Ask either of us what are favorite food is, and likely we’ll both say pizza. I don’t think we’d honestly tire of eating pizza on a daily basis if we could. What’s not to love about cheesy dough?? While we’d eat pizza in almost any form, these pizzetas are one of our favorite ways to enjoy some pie. Pizzetas are mini fried pizzas. Yes, you read that right, FRIED PIZZA! Pillowy dough with a simple tomato sauce and freshly grated parmesan cheese, it’s heaven in your mouth.
Background
Marcelo grew up eating these surprisingly pillowy and non-greasy fried pizzas. It’s a recipe his mother inherited from Italian extended family. He loved it so much, he requested it for nearly every single birthday. They are still a common street food, especially in Naples. We even tried some fried calzones (panzerotti) in Milan made similarly to these that were incredibly delicious. The story is that after world war 2, many homes, and wood burning ovens were destroyed, so Italians had to find a new way to continue cooking their pizzas. Enter Pizzetas!
Pizza Dough
The pizza dough is simple. Flour, yeast, sugar, water. You simply combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water to allow the yeast to proof and then combine with the flour and knead until you the dough starts to stick to itself! We can’t live without our KitchenAid Stand Mixer for jobs like this, but you can get your arm workout and knead the dough by hand as well.
The key with pizza dough is making sure it has time to rest. You never want to use the dough right away. The longer you wait, the softer and less chewy your dough will be. We recommend a minimum of 1 hour, but we allotted about 4-5 hours for this particular batch. While the dough is rising, you can make your pizza sauce. A simple combination of crushed tomato and a few spices.
Once the dough has rested, you form 24 dough balls about the size of golf balls. Next is the fun part, stretching each one out to form your mini pizzas. We try to get ours pretty thin, about 1/4 inch or so. This allows them to fry faster and get nice and bubbly.
Frying and Assembling
We recommend a shallow and wide frying pan for your fried pizza. This allows you to make more at one time. We use canola oil, but any high-heat oil for frying will work fine. Working in batches, fry your pizzetas for about 2 minutes on each side or until they get nice and golden and bubbly! Fried foods are best enjoyed fresh, so we recommend topping with your sauce and grated parmesan cheese right away and serving. Continue to work in batches until you’ve made all 24.
These pizzetas are so fun for parties. The fried pizza is actually incredibly light and fluffy and not heavy or greasy as you would imagine. We stick to simple grated parmesan for topping instead of topping with heavy cheeses to allow optimal enjoyment of that delicious fried dough. We hope you enjoy these tasty pizzetas as much as Marcelo has throughout his life!
And if you want to get back to traditional baked pizza, be sure to check out our homemade Margherita pizza recipe!
Ingredients
Method
- Combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water in a large bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes to allow the yeast to bloom.
- Add flour and yeast mixture to your stand mixer with dough hook attachment. If you do not have a stand mixer, add to a large bowl and knead by hand to mix.
- Mix in the stand mixer for approximately 4-5 minutes until the dough sticks to itself but not the surface of the bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for a minimum of 1 hour, or up to 4 hours. If making in advance, place in the refrigerator after 4 hours.
- Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and lightly golden.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, and sugar and stir to combine. Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes and remove from heat.
- Next, you will separate the dough into approximately 24 balls, about the size of golf balls. Do this on a lightly floured surface, and once rolled into a ball shape, place onto a floured baking sheet. Keep covered with damp towel until you have finished all 24.
- Next, stretch each ball of dough into round discs by pulling gently on the edges. They should be about 3 inches or so in diameter and about ¼ inch thick. Lay back onto the floured baking sheet and keep covered until you have finished with all of them.
- Heat up the canola oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Add in your mini pizzas, one at a time, being careful not to overcrowd the pan, and fry for about 2 minutes on each side or until bubbly and golden brown. Remove and place onto a paper towel to drain excess oil.
- Pizzetas are best enjoyed immediately after frying, so we recommend immediately topping with about 2 tablespoons of the pizza sauce and grated parmesan and serving one batch at a time.
- Continue until you have made all the pizzetas.