Jamie Cooks Italy
By Jamie Oliver
Pizza fritta
Stuffed with ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella & basil
1 hr
Not Too Tricky
serves 12
About the recipe
Pizza fritta is one of the oldest forms of pizza, the classic street food of Naples, where it was easier to cook more using oil than managing a wood oven. The texture is almost doughnut-like on the outside, and creamy in the middle. Tweak this simple filling by adding any of your favourite ingredients to gently melt inside.
Recipe From
Ingredients
1 x Neapolitan pizza base recipe
1 x Hero tomato sauce
Tipo 00 flour, for dusting
100g Parmesan cheese
500g quality ricotta cheese
400g mozzarella cheese
1 bunch of fresh basil (30g)
2 litres vegetable oil, for frying
Method
- Make your dough, proving it for 1 hour, rather than overnight, and your Hero tomato sauce.
- When the time’s up, divide the dough into 12 balls on a flour-dusted surface, dust them with flour, cover with a clean damp tea towel, and rest for 10 minutes.
- One at a time, press out a ball of dough with your fingers, stretching and flattening it into a 15cm round.
- Finely grate the Parmesan and beat with the ricotta, then add a heaped spoonful to your dough round. Tear over a little mozzarella, season, push a few basil leaves into the top, then fold over the dough to seal the filling inside. Press down to stick, twisting and tucking the dough, if needed, like pizza ravioli! Repeat.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large, sturdy pan over a medium-high heat. Drop in a cube of potato and when it’s golden and rises to the surface, the oil is ready. I’m not a lover of deep-frying but it does give the best results here – please be careful.
- Working in batches, lower in two fritte to cook for 1½ minutes on each side, or until golden. Remove to a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain, then let the oil come back up to temperature before adding the next two.
- Warm the tomato sauce and serve on the side for dunking. Sprinkle more fresh basil leaves over the fritte, to serve.
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