One of the things that a first-time traveller to Italy soon learns is that their "bars" are quite different from "bars" in North America. If you want coffee or a snack in Italy, you go to a bar, and yes they also sell drinks. Behind the counter in a bar in Sicily I saw a large piece of pizza that had been folded over on itself like a soft taco, creating an inviting, ready-to-go meal. This inspired the thought that it would be interesting to make a pizza with a crust on the top as well as the bottom. Similar things like calzone have been around for centuries but a two-crusted pizza seemed sufficiently novel that I filed the idea away. Part of the fun of creative cooking is having your own idea even if it's been done before.
When I got home, I discovered that a double-crusted or "stuffed" pizza as I call it is not much more difficult to make than a regular pizza. After I made a few, I did a Google search and found that many things called "stuffed pizza" are already out there so I'm not claiming to be the first. In fact, searching the internet for most things that you can imagine reveals that they already exist.
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| Making a stuffed pizza 1) Bottom dough with cheese, mushrooms and herbs. 2) Top dough applied and slit before baking. 3) After baking. |
A meal, not a dessert
Around the same time that I was experimenting with stuffed pizza, I was also starting to use fruit and different cheeses on pizza. I've been quite pleased with results using blueberries, cranberries, peaches and black seedless grapes. Surprisingly, blue cheese goes remarkably well with fruit in pizza. I now use it regularly both on top of regular pizza and in stuffed pizza when I use ripe fruit. Although pizza stuffed with fruit might sound a little like a sweet North American fruit pie, the absence of added sugar keeps it clearly in the savoury rather than sweet category.
I previously blogged about pizza with cranberries and blue cheese here:
It didn't take long before I tried pizza stuffed with fruit, resulting in the one I photographed for June in my 2017 calendar.
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If you already know how to make pizza...
- Using two equal portions of dough, roll out one round for the bottom.
- Apply topping, keeping it at least one and one-half inches away from the edge. I use about twice as much topping as for a regular pizza.
- Roll out the other dough to the same size and pinch the top and bottom doughs together all around the edges.
- Slit the top dough to allow steam to escape.
- Bake in a very hot oven until it looks done.
Dough
My general recipe for pizza and focaccia is here
The dough part of that recipe will give you the right amount of dough for two stuffed pizzas. It describes a long, slow ferment but you can speed it up by using more yeast, e.g. one package of yeast for same day baking.
Filling
3 cups of fresh ripe fruit, e.g. peaches, apples, black seedless grapes
250 grams mozzarella cheese, sliced or grated
200 grams blue cheese, in small pieces
Prepare the fruit depending on the type you're using. Core and slice apples or peaches. Seedless grapes can be simmered and mashed to reduce their size and liquid content. Small berries can be used fresh and whole. Raisins or dried cranberries can be microwaved with a little water to re-hydrate. Fresh cranberries should be simmered until they pop and sugar added to taste although I suggest using about half the sugar as for cranberry sauce.
Finishing it
Preheat oven to 500 F and place a rack in the middle or upper part of oven.
Divide dough in half, each for one stuffed pizza.
Divide one portion of the dough in two and roll into a circle.
For more details on dough handling, see the link above.
Place rolled out dough on pizza pan, screen, stone, or peel as you would for a pizza.
Distribute half of filling on dough, avoiding the outer 1.5 inches of dough.
Roll out the dough for the top a couple inches smaller than bottom dough and place on filling. The way I transfer it is to fold the dough in half and then half again, plop it onto the filling and then unfold it. Then gently pull on the dough to stretch it into place, keeping it a little smaller than the bottom dough.
Brush water onto the rim of the bottom dough with a pastry brush and roll it up to the rim of the top dough, pinching the top and bottom together.
Slit or poke holes in the top dough and bake in the middle or upper part of oven until it looks done, about 8-10 minutes.
Repeat for the second stuffed pizza.
I like stuffed pizza because it's different, it's easy to eat (and reheat), and fun. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it doesn't show off the toppings like a regular pizza.
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