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 attractive treats to strive. One won’t catch your eye, resulting from its humble (and altogether too inexperienced) look, however it will should you had tasted it earlier than!

That is Pizza di Scarola, a stuffed pizza filled 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 unbelievable and distinctive pizza that everybody ought to strive!

This pizza is filled with escarole cooked with elements which counterpoint its bitterness: olives, capers, raisins, anchovies, and many others. The filling is definitely precisely the identical as our Scarola Ripassata recipe, so earlier than tackling the pizza, you should definitely head over there and make this straightforward, fast dish. As a result of we’d like a minimal quantity to be able to correctly fill the pizza, do you should definitely use a minimum of 1.75 kilos (800 grams) of uncooked escarole so that you just’re positive to have sufficient. To avoid wasting time, you may 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 will want:

• 500 grams bread flour, plus additional for dusting

• 1 ¼ teaspoons (4 grams) energetic 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 additional 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 the entire 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 measurement—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 reduce it into two parts. One portion needs to 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 somewhat bigger or smaller is okay) with olive oil.

Utilizing your arms and urgent from the middle towards the sides, press the bigger portion of dough right into a tough rectangle the dimensions 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 towards 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).

Reduce a couple of small holes within the floor of the pizza high to permit steam to flee. Drizzle some olive oil on high 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.