Oftentimes I find myself laying in bed or on the couch watching Food Network and Cooking Channel. It’s a bad habit really since I will undoubtedly turn the TV off feeling ravenous. A couple weeks ago I was watching David Rocco’s Dolce Vita. I like his shows in particular because of the Amalfi Coast episodes. The Amalfi Coast is one of my most favorite places evahhh. Also, I think he’s kind of dreamy.
I saw this recipe for Pizza Fritta and I knew both Kara and Cliff would be into it. The ingredients are basic and the steps are simple but sometimes these are my favorite recipes. Just rustic good, you know? I mean…all three of us love all types of pizza. Kara and I love making food ‘mini’ so we shaped our pizzas into pizette, mini pizzas. They were so cute! You could always make them a little bit bigger, if you prefer.
The first couple of recipes we made that day were not appetizing to Cliff so he had been waiting patiently for this particular recipe. I laughed so hard when their dog, Juno, grabbed the plate of pizzette from the counter and they all fell to the floor. Juno is no more than 1 foot tall, but she knows good food and she can jump high to get her paws on it. Luckily the plate that Cliff was picturing was safe from Juno and Cliff still had those to eat. They were so good that Kara and I put the 5 second rule into place and still scarfed down the floor pizzette. #notashamedtoadmit
Here’s what you’ll need. We used crushed red pepper too, forgot to picture it!
To the heated oil, cook crushed tomatoes over medium heat and mix in garlic, salt, basil and crushed red pepper.
While the sauce cooks, roll the dough out thin and cut it into rounds
Fry the pizettes until golden brown, should form little bowls. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate
Top with sauce and freshly grated parmesan
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
12-ounce can crushed tomatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
fresh basil, torn into pieces
pinch of salt and crushed red pepper
For the Pizette Dough:
1 pound frozen pizza dough, thawed
olive oil, for frying
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Directions
In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil for the tomato sauce. Add the crushed tomatoes then stir in the garlic, salt, crushed red pepper and basil. Cook until heated through, several minutes.
Divide the dough in half. Stretch and flatten each half separately, then use a cutter to cut into rounds. In a large pan, heat the olive oil on high heat. Gently place each piece of dough in the hot oil and cook for about a minute on each side. The dough should puff up and form into kind of bowl shapes. Once the dough is puffy and golden brown on both sides, remove from the pan and place on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb the excess oil.
Spoon the sauce onto the fried dough. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese, and serve immediately.
Source: adapted from David Rocco
