A Pizza Pie for Mom’s Jalapeños

So, you know, when you’re in the market and see that jalapeños are on sale and you think to yourself, “I haven’t made Mom’s Soy Pickled Jalapeños in a while.”  Then you buy a couple pounds and make a batch.  Then you’re sitting on an abundance of these babies.  You know that feeling? No? Well I do.

These peppers are great on so many things; they add a crispy pop of an almost a sweet-spiciness (the kick of the raw jalapeño is mellowed by the pickling), salty soy, and a nice bit of sour tanginess from the vinegar.  I use these to top-off sandwiches, eggs, noodle dishes, rice dishes, throw them in a quesadilla, and of course, as a topping on my pizza.  As I write this, flush with a few jars in my stash now, I can’t believe I went this long since I last made them.  Instead of making a full 5 lbs, per the original recipe, I only made two separate batches, about a pound per, and adjusted the recipe.  (*Note: I do prefer to rinse off the salt after the overnight salting, and then press the water out.  The soy really adds all the salt you need.) *Link to original Mom’s Pickled Jalapeños recipe.

I like when I can find some red jalapeños or fresno chilis to add to these.

I was making a pizza and taking some pictures featuring recently made pickled asparagus.  After I made the asparagus pizza, took a few pictures and ate that pizza. Then, I made another pizza just to eat.  Luckily I did take a few pictures because this one kinda blew my wife’s and my socks off.

I knew my end game — top the pizza with some of Mom’s Jalapeños.  I wanted everything on the pizza to sit under the jalapeños, not only in a literal sense, but so that everything on the pizza served as underlying foundation for Mom’s “accent” on top.  I decided no tomato sauce for this one.  I had some pesto, fresh mozzarella, fontina, soppressata and fresh basil.  A good comparison would be how a simple version of scrambled eggs with cheese — which is smooth and salty and buttery, — is such a perfect pairing with these chopped pickled jalapeños.  I wanted the pizza ingredients and flavors to be more subtle in this same sense, so that the pickled soy jalapeños really stood out and became the the star accent.

The Pizza:

• Neapolitan Pizza Dough
• Pesto
• Fresh Mozzarella
• Fontina
• Thinly sliced Soppressata
• Mom’s Pickled Jalapeños *Link
• Fresh Basil
• Olive Oil

The Bake and Eat:

Pretty simple straightforward assembly here.  Add the mozzarella and fontina.  Add dollops of pesto around and between the cheeses.  Finish layering some very thinly sliced soppressata around the pizza and into the oven.

Look how good this looks coming out of the oven!  I really like how it all balances out with the different cheeses and pesto melting around each other with the crisp soppressata on top.

Finish with some fresh basil and Mom’s Soy Pickled Jalapeños.

Just a little of the soy pickle juice spreads onto the cheese cutting through the buttery gooeyness as well.

Loved this pizza!