La Maddalena Pizza

I love Italian pizza, specifically the pizza I used to have as a kid in the La Maddalena archipelago. In my opinion, no other pizza compares. Although one pizza pie from Pizzeria Prima Strada on Cook Street on Victoria Island, in BC comes pretty darn close. Any-who, here is a really fast, easy, decent version you can make at home using all ingredients from your local Trader Joes. I recommend a nice citrus beverage such as San Pellegrino Limonata, or your favorite red wine, to go with it.

La Maddelena Pizza
Serves 3-4 as a main, 2 as a complete dinner

Ingredients
1 ball of pizza dough
1 jar of Trader Joes jarred Bruchetta
4 slices of prosciutto, torn
1/8 of a red onion sliced into thin rings
1/3 of a bell pepper sliced into thin rings
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4-8 leaves basil, torn
Optional - olives or anything else you want on your pizza.

Step 0. Open dough and let rise ~20mins, pre-heat oven and pizza stone or flat pan to highest temp your oven goes, or that you are willing to go.

Step 1. Peel, crush, and then chop garlic, then set aside. Slice the onion and bell pepper thinly, set a side.

Step 2. Remove pizza stone from oven and place on a safe surface. Sprinkle flour on stone and roll pizza dough right onto floured stone.

Step 3. Top the dough with all the ingredients. Then brush crust with olive oil & lightly scatter salt over the oiled crust.

Step 4. Bake pizza on stone for 8-12mins.

This is how I do mine: When I have time, I blend up the bruchetta to puree the chunks, then pour and spread on dough. When I don't have time, I simply pour the jar out and spread it on the dough, chunky, as is. Then I tear up the prosciutto and scatter it over the sauce. Scatter the onion, basil and 3/4 of the cheese. Then scatter the garlic, olives and bell pepper, then top with the rest of the cheese. Bake 8-12mins.

For a slightly more authentic La Madd throw-back, assemble a four seasons version: make each quarter of your pizza a different topping: 1/4 Olive, 1/4 Bell pepper, 1/4 Prosciutto, etc...

Enjoy!