The recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g proofed pizza dough, ready to bake
- 120 g red and yellow sweet peppers, trimmed
- 25 g black olives, pitted and drained
- 70 g crushed tomatoes
- 65 g mozzarella, well drained
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp water for cooking
- ¼ tsp dried oregano
- Salt if needed
- A little flour or fine semolina for shaping
Method
- 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.
- Cut peppers into strips about 5 mm wide. Cook with the oil and 1 tbsp water over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes, covering for approximately the first half. Turn occasionally and finish uncovered until all liquid has evaporated.
- Cool the peppers. Halve the olives, check for stone fragments and pat dry. Season tomatoes lightly and cut up the mozzarella.
- Open the dough to 28 to 30 cm and check that it slides on a lightly dusted peel. Distribute tomato, mozzarella, peppers and olives.
- Bake for approximately 8 to 12 minutes, checking from minute six. Make sure the underside is cooked through.
- Remove, scatter with oregano, slice and serve.
Soften the peppers in a frying pan
Weigh 120 g trimmed sweet peppers in total, using half red and half yellow if you like. Remove seeds and white membranes, then cut the flesh into strips approximately five millimetres wide. Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a frying pan and cook the strips over medium heat for about eight to ten minutes. Add a tablespoon of water and cover for the first half of the cooking time. Stir occasionally so the pieces soften evenly.
Remove the lid and let the liquid evaporate completely. The peppers should bend easily and have a few browned patches without falling apart. Spread them on a plate to cool. Precooking helps the vegetables become tender and prevents much of their released liquid from ending up on the pizza. If any juice collects as they cool, leave it behind when adding the topping.
Check the olives and season the sauce lightly
For one pizza, use 25 g pitted black olives, weighed without their brine. Halve them and check for any remaining fragments of stone. Pat dry. Particularly salty olives can be briefly rinsed first. The 70 g crushed tomatoes therefore need only a little extra salt initially. Add 65 g well-drained mozzarella, then distribute the olives between the pepper strips so each portion includes some.
A quarter teaspoon of dried oregano is enough to finish. Scatter it over the hot pizza after baking rather than exposing it on top for the full oven time. Keep the topping mild or add chilli to individual slices at the table. The stated 35 minutes assume a fully proofed dough ball; making the dough and preheating are additional. Open the base evenly and leave a narrow rim. A loose layer of vegetables suits this thin base better than a densely piled centre.