) so this one is just a topping.  I find fennel has an affinity with tomatoes, putting the seeds frequently into tomato sauces, so a fennel flavoured salami works well.  The artichokes and olives provide a sharpness that cuts through the richness of the cheese and sausage.  It's not a combination I've tried before, just an idea I had on the way home from the office, but it worked really well and I'll be eating it again.

 

Sponge Method Pizza Base (With Four Cheeses)

I've been making the same pizza base (this one) for years as it is simple, quick and tastes good.  I've been reading a lot about slower ferments recently, using sponge methods where some or all the flour is made into a softer batter which ferments for an extend period before the finished dough is made.  This develops flavour, and if it's anything like a sourdough, texture too.  With an afternoon of TV watching planned I decided to experiment and set a sponge going at lunch ready for the evening pizza.  There's a bit of an excess of cheese in the fridge so I decided to go with four cheeses (quatro formaggio) on top.

The crust was good eating.  Not sure I could notice a huge difference in flavour (maybe a nuttiness from the semolina) but there was a definite positive change in texture.  As I expected it had developed sourdough characteristics, namely a thicker, chewier crust and the crumb was similar too, again a bit of chew to it.  Definitely worth a go if you're happy to spend the extra time.