Jamie Oliver's Pizza Fritta (Fried Pizza)

Who knew homemade pizza could be as good as it is in Italy? When my friend, Daniel, suggested making homemade pizza, I wasn't that enthusiastic. I'm not the biggest pizza fanatic because the only good pizza I've ever had was in Italy. Let me just say that this recipe blew me away! The dough was soft, chewy, bubbly (if you've had good pizza, you know exactly what that means) with crispy edges... just the way I like it! Jamie Oliver is a genius!

 

Jamie Oliver's Pizza Fritta Recipe 

Ingredients 

• 5.5 cups strong white flour 

• 200g finely ground semolina flour or strong white bread flour

• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt

• 1 sachet of dried yeast

• 1 tablespoon white sugar, ground

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 650ml lukewarm water  

• flour, for dusting

vegetable oil, for frying

• 2 x 150g balls of buffalo mozzarella
• prosciutto or sausage

• fresh basil

for the tomato sauce
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked

• 1 x 400g tin of good-quality plum tomatoes

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions 

To make the dough:
1. Pile the flour and salt on to a clean surface and make an 18cm well in the center. Add your yeast and sugar to the lukewarm water, mix up with a fork and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well.
2. Using a fork and a circular movement, slowly bring in the flour from the inner edge of the well and mix into the water. It will look like thick porridge. Continue to mix, bringing in all the flour. When the dough comes together and becomes too hard to mix with your fork, flour your hands and begin to pat it into a ball.
3. Knead the dough by rolling it backward and forward, using your left hand to stretch the dough toward you and your right hand to push the dough away from you at the same time. Repeat this for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, springy, soft dough.
4. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let double in size for about 45 minutes.

Daniel making the pizza dough

Heat a saucepan, add a splash of oil and the sliced garlic and cook gently. When the garlic has turned light golden, add half the basil, the tomatoes and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Cook gently for about 20 minutes, mashing the tomatoes until smooth, then taste, season again and put to one side.

Divide the dough into 10 pieces and press them flat on to a floured work surface. Roll them out to about 0.5cm/¼ inch thick and allow them to rest for 10 minutes or so. Heat a frying pan over a high heat, add about 2cm of vegetable oil and fry each pizza for 30 seconds or so on each side. Remove with tongs and place on a baking tray.

Once all the bases are fried, smear each one with a spoonful of the tomato sauce and tear over some mozzarella. We also added some left over sausage on some of the pizzas. Drizzle with olive oil and grill until the buffalo mozzarella is bubbling and the dough is light brown and cooked through (since it is the middle of the winter, we broiled them). Add some fresh basil and/or fresh prosciutto. Prepare to be blown away! 

 Before going in the broiler

 After the broiler. Ready to eat!!