Classic pizza, without cheese, is perfect for summer.
What makes a summer pizza? Nothing new! It’s simply pizza without cheese though it goes by the Niçoise name — pizza pissaladière. Stay with me for a moment because, pizza pissaladière usually has anchovies criss-crossed on top, over the tomato sauce, onions and olives. But for this summer pizza I dispensed with anchovies because Americans tend not to like them. So it’s 100% vegan (if you care about that) plus it holds up very well in hot weather. Recently, I made two of these for a large outdoor gathering. They looked and tasted great and easily fed 20 along with other snacks.
This is a recipe I first developed many years ago and it needed some updates. Chief among them is the way the tomato sauce is made. Originally, I removed the tomato skins by dipping them in boiling water, then seeded them raw. Now, I find it easier to roast the tomatoes on a sheet of parchment paper [above] for about 25 minutes. The skins burst on their own and slip right off. And because the tomatoes are soft, they are much easier to seed and chop for the sauce.
Dough for the recipe rises quickly — I put the bowl in a plastic shopping bag and clip it closed.
Then dough is rolled out on a generously floured surface until it’s stretched enough to fit a 12 x 18-inch sheet pan.
Once on the sheet pan, trim the edges if needed and sprinkle dough with olive oil.
Then brush oil evenly over the dough and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Next comes the cooked tomato sauce, which goes on it blobs first — the tomato sauce needs to be cool at this point.
Then spread sauce evenly over the dough.
Thinly sliced, cooked and cooled onions go over the tomato sauce.
Final toppings are cooked sliced olives and mixed herbs — either dry or fresh.
After 15 to 20 minutes in the oven, edges of the crust are puffed, the bottom is crisp and the pizza is ready to be cut in squares to be served in the pan, or transferred to a large cutting or serving board. This is pan pizza with a crust that’s somewhat thick. In neighboring Italy, a similar dish is labeled tomato focaccia and often eaten for breakfast.
Pizza does make sense at this time of the year because it’s tomato season. Folks who grow their own often end up with a bumper crop. And the riper and juicier the tomatoes the better the sauce — which also can be made in batches or bulk. I’ve cooked both the sauce and onions as long as 3 days ahead and stored them in the refrigerator successfully so there’s no doubt the main components can be made ahead.
Ingredients
- Topping
- 8 ripe tomatoes (4 Italian plum and 4 round - about 2-1/2 pounds)
- 6 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 medium onions, peeled, halved and sliced into thin rings
- 1-1/4 cups pitted, sliced black olives, drained and patted dry
- About 2 tablespoons dried herbes de Provence (or 1/4 cup chopped equal parts fresh thyme, basil, sage, marjoram and rosemary)
- Dough
- 1 teaspoon dry active yeast
- 1-1/2 cups lukewarm water (110-115F)
- 3-3/4 cups unbleached flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Flour for work surface
Instructions
- For the topping
- Heat the oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Rinse and place tomatoes on the baking sheet. Roast until skins split and tomatoes are soft, about 25 minutes.
- Cool tomatoes, slip off the peels and cut tomatoes crosswise. Hold each half over a strainer set in a bowl or measuring cup and squeeze to remove seeds and juice. Coarsely chop the tomato flesh. Then scrape seeds dry in the strainer with the back of a spoon. Reserve all the juice — discard seeds. Transfer the chopped tomatoes to a 9-inch skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil and the crushed garlic and tomato juices. Discard the seeds.
- Simmer tomato liquid until it has reduced to the consistency of pizza sauce. There should be about 1-1/4 cups. Season with salt and pepper then set aside or transfer to a jar and refrigerate up to 3 days.
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a clean skillet, add the onions and cook gently until soft and transparent. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a container and refrigerate up to 3 days.
- For the dough
- Mix the yeast with 1/4 cup of the water and 2 tb of the flour; set aside until mixture thickens slightly to the consistency of a smoothie, about 5 minutes.
- In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, or in a bowl, mix remaining flour with the salt. Add the yeast mixture, and, with the machine running, pour in the remaining 1-1/4 cup warm water and the 2 tablespoons olive oil (or mix liquids into the dough by hand). Process or knead until dough is smooth. Transfer dough to a wet bowl, cover with plastic and set aside until dough triples in volume, about 1-1/2 hours.
- To assemble and bake
- Adjust oven rack to bottom position and heat oven to 450 F. Pull risen dough gently from the bowl without kneading. Sprinkle a work surface with flour and roll the dough to a rectangle large enough to cover a 12 x 18-inch sheet pan.
- Transfer dough to the sheet pan and trim as necessary to make what will be the crust even all around.
- Brush dough with remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread tomato sauce evenly over dough then sprinkle onions evenly over tomato sauce. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle olives evenly over the sauce. Then distribute herbs evenly over the top.
- Bake until crust is evenly browned on bottom, about 16 to 18 minutes. Remove and cut into 2-inch squares for serving.
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