Thin-Crust Anchovy Caper Pizza
Up by popular demand, but also too good not to share!
Lucky to have found this foolproof pizza base recipe to work with since the start of lockdown. Trust me, it’s guaranteed to hit the spot especially when paired with this umami bomb topping combo of anchovies & capers. Literally salivating just thinking about it.
Although I probably should have left this one to a guest post from my dough master, here I am. He really did watch hours and hours of videos to figure out the dough texture, which direction to place it, how much sauce to put on, etc. etc. All credits to my dough master, luckiest lockdown partner I am (:
I still remember the first pizzas. Such a mess of flour we made, but when the first one came out of the oven it didn’t even make it a meter away. We literally sat on the kitchen counter and devoured the whole thing!
As the lockdown’s persisted, there’s been lots of research into those Ooni wood fired portable pizza ovens and debates about the merits of where one might fit, over a nice piping hot slice of pizza of course. So far I’ve won as the voice of reason (1.5 years later we have not acquired one), but who knows how convincing a perfect slice of pizza might be.
Time to start mixing that dough, because you’re going to have to wait four agonising hours before you enjoy your first slice! Enjoy x
Anchovy & Caper Thin Crust Pizza
Ingredients
Pizza Base
- 150 g 00 flour
- 150 g plain flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ¾ tsp instant yeast
- 200 g slightly warm water
- 1 tsp olive oil
Toppings
- ½ cup pizza sauce we like 'Mutti' brand
- 125 g mozarella ball or more to taste
- 1 tin anchovy fillets in olive oil c.50g
- 3 tsp capers
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
Instructions
Pizza Base
- Combine '00' flour, plain flour and salt in a large bowl
- Mix 200ml slightly warm water, yeast and olive oil in a measuring cup. Pour into flour mixture and use hands to knead for about 5 minutes until smooth. Set aside uncovered to rest for 15 minutes.
- Knead again for about 5 minutes and split into 2 neat balls of dough. Flour the base of 2 separate bowls well and place one in each. Cover both with a damp dish towel and leave aside for 4 hours at room temperature.
Assembly
- When ready, pre-heat oven with the dark tray or pizza stone you intend to use inside at 250 °C (or as high as the oven goes). Prepare a parchment paper on your work surface
- Take out your rested pizza dough ball and the side that was on top will now be your base so turn it around to stretch out
- Stretch out the dough with your fists in whatever pizza chef style you feel inspired and then place it on the parchment the right side down (so you need to keep track)
- On each pizza base, you will dollop about ¼ cup of sauce and use the back of a spoon or ladle to spread around evenly leaving a 1/2 inch perimeter sauce free. You don't want too much sauce so its okay if it is translucent / you're seeing bits of base!
- For each pizza base: 1) Tear up half the mozzarella ball and spread about evenly2) Use half the tin of anchovies and spread about evenly as well. Use a spoon to scoop a little of the olive oil from the tinned anchovies around the pizza too for added umami3) Sprinkle 1.5 tsp capers around and a grind of salt & pepper. Drizzle more olive oil if you like
- It would be good if you can get help for this step, but you could do it yourself. Basically get the tray or pizza stone out of the oven for a hot second, get the parchment paper with the pizza on it on there without burning yourself and everything back into the hot hot oven! It'll be in for about 8 – 10 minutes. It's done when the sides are turning nice and brown.
Notes
