The recipe

1 pizza, about 28 to 30 cmabout 25 minutes, plus dough proofing and preheating

Ingredients

  • 250 g proofed pizza dough, ready to bake
  • 80 g cooked jarred artichoke hearts, weighed after draining
  • 5 g capers, drained
  • 65 g crushed tomatoes
  • 65 g mozzarella, well drained
  • 3 to 5 basil leaves
  • Salt if needed and black pepper
  • A little flour or fine semolina for shaping

Method

  1. Preheat to 250°C with conventional top and bottom heat. Heat a suitable stone or steel according to its instructions and keep the dough covered until supple.
  2. Drain the artichokes, rinse briefly if needed and pat thoroughly dry. Quarter larger hearts lengthways and remove firm parts. Drain the capers.
  3. Cut up mozzarella. Taste the artichokes and capers before adding salt sparingly to the tomatoes.
  4. Open the dough to 28 to 30 cm and check that it slides on a lightly dusted peel. Distribute tomatoes, cheese, artichokes and capers.
  5. Bake for approximately 8 to 12 minutes, checking from minute six. Make sure the underside is cooked through.
  6. Remove, finish with basil and a little pepper, slice and serve.

Drain and cut the artichokes

Use 80 g cooked artichoke hearts from a jar, weighed after draining. Hearts packed in brine or oil both work. Let the liquid drain thoroughly and pat the pieces with kitchen paper. If the brine is particularly acidic or salty, briefly rinse the hearts first and dry them especially well afterwards. Oil-marinated pieces do not need an additional layer of oil on the pizza.

Quarter larger hearts lengthways to keep their layered leaves together. Small pieces already sold in quarters can be used as they are. Trim away any firm or fibrous sections that would be unpleasant to bite through. Fresh whole artichokes cannot be substituted directly in this method; they require trimming and cooking first. Choose ready-to-eat hearts when shopping. Leave small gaps between them on the pizza, since a thick layer of overlapping quarters weighs down the thin base.

Balance the capers and salt

Five grams of small capers provide a restrained accent. Drain them and briefly rinse if needed. Use 65 g crushed tomatoes for the base and 65 g well-drained mozzarella. Taste a piece of artichoke and a caper before deciding whether the tomatoes need any additional salt. Extra lemon flavour or vinegar is generally unnecessary when the marinade is already acidic.

Start with a fully proofed 250 g dough ball. Its preparation and the preheating time are additional to the approximately 25 minutes stated for this topping recipe. Keep artichokes away from the outer rim so they do not fall off during launch. Add three to five basil leaves after baking. Check the underside before removing the pizza: melted cheese alone does not establish that the base beneath the moist vegetables is cooked through. Serve immediately after slicing.