Sun Died Tomato pizza
This sun-dried tomato pizza stars gooey mozzarella with soft sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts and basil. A simple yet amazingly delicious topping!
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Pizza dough
- 1 easy pizza dough (or your fav dough)
Mozzarella topping
- 7oz (200 grams) mozzarella balls packed in water (or shredded low moisture mozzarella)*
- 12 sun dried tomatoes packed in oil
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- ⅓ cup basil leaves (lightly packed)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or sun dried tomato oil
- ¼ tsp fine salt (plus extra sea salt flakes to serve, optional)
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Pizza dough
- Follow the easy no-knead pizza recipe through step 5, including shaping the pizza and preheating the oven.
Mozzarella topping
- Shape the dough: when the dough is ready follow step 5, place the paper sheet or parchment paper onto a pizza peel or onto the back of a rimmed baking sheet. Then place the dough on this parchment paper, and starting from the center, gently press it out with your fingers until you get approx a 9×13 inch pizza.
- Add the topping: firstly, if you use fresh mozzarella in water, slice or dice it and place it on a kitchen towel or kitchen paper. Add another folded piece of paper towel on top, pat it dry to absorb excess moisture let it dry for at least 10 minutes. Finally add it evenly to the pizza, arrange the sun dried tomatoes, scatter the pine nuts and some basil leaves, salt (I use approx ¼ heaping teaspoon of fine salt), freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or some infused oil from the sun dried tomato jar. Note: if using a fan-forced oven, I would recommend adding the sun dried tomatoes in the last 2 minutes of the baking time.
- Bake the pizza: when the oven is hot, use the pizza peel to carefully transfer the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone. Bake the pizza until the mozzarella cheese and crust are nicely browned, approx 10-15 minutes. (e.g. in a forced fan oven it will take about 8 minutes).
- Serve: allow the pizza to cool for a minute or two before serving, scatter with the rest of fresh basil leaves and freshly ground black pepper. Fell free to adjust the seasoning again if desired. Slice, serve immediately, enjoy!
Notes
Shredded low moisture mozzarella: use about 2 cups (approx 7oz/200 grams) grated low moisture mozzarella for this recipe, but trust your judgment, add a bit more if you like.
What to use instead of a pizza stone? A rimmed baking sheet or a large cookie sheet that you can invert it and place on the lowest shelf of your oven work fine. When the baking sheet is right-side up, taking the pizza in and out of the oven will be easier and the preheated baking sheet will make a nice and crisp pizza crust.
How to measure flour? I use both US cups and grams. The cups of flour are leveled, which means you have to fill the measuring cup all the way to the top letting the flour flow over a little. Then, use the back of a knife to level the top off. But a digital scale is an excellent kitchen tool and gives a more correct weight.
Mozzarella pizza leftovers: cover leftover pizza tightly and store in the refrigerator up to 1 day or freeze up to 3 months. Thaw and reheat the pizza leftovers in the preheated the oven (350 F/180 C) and bake for about 8 minutes or until warmed through, crispy and the cheese is melted. Enjoy!