Escher Pizza

Who doesn’t love pizza?! Well, pizza lovers in the South Luxembourg now get an extra special treat, with a pizza dedicated to the city of Esch-sur-Alzette. The ‘Escher Pizza’ was created as an homage to the city’s international past, with a topping of spicy salami, anchovies and garlic. Salami is a nod to the South of France and Spain, anchovies point towards Portugal and garlic has been regionally planted and consumed, and definitely unites Luxembourg, France, Spain and Portugal. Lots of pizzerias in Esch serve the ‘Escher Pizza’ now, and I was also asked to make one as part of my Tonicités project.

For this pizza I have made a super simple no-knead pizza dough. So all you need to do is mix the ingredients in a bowl and let the dough rest. No kneading needed! It’s quite a wet dough, and it makes for a really great pizza full of air bubbles. As for the topping: I was quite sceptical mixing salami and anchovies – both very salty. But it works! I just made sure that the tomato base is not too salted, as this would have really made it too much. Little slices of garlic bake well in the oven and bring the finishing touch. A great pizza, but I wouldn’t go out kissing anyone after eating it…

This recipe was made for Tonicités as part of a series of recipes celebrating the inter-regional town network between Luxembourg City, Esch-sur-Alzette, Longwy, Arlon, Metz and Thionville.

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Ingredients

For the dough:
256g pizza flour
2g dried instant yeast
6g salt
227ml lukewarm water
a drizzle of olive oil

For the tomato pizza sauce:
200g tinned finely chopped tomatoes
70g tomato paste
1 ½ tbsp oregano
½ tsp garlic powder
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
ground black pepper

For the topping:
120g grated pizza mozzarella
8 spicy salami slices
8 anchovies
2 garlic cloves

Method

Makes 2 – Resting: 2 hours – Oven: 7 minutes

Put the flour, instant yeast, salt and water in a bowl and mix with a spatula until you get a sticky, wet dough. Drizzle a swirl of olive oil over and rub it over the surface with your hands. Cover the bowl with a damp teatowel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 ½ hours.

After 1 ½ hours, dust your work surface generously with flour. Turn the dough onto the floured surface and fold over four times, like an envelope, then turn over into a ball. Cut the dough into two portions, roll each into a ball, place the into two plastic containers and cover with a lid. If using immediately, leave to rest for 30 minutes before continuing.

If using later, put in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze. Take out of the fridge 90 minutes before you want to bake the pizzas: dust the dough surface with a bit of flour and remove the dough from the container, turning it into a floured tray. Cover with cling film to prevent the dough from drying out and leave to rest for 90 minutes.

1 hour before baking the pizzas, place a pizza stone on a metal grid in the middle of the oven and preheat your oven to 280C (or the highest temperature). Leave the stone to heat up in the hot oven for at least 45 minutes before baking the pizza.

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.

One the pizza dough has rested enough, briefly shape it into a disc, then put it on a piece of baking paper, stretching it a bit more if needed.

Distribute half the tomato sauce on one pizza dough and top with half the mozzarella. Top with 4 salami slices and 4 anchovies. Peel and thinly slice the garlic cloves and distribute half the slices over the pizzas. Put the pizza with the baking paper onto a pizza slider, and slide onto the hot pizza stone. Bake for 7 minutes or until until nicely risen and browned.

Escher Pizza

Ingredients

Method

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