Crispy pan-cooked pizza with tomato sauce, pistou, anchovies, and olives
A French-Italian stovetop pizza with a crispy crust, simple no-cook tomato sauce, garlicky pistou, Gruyère, anchovies, and olives. Cooked in a frying pan then finished under the broiler for a perfect texture.
Quantities update for pizza count and yeast type.
In a large bowl, combine all-purpose flour or Tipo 00 (480g) and fine sea salt (13.6g). Dissolve active dry yeast (3.4g) in warm water (320ml), then pour into the flour mixture. Mix until a soft dough forms, adding extra flour or water if needed. Mix in olive oil (19ml).
Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until smooth and silky, adding more olive oil (19ml) if it becomes sticky. Place in a bowl, cover, and let rise for 3 to 4 hours at warm room temperature.
Squash canned plum tomatoes (400g) by hand in a bowl. Tear in basil leaves (10leaves), stir with extra virgin olive oil (15ml) and coarse sea salt (5g).
Blend garlic clove (1clove), coarse sea salt (5g), basil leaves for pistou (25g) and olive oil for pistou (80ml) into a loose paste using an immersion blender or mortar and pestle.
Sprinkle with extra flour for sprinkling (30g) and divide into 4 balls. Cover with a damp towel for 2 hours. Rest another 5-10 minutes before shaping.
Sprinkle surface with fine semolina for shaping (30g), then roll each ball into a 23cm round using a rolling pin.
Top one half of the pizza with sauce and 50g gruyère or Emmental cheese, grated (50g), season with pepper. Leave the other half plain with sauce only. After cooking, place 3 anchovy fillets in oil (12pieces) and 1 tablespoon pistou on the plain side, sprinkle dried oregano (5g) over the whole pizza, add black or Greek olives (12pieces), and drizzle olive oil for drizzling (20ml).
The oven temperature must be 260°C (460°F) with a pizza stone/steel. Bake the pizza on the stone for 4 minutes until the crust is golden brown.
