Anchovy Pizza

Preparing the ingredients and dough

1. Get a few very ripe tomatoes, red or pink. You need a small onion, preferably white so it does not color the topping.

2. Take the anchovy fillets out of the jar and pour off a little of the oil too. You will need it for the sauce.

3. Put a few sprigs of fresh basil for serving into cold water ahead of time.

4. Take the fresh mozzarella (small balls or one large one, it does not matter) out of its liquid.

5. Rinse the capers. If they are very salty, soak them in water and then squeeze them dry.

   

6. Make a yeast pizza dough from 2 cups of flour (260 g) ahead of time. I have already described a simple dough recipe, and it turns out well every time.

7. After the dough rises, knead it down once more and wait for it to rise again.

8. Grease the pan with a little olive oil and stretch the dough by hand into a round to fit the pan.

   If you want the anchovy pizza on a thin, crisp crust, you can add the toppings right away. If you prefer a fluffy, soft crust, cover the dough in the pan with a towel and let it rise for 30 minutes.

   

9. While the dough is rising, peel the onion and slice it into rings as thin as possible.

10. Put the onion in a small bowl and cover it with white wine vinegar. Leave the onion to marinate while the dough rises.

11. Then rinse the onion carefully under cold water to remove the vinegar, trying not to break the rings too much.

    

Tomato sauce

1. Cut the ripe tomatoes into four pieces and remove the stem end and the white parts. The skin and seeds can stay.

2. Blend the tomatoes and rub the purée through a sieve or mesh strainer. Pour the purée into a container and discard the seeds and skin left in the sieve.

   

3. Pour a little oil from the anchovy jar into a saucepan and add all the tomato purée.

   The anchovy oil gives the sauce a unique aroma. It is worth saying that the taste of anchovies appears in many sauces, for example Worcestershire sauce, an ingredient in Caesar salad. And the anchovy pizza will taste much better too.

4. Salt the tomato lightly and add a pinch of hot pepper and dried aromatic herbs.

   

5. Simmer the tomato sauce over medium heat without covering the saucepan. The boiling sauce must be stirred because it burns easily.

   The tomato sauce for pizza must become thick. You can tell it is ready when you drag a spatula across the bottom of the saucepan and the sauce does not close over it right away, but a few seconds later.

   

Assembling the toppings

1. In the Sicilian pizza made in the US, the tomato sauce is often spread over all the toppings, last. I wanted the anchovies to be visible in the topping, as in the original Sicilian orange salad, where the fish fillet is added right before serving.

2. So right from the start, brush the dough in the pan with tomato sauce.

   

3. Over the tomato sauce, arrange the pickled onion, squeezed dry of water.

4. Slice the mozzarella thinly and spread it evenly over the sauce. There is no need to make a solid layer without gaps. If you use mozzarella in small balls, you can cut them in half or into four pieces and arrange them. The pieces will melt and spread while baking.

   

5. Cut the anchovy fillets in half lengthwise or into thin strips. Usually anchovies are cleaned of large bones, but it is worth checking. Only the fillet should remain, with no noticeable bones such as backbones and fins.

6. Arrange the fillet strips over the pizza radially, closer to the edge of the dough.

   

7. Scatter the capers evenly over the pizza. Pizza with anchovies and capers is often found in pizzerias; it is a fairly common combination of toppings.

8. Sprinkle the pizza with 1-2 pinches of dried oregano.

   

9. Grate a piece of Parmesan. You can use pecorino or Grana Padano.

10. Sprinkle the anchovy pizza generously with Parmesan along the edge, and less in the center. Let the toppings show in the middle.

    

Baking and serving

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Put the pan with the pizza into the hot oven. Anchovy pizza usually bakes for about 20 minutes. During this time the mozzarella melts, and the dough is done and starts to turn golden.

   Check that the dough is done by lifting its edge. Really, the pizza is done when the dough is done. If you like, you can dry the dough and toppings out a bit with extra time. Do not be afraid: in a few extra minutes the toppings and dough will not burn.

   

3. Take the finished pizza out of the oven and move it to a wooden board, on which pizzas are often served at the table.

4. Cut the pizza into 6-8 slices with a rolling pizza cutter.

5. Put a few green basil leaves on each slice.

   

6. Anchovy pizza is served hot. As a rule, any pizza is eaten with the hands. Still, most pizzerias bring plates, forks and knives, as well as mayonnaise and ketchup…

   

   Anchovy pizza goes great with tomato juice or a light cold wine. It also goes well enough with beer. Although even on its own it is a complete, self-sufficient dish.