Description
Puttanesca is most often associated with pasta alla puttanesca, but I thought the flavors of the classic Italian pasta dish would be tremendous on a pizza too. This Pizza Puttanesca includes a traditional puttanesca base of acidic tomato sauce, briny anchovies, olives, and capers, aromatic garlic, and rich olive oil paired with fresh slices of mozzarella cheese to balance the saltiness and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes to add a little heat.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2 recipe Easy Same-Day Pizza Dough
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 8 oz tomato sauce (I prefer unsalted/no-salt-added for this pizza if you can find it)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder (can omit in favor of using garlic-infused olive oil for the olive oil portion above, if preferred)
- 8 oz mozzarella ball, sliced into 8 pieces
- 1 1/2 oz (about 6-7 filets) anchovies packed in oil
- 54 g (about 1/3 cup) pitted black olives, crushed
- 1 tbsp nonpareil capers
- 1 - 1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F / 260 degrees C and set a baker’s half sheet to the side.
- Shape your dough. If you prefer a classic pie-shape with a thicker crust compared to the center of your dough, I suggest hand-stretching your dough. If you prefer your pizza to be an even thickness, I suggest rolling your dough out with a rolling pin.
- If you are hand-stretching your dough:
- I like to rub a small amount of olive oil into my hands first; this allows me to shape the dough easier without it ripping accidentally from friction.
- Press the dough down with the palm of your hand into a disk shape, then use your fingertips to gently press down on the dough disk, further flattening it.
- To further extend the dough, I prefer to press one palm on top of one side of the dough and with the other hand lift the alternative side of the dough and gently work the dough outward, pulling very gently with the tips of my oiled fingers (like a very discrete “come hither” motion) to slowly stretch the dough out. Rotate slightly and repeat until the dough is shaped and stretched to your liking. If you find that the dough starts to snap back or is beginning to tear, allow the dough to relax for a minute or two before proceeding again. Transfer your stretched dough to a sheet of parchment paper.
- If you are using a rolling pin:
- I prefer to place my dough between two sheets of parchment paper to avoid the dough sticking to my rolling pin, but if you prefer you can also sprinkle a bit of flour over the dough ball as well as wiping some over your rolling pin by hand to prevent sticking instead. Once the dough has been rolled to your preferred size and shape, peel the top layer of parchment paper off (if using). The bottom layer that the dough is resting on can be utilized for your baking sheet. If you find that the dough starts to snap back or is beginning to tear, allow the dough to relax for a minute or two before proceeding again.
- If you are hand-stretching your dough:
- Transfer your shaped dough to the reserved baking sheet.
- Brush olive oil onto the pizza dough lightly and evenly. This can be done with a pastry brush or the back of a spoon
- In a small bowl combine tomato sauce and garlic powder (if using). Pour over the top of the pizza dough and using the back of a spoon spread the sauce out evenly over the dough.
- Top the pizza with the slices of mozzarella, spacing them out evenly, then top with anchovies, black olives, and capers. Finish with a generous sprinkle of red pepper flakes.
- Bake for 16-22 minutes or until the crust has reached your preferred level of crispness and the mozzarella cheese is beginning to brown and blister. I find that pizzas that have a thinner topping layer take less time to bake and heavier-topped pizzas generally take a bit longer to bake so watch your pizza closely after the 16-minute mark and adjust as desired.
Notes
Nutritional information on Whip & Wander is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4th of the pizza
- Calories: 538
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 547 mg
- Fat: 27 g
- Saturated Fat: 10 g
- Carbohydrates: 52 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 25 g
- Cholesterol: 34 mg