Stuffed Crust Pizza

[james]

This is a long way from Pizza Hut, but we had stuffed crust pizza last night. We had dinner with friends who have an FB pre-cast oven here (and an Artigiano oven at home in SoCal), and they did a great job of the pizzas. Good cheese, dough, tomatoes, and Scott makes a darn good pizza. They had smoked provola, fresh mozzarella and fresh porcini mushrooms, which were excellent.

Scott has taken the pizza classes at the VPN pizzeria in Marina del Rey, and he knows what he is doing. The oven was humming along at 900ºF and we cooked 60 second pizzas all evening.

One cool thing was that he made a rolled crust pizza where one side was stuffed with fresh ricotta -- this was pecorino, which was very fun. You had to salt the cheese just a little to bring out the flavor, and it was fresh and light, not heavy. Scott likes the traditional Italian pizza, so everything was lighter than Pizza Napoletana, and the light crust wrapped around the ricotta was just great.

Give it a try.

Jay, are you doing this in the restaurant? Is the something Pizzeria Bianco is doing? I have heard they make their own ricotta.

James

[jjerrier]

The stuffed crust is definitely a trick from Antica in marina del rey...I love it. They actually do that at Olivella's here in Dallas and we will do it too! Very cool.

[Bacterium]

.....mmm stuffed crust sounds great I just lurv cheese

I had a go recently using Halomi (usually stored in brine so already quite salty). I pressed out the outer edges of the dough and put some cheese on top and then rolled it over the cheese. It didn't work that well as it came unstuck......will keep trying.

keen to hear any tips

[james]

I think Scott sealed the fold over the cheese. Like a skinny little Calzone. It all held together and when you cut the slices, you could see the "round" of cheese.
James

[Unofornaio]

mmmm that sound very good. When my dads mother made pizza she would put a little Ricotta Forte (fermented Ricotta) mixed in with the sauce, that gave it a spicy feel. I love this cheese but I can only get it from the East Coast. If you are in Italy it may also be called Ricotta Squand not sure of the spelling on that .shh..qu.ond its from Bari.

[jjerrier]

At Antica it was Del Carcerato "the prisoner"...and James is right, it is like a little calzone attached to a margherita. Stretch dough to a circular shape as normal, add a little ricotta (and ham, and mozz if you like) to a six inch stretch of the dough on the edge, then fold it over and seal it. Make the rest of the pizza as normal...

One tip...when making the pizza on a peel or slab, put the filling on the side FURTHEST from you...when you slide it from the peel to the oven, less drama as the heaviest side is at the front end of the peel.

Jay

[Bacterium]

Hey I gave it another shot last night, it went much better. I rolled the edge of the dough out fairly thin, put the haloumi on top and then folded the edge back over the top (of the cheese only) and piched it down.

I did one of my "garlic breads" - basically just dough, EVOO, cheese and garlic and put haloumi in the edge crust. If you look closely on the edge you see a lighter brown area where the cheese has oozed out and browned off.......my guest gave it the thumbs up...

[Jerald Powell]

I can't help redirecting the stuffed crust from savory to sweet. I like to stuff my desert pizza's with goodies. I really like savory stuffed crust as described above and have tried everything, but there is nothing like a jallapeno mango desert pizza with a crust stuffed with butter brown sugar and white chocolate chips. The sweet stuffed crust really takes the burn out of your mouth and satisfies a sweet tooth!