Pizze Fritte

Ingredients

• Basic Pizza Dough (recipe below)

• 15 oz. of fresh ricotta

• 8 oz. of fresh mozzarella, cut into half inch pieces

• 1/4 of a cup of chopped salami

• freshly ground pepper

• salt to taste

• oil for frying

Directions

1. If you are making your own dough make sure that it has doubled in bulk from the dough that you created. Punch down the dough and divide into 8-12 parts, depending on how big you want your pizze fritte to be and how many you want to make.

2. Mix the ricotta with the freshly ground pepper and the chopped salami.

3. Flatten each ball into an round shape, they don’t need to be perfect, but they need to be evenly thick and you want to be able to fold them over onto themselves.

4. Put a mound of the cheese and salami toward the center of the dough and dot with cubes of mozzarella, drape the other half of the circle over the filling, matching the edges of the halves. Pinch together the edges of the dough, then roll the edge slightly and pinch again to make a secure seal. Repeat with the other pizzas.

5. Fill a large skillet with about 1 inch of oil. Place over medium heat and allow to become very hot but not smoking. Add about 4 or 5 pizzas, without crowding too much, and allow to sit until golden brown underneath, 1 to 2 minutes, then turn to brown other sides. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Basic Pizza Dough from

• 1 envelope dried yeast (2½ tsp)

• 1 cup warm water

• 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• ¾ tsp salt

• ½ cup warm water

• (We added a tsp of sugar to the dough, gives something to the yeast to feed on)

Directions

1. In a 2-cup glass measure, with a table fork, dissolve the yeast in the 1 cup of warm water. Stir in ½ cup of flour, cover with a clean dishtowel and let it stand until the  mixture foams up to about double – to 2 cups –  about 30 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, combine 3½ cups of the flour with the salt.

3. Stir in the yeast mixture and the remaining ½ cup of warm water.

4. Stir until the dough masses together.

5. Gather the dough into a ball and turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface.

6. Knead, folding and turning the dough onto itself, then pushing it away from you with the heel of your hand, about 10 to 12 minutes, adding, little by little, just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking. Be careful not to add too much flour or too much at one time.

7. When you have finished, the dough should not stick to the board; it should be smooth, silken, slightly damp on the surface, and very elastic.

8. Dust the dough lightly all over with flour and place in a bowl to rise, covered with a clean dishtowel, for about 1 hour, or until it has slightly more than doubled in bulk.