Pizza with Ricotta, Basil, and Castelvetrano Olives

This pizza’s blend of meaty, salty, and vegetable tastes is guaranteed to please everyone at your dinner table. This pizza is visually appealing and tastes delicious because of the combination of sweet olives, savoury peppers, salty sausage, and creamy ricotta. Chopped Italian sausage liberally tops this pizza, and the bright green and meaty Castelvetrano olives are a welcome change from the usual canned black olives given at many pizza joints.

Ingredients

• 1 ball Artisan Pizza Dough
• All-purpose flour, for dusting
• Semolina flour, for dusting
• 2 tablespoons Basic Pizza Sauce (recipe follows)
• 3 tablespoons ricotta
• 1 ounce cooked, crumbled Italian sausage
• 1 ounce roasted mixed bell peppers
• Torn pitted castelvetrano olives (optional)
• Fresh basil leaves

Directions

Step-1: Let dough rest, covered, at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours or until it is cool enough that a fingerprint shows up when squeezed. One dough ball should be transferred to a well-floured work area. Press the dough firmly all over, leaving a 1/2-inch border, using floured fingers.

Step-2: Put a baking steel or big circular cast-iron pizza pan (like a Lodge 15-inch) on the centre rack of your preheated oven and turn the temperature up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Get the pan ready for the range 30 minutes ahead of time. Using a pizza stone and an outdoor pizza oven, the stone and oven should be preheated on high for 20 minutes, per the manufacturer’s recommendations. (Please note that we have only given gas oven cooking instructions since using wood to cook requires more skill in controlling the heat.)

Step-3: Take the edge of your palm and make a C shape, then push down firmly within the dough border to create a 1/2-inch wide ring. To keep the dough’s spherical form, lift it onto the knuckles of both hands and gently stretch it, turning it after each stretch. Keep stretching the dough out, letting gravity work until you have a 10-inch circle of uniform thickness with a slightly thicker outer ring. Shape the dough into a circle and lay it on a pizza peel sprinkled with semolina flour. Cover the round of dough with the Basic Pizza Sauce. Spread ricotta on top. Add optional toppings like sausage, peppers, and olives.

Step-4: To free the pizza:

1. Shake the peel gently while holding the finished pie.
2. Lift the pizza edge with a bench scraper if it seems stuck, then sprinkle the pizza peel with a combination of semolina and bread flour (one part semolina to one part flour).
3. Quickly and firmly transfer the pizza from the carrying surface to the prepared baking sheet or stone in an outdoor pizza oven.
4. Place the angled edge of the peel on the pan at an angle of approximately 20 degrees, and then swiftly pull back the peel to slide the pizza half onto the pan.
5. Slide the remaining pizza onto the pan by gently shaking the peel as you draw it back.

Step-5: If using a home oven, preheat to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 3 minutes or until the crust is golden and slightly puffed around the edges. Turn the pan, so the new side faces up, and turn the broiler on high. It takes 3 to 6 minutes under the broiler to thoroughly cook a pizza and brown the dough. Pizzas baked in an outdoor pizza oven need just 2 to 4 minutes total cooking time, during which time the crust should have risen and burned in areas, and the pizza should be rotated 90 degrees using a peel every 20 to 30 seconds.

Step-6: Slide the pizza onto the cutting board using the peel. Slice into wedges and garnish with chopped fresh basil.

Regular Pizza Sauce

As far as tomato sauce goes, the most straightforward preparation is usually the finest. We put a wide variety of tomato sauces through our paces, including those that had been cooked, raw, canned, and jarred, and finally settled on a basic sauce based on Muir Glen Organic Tomato Sauce as the winner. Remove the lid, grate some garlic, pour in some olive oil, and then mix in some fresh oregano, salt, and pepper. Once spooned over dough, its acidity and sweet-savoury taste become the focal point of a cheese pizza while allowing the other toppings to take a backseat.

Enjoy your meal!

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