This pizza prosciutto rucola is a homemade classic. It has it all: a crispy crust, lovely tomato sauce and cheese. The special thing about it, you add salty prosciutto and a slightly bitter rucola only after the pizza is baked. You are going to love it!
My dear readers, I have some exciting news for you. One is the pizza prosciutto rucola recipe and the other one, as you might already know, the football World Cup is almost here. For this occasion, I decided to present you a number of different recipes representing countries, which are playing at the World Cup in Russia.
Before you say anything; yes, I know, Italy is not there this time. The whole peninsula must be in tears. Anyway, I still wanted to “pay homage” to the Squadra Azzurra, by making pizza, the world’s most lovable food, made from scratch.
The kick-off of the World Cup 2018 is on June 14th. I decided to start with a recipe representing Italy a couple of days before, as a warm-up. I hope you’ll all enjoy this FOODball journey, trying out new dishes and expanding your knowledge of a foodie.
The world’s number one food
The whole world knows and loves pizza. And after this recipe, you are going to love it even more. Because it will be made from scratch by you. This is the easiest way to make a great pizza at home. For more pizza recipes, check these recipes, too: Hawaii pizza, quinoa crust pizza, bacon-onion Flammkuchen, and a delicious pumpkin truffle pizza.
This recipe serves two pizzas. There is only one trick in this recipe; keeping the baking tray in the oven turned upside down while preheating and baking. Why? As you will use it instead of a baking stone, it is easier to slide the pizza dough off it, when the edges aren’t in the way. If you have a baking stone, you already know how to use it.
Ingredients for pizza prosciutto rucola (2 portions, Ø 35-40 cm):
- 150-200 ml lukewarm water
- 150 ml milk (tepid warm)
- 1 cube of fresh yeast (42 g)
- 100 g polenta (or semolina)
- salt
- sugar
- 500 g whole grain flour
- 400 ml tomato sauce
- olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 Tbsp of rosemary needle-like leaves
- black pepper
- 100 g cheese (anything that melts, grated)
- 14-18 mini mozzarellas
- 200 g prosciutto (around 8-10 slices)
- 2 handfuls of fresh rucola
The first thing to do is to prepare the pizza dough. Sounds intimidating, but it’s really not that difficult and such a big science. Hehehe. You’ll need a large bowl and a mixer with dough hooks attached. Pour the water and milk into the bowl. They should be lukewarm, in order to “wake up” the yeast and start the fermentation process. Add the fresh yeast (crumble it) and stir briskly until it dissolves.
Then add the polenta, two pinches of salt and one pinch of sugar. At the end sift in the flour and mix everything (using the dough hooks) until you got a nice smooth, sticky and elastic consistency. It will take you about 6-8 minutes to get the right consistency. If it gets too dry, add a small amount of water (ca 20 ml).
Once you got a sticky and elastic dough (it will look like it doesn’t want to let go the dough hooks), sprinkle it with a little flour, cover with a clean kitchen towel and put it in a warm (but not hot), draft-free place. I kept it in the oven (of course the oven was NOT turned on). Let it rest for one hour.
In the meantime wash the rucola and prepare the pizza sauce. For the sauce, put the chopped garlic in a small pot with some olive oil, add the chopped rosemary leaves and stir for a minute. Then add the tomato sauce, season well and let it simmer for 5 minutes or so. Put aside.
Moreover, prepare your working place, where you are going to form your pizza. Place a slightly wet kitchen towel under a sheet of parchment paper. Have some flour ready to sprinkle it over the working surface and on the rolling pin as well.
Check out the dough. It should be doubled in size by now. Take half of the dough and put it on the floured parchment paper. If you are not using the remaining dough right away, you can easily wrap it tightly in a foil and keep it in the fridge up to 3-4 days. But before using it, you have to bring it back to room temperature and knead it with some flour.
Roll out the pizza dough
Ok, the pizza dough is ready to be rolled out. One important thing before that, preheat the oven to 250ºC. If your oven doesn’t have that capacity, just put it on the maximum. Remember to leave the baking tray in the oven, turned upside down.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a 4-5 mm thin round shape. Furthermore, spread half of the pizza tomato sauce on the dough, add the cheese and the mini mozzarellas. Now comes the tricky part. You might ask someone to help (one holds the tray, the other drags the pizza).
With the oven mittens, take the baking tray carefully out of the oven and lean it slightly next to the sheet of parchment paper. Try to keep them at the same level or maybe holding the tray 2 mm lower is even better. Carefully drag the parchment paper with the pizza on it and put it back in the oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until it gets a golden-brown crust. At the same time, the hot baking tray will bake the dough from the bottom.
When I said I’ve made two pizzas, I made them one after each other and not at the same time. After all, it only takes 15 minutes. First, we ate the first pizza prosciutto rucola and then the second. I love pizza so much. It is so delicious. I was sitting the whole time in front of the oven drooling while the pizza was baking.
Once the pizza is baked, you just need to add a couple more toppings and serve. Take the pizza out of the oven, place 4-5 thin slices of prosciutto on it and top it with a handful of fresh rucola. Now, the pizza prosciutto rucola is ready to serve! Cut it in triangles or any other shape. Eat it with hands and have fun. I hope you will be proud of it as I was. The flavour of the crispy dough and of the great toppings was just amazing.
Buon appetito!
