Pizza with onions and Capocollo cured pork

The pizza is a classic of Italian gastronomy, loved and imitated all over the world! The ancestors of the pizza were the focaccia breads, like those from Bari and Genoa, thick and fluffy, stuffed with oil, salt, pepper, and sometimes a few tomatoes. But it’s not until Naples during the Bourbon age do we discover the birth of the pizza par excellence, the Margherita. Here, pizza maker Raffaele Esposito wanted to dedicate a new and original pizza to Queen Margherita of Savoy, with ingredients in three colours in homage to the flag. Since then the pizza has come a long way: we find soft versions in the Naples area, thinner ones in Rome, and then again the ‘street food’ varieties found in shopping malls or near to schools. Today the pizza is also found abroad: in America is widespread on account of the Italian immigrants during the early twentieth century; and of course there are also fast food chains exclusively dedicated to pizza, which produce some curious variations: Pizza Hut, for example. Today we offer a recipe, for this ancient dish which has been slightly reinterpreted, but which never fails to win over even the most discerning palates. Despite the simplicity of the flavours, the balance between a fragrant pasta, a tasty topping and proper oven cooking – it’s a real art! So let’s start and see how we do ... a VIDEO is also available, and if you want to learn how to make pizza base, to be finished with toppings of your choice, follow this link. We going to teach you once and for all how to make the perfect pizza base, just like the one Gabriele Bonci makes in ‘Prova del Cuoco’!

Prepare the pizza dough and let it rest for an hour in a warm place, so that it rises well! While it rests, prepare all the ingredients: make the tomato sauce, mixing the passata with oregano, salt, sugar and oil. Cut the mozzarella into cubes and the onion into fine julienne rings. Put the capocollo cured pork on a plate ready to be placed on the pizza after cooking. Once the dough is ready, remove it from its container where it was rising and knead again. Then divide it into 3 equal portions (about 265-270g each) and shape them on the work top into balls. By hand, roll out the dough as much as you can, and then finish with a rolling pin until it’s the desired size. Place the pizza base on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment, brush it with some olive oil and then smear with the tomato sauce and sprinkle over the mozzarella. Put in a preheated oven at 200°C for 15 minutes. Once your pizza is cooked, add the raw cured pork and onion slices to taste.