Muffuletta Pizza

You heard me right. Muffuletta pizza. When my wife and I went to New Orleans, years ago, we went to the famous Central Grocery, and got a muffuletta. It was everything I expected in a great Italian sandwich, and with that awesome giardiniera, it could not be beat. Well, it did get trumped on the trip by some really awesome po boys, but I still think of that sandwich to this day. Of course when I came back home from that trip, I tried replicating that muffuletta, and I was pretty close at getting those flavors and textures in the sandwich. Regardless, this past weekend I had made a batch of pizza dough as my daughter wanted to start her very own blog, and I figured as much as she loves making her own pizza, that she could use a portion of the dough and create her own pizza recipe. Now that left me with some extra dough, and as I rummaged through my refrigerator, I had a stare down with some homemade giardiniera. That led me into making this muffuletta pizza.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients for the Pizza Dough (makes 3 pizzas):

• 3 3/4 cup of bread flour
• 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 3/4 tsp table salt
• 3/4 tsp plus a pinch of sugar
• 1 1/3 cups of room temperature water

Ingredients for the Pizza:

• 1/2 cup of store bought, or homemade giardiniera
• 1 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 slices of hot cappocola
• 3 slices of salami
• 3 slices of mortadella
• 3 slices of sopressata

Make the dough by adding the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar. Mix. Add the water, and with your wooden spoons, or hands, mix until blended. I use my KitchenAid for this process to keep everything in the bowl during the rising process. Mix for about 30 seconds. The dough should be a bit stiff. Cover the bowl with a towel, and let it sit at room temperature until the dough has doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Once risen, divide into three portions. With one of the portions, add some flour to a large pastry board, and start rolling it out into your desired pizza shape. If you are adventurous, try tossing the pizza, to get your desired thickness.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees with the pizza stone inside.

Lay the dough onto the preheated pizza stone, and top with half of the cheese, then spread out the giardiniera. Layer the sliced meats on top of the giardiniera, arranging them much like you would pepperoni. Top with the remaining cheese, and place in the oven, cooking for about 20-25 minutes.

Remove and let cool for about 5 minutes before slicing into it, then dig in.

At first glance you might think, hmmm, just an ordinary pizza, but when biting into it you get all sorts of amazing flavors. The subtle heat from the heated giardiniera is balanced by those slightly crisp Italian cold cuts. I did not let my wife know what she was eating just to get her reaction, and she was blown away. I think it might be time to consider opening a pizza truck, what do you think? If you are wanting a new pizza idea, give this one a shot, it could be one of my top favorites right now!