Long-cooked broccoli is one of my all-time favorite vegetable preparations, so I had to find a way to work it onto a pizza. Normally I don’t like broccoli on pizza because whenever I’ve seen it, it’s just been dropped onto the pizza raw, and often with a whole mix of other uncooked vegetables that don’t go with each other or with pizza. Here, the broccoli is cooked until it has a buttery texture, so it works with the crust instead of just sitting on top of it. We use a mix of mozzarella and caciocavallo cheese, a Sicilian cheese similar to mozzarella that has been dried and aged for a few weeks, so it has a funky aged flavor that goes well with the broccoli. If you can’t find caciocavallo cheese, look for scamorza, or use all mozzarella in its place.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 1 pizza (serves 1)
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Prepare and stretch the dough and preheat the oven according to the instructions given in “Nancy’s Scuola di Pizza” (page 128).
Step 2
Brush the rim of the dough with the olive oil and season the entire surface with salt. Scatter the caciocavallo and mozzarella over the pizza, leaving a 1-inch rim without any topping. Tear the broccoli into 2-inch pieces, keeping the florets intact as much as possible, and lay the pieces on the cheese. Slide the pizza into the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown and crispy, 8 to 12 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven, sprinkle the red pepper flakes over the surface, cut it into quarters, and serve.
Suggested Wine Pairing
Step 3
Aglianico Del Vulture (Basilicata)
