Pizza Without Tomatoes

Onion, dough and sauce

1. In advance, before making the dough, marinate the onion so that the pizza without tomatoes has a light tang that brings out the flavor of the other ingredients. Peel a small onion and cut it into very thin strips. Put the onion in a small bowl or cup, add 2 tbsp of grape vinegar and refrigerate for 1 hour. After marinating, rinse the onion to remove any remaining acid and squeeze it out lightly.

   

2. Make a yeast pizza dough using the simple recipe and stretch it onto the pan. Once the dough has risen, lightly grease the pan with olive oil and stretch the dough so that it is 5-7 mm thick. Be sure to prick the dough with a fork in several places.

   If you want the crust thin and a little crispy, you can put the topping on right away. If you let the dough rest for up to half an hour, it becomes softer and the pizza will be fluffier.

   

3. Make the sauce to brush on the dough: it takes the place of tomato sauce and makes the pizza juicier. In a small bowl, mix 2 tbsp of the best olive oil with very finely chopped herbs: parsley, dill, basil. Add a finely chopped or grated garlic clove and, if you like, 1-2 drops of wine vinegar. Stir the sauce with a fork and brush it over the dough.

   

Topping

1. Spread out the onion and meat. Separate the marinated onion strips into individual pieces so they don’t stick together, spread them over the dough and sprinkle with a pinch of dried oregano.

   

   Cut the meat you chose (sausage, smoked salo or meat balyk) into thick strips. In principle, you can use whole pieces, but they will be very hard to bite through later. Spread the pieces of meat over the dough brushed with sauce.

   

2. Fry the hot pepper. Cut one fresh red or green hot pepper in half lengthwise and thoroughly remove the seeds and inner membranes: most of a pepper’s heat comes from the seeds and membranes. Cut the pepper lengthwise into very thin strips and fry in a skillet over medium heat for 3-4 minutes in 1 tbsp of olive oil, until the hot pepper is soft. With a little heat the pizza becomes very piquant and fragrant. Save the remaining oil for brushing the pizza’s edge.

   

3. Spread out the pepper and olives and sprinkle the pizza with cheese. Place the strips of fried hot pepper over the balyk, spreading them evenly. Cut the pitted olives in half and spread them evenly over the pizza. By the way, since this dish doesn’t have much topping overall, you can slice the olives into rings.

   

   Sprinkle the whole surface of the pizza with grated hard cheese. The amount of cheese is up to you, but the pizza will be tastier with more cheese than usual, especially near the edge.

   

Baking

1. Brush the edge of the dough and bake the pizza. Brush the edge with the oil left after frying the hot pepper: there will be very little oil, so it’s worth using a brush. Put the pizza pan into an oven preheated to 180-190°C. Baking this pizza usually takes up to 20 minutes. After 15 minutes, check whether the dough is done by lifting its edge. If the bottom of the pizza has started to turn golden, the dish is definitely ready.

   

Serving

1. Cut the finished pizza into 6-8 slices with a pizza wheel and serve hot. Reheated pizza only exists in the movies…

   

   Delicious pizza without tomato sauce with meat balyk is easy to make and can be changed to your taste. You can include capers or green onion in the topping. If you like, scatter some fresh basil leaves over the pizza.