Pepperoni Pizza with Arugula
(0 votes)
(0 votes)
Difficulty:
easy
Difficulty
Preparation:
25 min.
Preparation
ready in 13 h. 27 min.
Ready in
Ingredients
for
4
- For Pizza Crust: (Makes one 16-inch pizza)
- ¼ tsp Dry yeast (rounded)
- ½ cup warm water (approximately 100 degrees)
- 1 tsp unbleached all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus extra for work surface)
- For Topping
- 2 ¼ cups canned, peeled, whole Tomatoes (drained)
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 2 cloves garlic cloves (minced)
- 2 Tbsps olive oil (divided)
- 2 Tbsps Tomato paste
- ⅔ cup Pepperoni (thinly sliced)
- 2 cups fresh Mozzarella (shredded or crumbled)
- salt (to taste)
- freshly ground Black pepper (to taste)
- 1 handful fresh Arugula
- Garlic Bread
- 1 loaf italian Bread (sliced)
- 4 Tbsps good quality olive oil
- 2 Tbsps butter (melted)
- 4 cloves garlic cloves (crushed)
- 2 sprigs thyme
Preparation steps
1.
For Pizza Crust:
2.
In a large bowl, mix yeast with warm water, 1 teaspoon flour and sugar and let stand until foamy (approximately 5 minutes). Add salt and flour and stir until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead, adding flour, if necessary, until dough is soft and silky. Use a pastry scraper to knead the dough.
3.
Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. About 30 minutes before baking, punch down, knead for two minutes and then form into a ball and rub with olive oil. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes.
4.
Preheat oven to 450ºF / 230ºC. Position rack as low in the oven as possible.
5.
Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface as thin as possible to a 16-inch round. Spread and stretch dough over pan or stone, rolling edges to form a rim. Let rest 10 to 15 minutes.
6.
For Topping
7.
Pulse tomatoes in a food processor until coarsely chopped or pass tomatoes through a food mill. Stir in oregano, garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil and tomato paste. Spread tomato mixture over the dough to within 1-inch of the edge. Arrange pepperoni and mozzarella slices the top of the pizza and drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper; to taste.
8.
Bake about 10 to 12 minutes or until the crust bottom is crisp and brown and the cheese is melted.
9.
Top with rocket or arugula and let rest for about 3 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve with garlic bread.
10.
For Garlic Bread:
11.
Preheat broiler. Cut bread into 3/4-inch slices and place on baking sheet.
12.
In a small bowl, combine oil, butter and garlic. Remove the leaves from the sprigs of thyme and add to the olive oil mixture. Brush the bread with the oil and garlic mixture.
13.
Place bread under the broiler cook until nicely browned. Do not burn.
14.
Keep warm until ready to serve.
