Pizza di Scarola | Neapolitan Stuffed Escarole Pizza Recipe

Stroll down the streets of Naples, and also you’ll be overwhelmed with an enormous number of engaging treats to strive. One won’t catch your eye, on account of its humble (and altogether too inexperienced) look, however it will in the event you had tasted it earlier than!

That is Pizza di Scarola, a stuffed pizza stuffed with candy and savory escarole. It won’t sound like a lot, however the highly effective style of this bitter inexperienced (when handled correctly) makes for an unimaginable and distinctive pizza that everybody ought to strive!

This pizza is filled with escarole cooked with components which counterpoint its bitterness: olives, capers, raisins, anchovies, and so forth. The filling is definitely precisely the identical as our Scarola Ripassata recipe, so earlier than tackling the pizza, make sure to head over there and make this simple, fast dish. As a result of we’d like a minimal quantity with a view to correctly fill the pizza, do make sure to use no less than 1.75 kilos (800 grams) of uncooked escarole so that you simply’re positive to have sufficient. To save lots of time, you’ll be able to simply make the stuffing whereas the pizza dough is rising.

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Makes: One rectangular pizza, 6 to eight servings

Prepare dinner Time: As much as 6 ½ hours, principally unattended

For this recipe, you have to:

• 500 grams bread flour, plus further for dusting

• 1 ¼ teaspoons (4 grams) lively dry yeast

• 1 teaspoon (5 grams) granulated sugar

• 280 milliliters water

• 2 teaspoons (10 grams) salt

• 1 ⅓ tablespoons (20 grams) extra-virgin olive oil, plus further for greasing

• Scarola Ripassata (see above)

In a big mixing bowl, mix the flour, yeast, and sugar, and blend totally. Add roughly ⅔ of the water whereas stirring with a picket spoon. When a tough, crumbly dough varieties, add the salt and the remaining water, and knead the dough within the bowl by hand till all the water is evenly integrated.

Cowl the bowl with a towel and let it relaxation for 10 minutes. Then, add the olive oil and maintain kneading the dough within the bowl till the oil is evenly integrated.

Cowl the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise till it doubles in dimension—3 to 4 hours, relying on the temperature. Whereas it’s rising, you may make the Scarola Ripassata stuffing.

Switch the risen dough onto a floured floor and lower it into two parts. One portion must be barely bigger than the opposite. Liberally grease the within of an oblong baking tray (about 10 x 15 inches, or 25 x 38 cm, however a bit of bigger or smaller is ok) with olive oil.

Utilizing your palms and urgent from the middle towards the sides, press the bigger portion of dough right into a tough rectangle the scale of the pan. You possibly can assist form it by gently pulling the sides. Place the dough into the pan and press it out till it fills the pan. Push the sides up barely in opposition to the pan rim to create a shallow lip.

Cowl the dough evenly with the scarola ripassata, leaving about an inch of margin across the edges. Unfold the second portion of dough out right into a rectangle and use it to cowl the escarole. Press the sides of the 2 dough parts collectively to seal the pizza shut. Cowl the pizza with a towel and let it rise for a further 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C).

Lower just a few small holes within the floor of the pizza prime to permit steam to flee. Drizzle some olive oil on prime of the pizza and brush it evenly throughout the floor of the dough. Bake the pizza for 25 to half-hour, till the highest and backside are cooked.

Let the pizza cool earlier than serving heat, and even at room temperature.