Pizza Fritta
Fried pizza topped with tomato, burrata, prosciutto and mozzarella. This dough is made using what’s called a poolish which is basically yeast water and flour mixed together and left to do its thing in the fridge over night before finishing the dough. You cooooouuld skip this part and leave it at room temp for a couple of hours instead if your in a hurry. When making these it’s nice to run a couple of topping flavours like ricotta and courgette or mortadella and stracciatella. Maybe a sprinkle of pine nuts. This recipe is a classic old margherita, it’s hard to beat a classic!
Ingredients
(Makes 8 pizza fritta)
Poolish
4 Tbsp flour
¼ tsp dried yeast
2 Tbsp water
Dough
250g flour
¼ tsp dried yeast
170ml water (2/3 cup)
2 tsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
For Frying
¾ cup canola or sunflower oil
Tomato Sauce
1 x 400g can tomato polpa
1 Tbsp tomato paste
¼ cup torn basil leaves
Toppings
400g burrata or mozzarella, torn
150g Prosciutto
Lots of fresh basil leaves
Lots of Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Lots of good quality olive oil
Prep It
Combine poolish ingredients together in a bowl and mix together. Cover bowl and place in the fridge over night. If you’re in a hurry leave it on the bench for a couple of hours.
About 3 hours before you want to eat, finish your dough. Combine poolish, and dough ingredients (flour, yeast, water, salt and olive oil) in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook mix dough for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elasticky. Remove dough from the bowl, drizzle some olive oil into the bowl and return dough. Cover and leave to prove until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
While dough proves make your tomato sauce. Heat a good drizzle of olive oil in a small pot on medium heat. Add basil and tomato paste and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomato polpa and a good 3 finger pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
When dough has doubled in size divide into 8 even balls. Place dough balls on an oiled tray and leave to prove until puffy, about 20 minutes.
Fry It
On a lightly floured surface pat or roll dough balls out into 1/2 cm thick rounds and set aside for frying.
Place a cooling on a tray and keep close by. This is for your cooked bases. The rack helps them stay crispy as you cook the others.
Heat oil in a heavy base pot or skillet to 180°c. You can tell its ready if the end of a wooden spoon bubbles when inserted into the oil.
Add pizza bases one at a time and fry for about 2 minutes each side, until golden brown and puffy. While cooking the first side use a spoon to ‘baste’ the pizza so it cooks evenly.
Remove pizza bases from oil, shake a little to get rid of the excess oil and transfer to rack. salt it IMMEDIATELY!!!! This is so the salt sticks to it. It also helps to soak up some excess oil so they stay caaarrrissspy.
Top It
Top each base with tomato, burrata, salt and pepper. Then prosciutto, grated Parmesan and basil. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil.