Pizza Two Ways: Anchovies for Adrian + Pepperoni for Anne!
/In my opinion, the only problem with pizza is that when you're eating it with others, it's hard to decide on just one! Ordering separate pizzas can get expensive when ordering out, even it does usually mean there's a delicious melange of pizza leftover.
Fortunately, making your own pizza is a creative process that's a lot more affordable and almost as easy as making a single pizza with a few toppings. You can also make your pizza as feel as guilt-free or guilt-y as you want!
Case in point: Adrian loves anchovies on his pizza. I prefer anchovies in pasta and cooked in other various dishes, but why on pizza when pepperoni is SO much better?
Most other ingredients we like to add tend to be similar, which makes the process even easier. Although we do like to change up the greens on our pizzas to better utilize the diversity of our garden.
Once we've prepped our ingredients, the actual pizza making process is very simple: add a little tomato sauce, top that pie with cheese, and quickly top with the remaining ingredients to get that pizza pie cooking as fast as possible!
Whether or not you prefer anchovies or pepperoni on your pizza, I have two lovely recipes for you below that are consolidated into one recipe for convenience. The pizzas were so good that by the time I took the picture, there wasn't much left. But I think that's a good thing, don't you?
Pizza Two Ways: Anchovies for Adrian, Pepperoni for Anne!
Active Time: 30 Minutes
Total Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Servings: 4-6
Ingredients
Shared Pizza Ingredients
2 pounds pizza dough
6 oz fontina cheese, grated, divided
8 oz mozzarella cheese, grated, divided
2 (32 oz) cans whole peeled tomatoes with basil, divided
½ cup flour, for dredging
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped, divided
20 Kalamata olives, halved, divided
1 tbsp parmesan cheese, divided
Pepperoni Pizza Toppings
3 oz uncured pepperoni slices
1 large jalapeno, thinly sliced
¼ cup red onion, sliced
1 cup kale, stemmed, chopped
Anchovy Pizza Toppings
12 anchovies in oil, drained, chopped
1 cup baby arugula
To Garnish
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste, divided
½ tsp dried oregano, divided
Extra virgin olive oil
Directions
Remove dough from refrigerator 60-80 minutes before stretching to proof.
Place pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven. Preheat oven to 550F or to your oven’s maximum temperature.
In a medium bowl, combine fontina and mozzarella. Pour canned tomatoes in another medium bowl. Pick tomatoes out one by one and cut off the green stemmed ends with a paring knife. Discard ends. Squeeze out excess liquid and seeds from the tomatoes into the bowl and place the tomato flesh into a separate bowl. Discard tomato juice or save another recipe. Crush tomato flesh in a bowl with an immersion mixer.
On a lightly floured surface, lightly dredge one pound of dough in flour. Stretch the dough out a bit at a time, waiting 10-15 seconds between stretches. Then stretch a little more, being gentle, until you’ve stretched the dough into a very thin round. Build a small rim around the edges to form a crust.
Place the dough on a lightly floured pizza peel and slide it around to make sure it’s not sticking. Spread half the crushed tomatoes over the dough with a spoon but add less to the center so the sauce doesn’t pool.
Quickly add toppings for pepperoni pizza by adding half the fontina and mozzarella. Add peppe¬roni, jalapeno, red onion, and kale. Finish with half the garlic, olives, and parmesan cheese from the shared ingredients list. Season with kosher salt to taste.
Place the pizza onto the pizza stone with your peel and bake until the crust is golden brown, about 6-8 minutes (a bit longer if your oven temperature is lower than 550°F).
Transfer pizza to a grill rack. Garnish pizza with half the oregano, red pepper flakes, and drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil.
Prepare anchovy pizza by dredging it in flour, stretching it, and coating topping with crushed tomatoes per the instructions above. Then quickly add your anchovies and arugula. Fwith the remaining garlic, olives, and parmesan cheese from the shared ingredients list. Season with kosher salt. Cook per the pepperoni pizza instructions above.
Allow anchovy pizza to slightly cool on a grill rack and garnish with remaining oregano and red pepper flakes. Drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil.
Cut both pizzas and serve!
If you liked this recipe, you will LOVE my recipes for Garden Vegetable Pizza Party, Fettuccine with Guanciale, and Kale and Green Bell Pepper Pasta!
