Puff Pastry Pizza with Ham and Mozzarella – Quick Homemade Recipe
People always ask me how to make pizza with puff pastry. My answer: almost the same way as with yeast dough or unleavened dough. The technique is nearly identical. I'll go further: hardly anyone makes puff pastry from scratch these days, since it's laborious, tricky and takes real skill. Excellent frozen puff pastry of every kind is sold in stores.
Italian pizza is a truly international dish: a thin flatbread with a topping spread over it. It seems simple enough. What's more, almost everyone loves pizza. I've never understood people who order pizza and wait for delivery, only to get something other than what they expected, more often than not. There is nothing difficult about making pizza at home, whether it's regular pizza or pizza on puff pastry.
Usually, pizza dough is spread or stretched on a baking sheet or pizza pan, brushed with tomato sauce, and then the toppings go on: cheese, tomatoes, salami or sausages, herbs, olives and so on. All that's left is to bake it, which takes no more than 30 mins. The simplest option is a four-cheese pizza with only tomato sauce and several kinds of cheese: mozzarella, Parmesan, Gorgonzola, Emmental and so on.
In Italy, among the many “classic” pizzas, most recipes leave plenty of freedom in the choice of ingredients and techniques. The traditional Margherita, a symbol of Italy, is made with green basil, white mozzarella and red tomatoes. At the same time, add anchovies and rearrange the toppings on the dough, and it can already be called a Neapolitan pizza. The topping varies a lot depending on the pizzaiolo, the pizzeria, the region or even the mood.
One variation on the technique is pizza made on puff pastry. You can often come across, for example, a special Marinara on puff pastry. The toppings of such pizzas are the same as the classic ones, but they are made on ready-made dough, most often puff pastry. It's quick, much quicker than waiting for delivery.
Frozen puff pastry is a convenience product, sold in stores, easy to find and inexpensive. Homemade puff pastry pizza takes only a little longer to make than it does to bake. You still have to arrange all the toppings on the dough, but while the oven heats up there is more than enough time for that. Whatever dough the pizza is made on, you always want sauce, salami or cold cuts, and mozzarella in the topping. That said, there's no need to limit yourself.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Unleavened puff pastry 1 package
- Cold cuts (ham, cured pork loin, roast pork) 50 g
- Homemade tomato sauce 2 tbsp
- Mozzarella 100 g
- Parmesan (grated) 1-2 tbsp
- Green onions 2-3 stalks
- Olives 6-8
- Olive oil 2 tsp
- Mixed herbs (basil, parsley, dill) to taste
- Oregano Spices
Step-by-step recipe
- A simple puff pastry pizza is perhaps the easiest pizza you can make at home: no effort, quick, and with any topping you like. Take a package of puff pastry, arrange the topping, bake. The hardest part is choosing a topping you won't be disappointed with later.
- The package of unleavened puff pastry needs to be thawed first. The package always has very detailed instructions on thawing and baking. For the pizza to turn out right, it's worth sticking to them.
- Unleavened puff pastry is usually rolled up before freezing and is rectangular. After thawing, unroll the dough, trying not to stretch or tear it. Pizza is supposed to be round, and rightly so. But puff pastry must not be stretched or rolled out. So let's break the rule and let the puff pastry pizza be rectangular.
- Prepare all the ingredients in advance. You can buy ready-sliced cold cuts or ask the store to thinly slice some cured pork loin. If you don't have homemade tomato sauce, you can fry tomato pulp with spices or, as a last resort, reduce half a cup of good tomato juice until it is as thick as sour cream. The other ingredients just need to be sliced and grated. All of this takes 10 mins at most, while the oven heats up.
- Grease a baking sheet of suitable size with a little olive oil, literally 0.5 tsp. Lay out the puff pastry, trying not to stretch it. Fold the edge of the dough slightly all the way around to form a sort of rim, a very small one. Brush the dough, including the rim, with a very thin layer of thick tomato sauce.
- Slice the mozzarella thinly and spread it over the whole surface of the dough. If your mozzarella isn't in small balls, you can grate it on a coarse grater, spreading the cheese evenly. Sprinkle the cheese with a pinch of dried oregano. By the way, dried oregano is perfect for pizza, whether it's puff pastry pizza or any other kind.
- Lay thinly sliced meat or cured pork loin over the mozzarella. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need much meat. 100 g at most, though in my opinion half that is enough, in a single layer. Then again, I have friends who are sure you need at least 0.5 kg of meat in three layers, and then more meat on top.
- Sprinkle the puff pastry pizza with finely chopped green onion, the green part only. Add whole olives, pitted or not, as you prefer. Don't cut the olives: the pizza looks great with them whole.
- Sprinkle the whole pizza with finely grated Parmesan or a similar cheese such as Grana Padano or Pecorino. Try to spread the cheese evenly. Finally, drizzle the rest of the olive oil over the whole surface of the topping. The pizza is ready to bake.
- The oven should be preheated to the temperature recommended by the puff pastry manufacturer; all of this information is on the package. Bake the puff pastry pizza for the time the manufacturer specifies. All the toppings are ready to eat to begin with, so the baking time is purely about cooking the dough.
- Put the puff pastry pizza into the preheated oven for the recommended time. Naturally, keep an eye on the dough, since every oven has its quirks that can noticeably affect baking.
- As soon as the dough is baked, the pizza is ready. Carefully cut the pizza into pieces with a pizza wheel. A round pizza is usually cut into 6-8 wedges. A square or rectangular pizza can be cut into rectangles or triangles; it doesn't really matter. Sprinkle the pizza with chopped mixed herbs. Or, alternatively, scatter whole leaves picked from the stems over the topping.
- Puff pastry pizza, whatever the topping, is very tasty while it's hot. Unfortunately, as it cools, puff pastry can lose all its charm. So make this pizza for one sitting and eat it right away.
- Tasty homemade puff pastry pizza topped with cold cuts, cheese and tomato sauce is quick and easy to make. The topping is room for imagination, but don't get carried away, especially with the amount of meat.
| Yield: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 270 kcal per 100 g |
| Prep: | 15 mins |
| Cook: | 30 mins |
| Ready in: | 45 mins |
| Category: | Pizza |
| Cuisine: | Italian cuisine |
| Rating: |
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4.5
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