spicy honey and sopressata pizza.

There was this one time last December that Tyler I headed to Brooklyn on a cold winter Saturday night to eat at Paulie Gee's.  As an Italian girl I have a soft spot for pizza (and by soft spot I mean I love pizza and eat it at least once a week and it would be my last meal on earth), and because of my affinity for pizza i am very particular about the pizza I will eat.  Making a pizza is a labor of love and when I spend money at a restaurant on a pizza I want to feel as if a lot of time and thought and really good ingredients were put into that pizza - I want to feel pizza love.  Eating at Paulie Gee's was like being surrounded by pizza love.  I was wearing a blanket of pizza love!  Paulie Gee clearly cares about the product he is putting out - it's evident in the room (utterly beautiful, the kind of room you want to eat in every night and what I would love my future kitchen to look like - rustic and cozy), it's evident in the people who work there (they clearly love the product), and it's evident in the food. 

On the evening we dined there, we ordered two pizzas (I am kicking myself for not ordering three or four but all the more reason to go back!) and of the two I found one to be revolutionary - the hellboy pizza.  Fior di latte, Italian tomatoes, sopressata picante, parmesan, and mike's hot honey.  My god was it amazing.  The salty with the sweet with the spicy.  It was everything a pizza should be.  

Of course once I have something I love I set out to recreate it.  And that is what I’ve spent the last several months doing.  I’ve tried many different dough recipes, different cheeses, and different sopressata's.  I finally came up with a version that satisfies my craving and tastes as close to the original that one can get in their home.  It's now my pizza stand by (until I make the trip back to Paulie Gees and try a different pizza that makes me fall in love again).  

Spicy Honey and Sopressata Pizza

Pizza Dough
Recipe From NYTimes

Time: 20 minutes, plus at least 27 hours’ resting

12 ounces 00 flour like Delvina or King Arthur Italian Style (about 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
10 ounces high-gluten flour like King Arthur’s Sir Lancelot (about 2 cups)
1/2 ounce salt (about 4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
Additional flour, for dusting.

Combine flours, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add 2 cups of room temperature water, then mix on low speed using dough hook until dough binds, about 1 minute, adding more water as necessary. Let rest for 5 minutes. Knead on second-lowest setting for 5 to 7 minutes, until dough pulls away from the bowl and forms a smooth ball. Turn out onto a floured surface, knead and form into a ball, then let rest in a bowl for 3 to 4 hours.

Cut dough into 4 8-ounce pieces. (Or divide into 5 6-ounce pieces for smaller pizzas.) Turn out each piece on a floured surface, folding and kneading each three or four times until it forms a smooth ball. Set each piece in a plastic bin large enough to allow it to double in size, settle a sheet of plastic wrap on the dough, then cover with a lid. Refrigerate for 48 hours, or at least 24 hours, before shaping and baking.

Yield: Dough for 4 12-inch pizzas or 5 9-inch pizzas.

For the Pizza (I usually divide the dough into 4 pizzas - placing 2 doughs in the freezer for a later use - the below amounts are for 2 pizzas, double if making them all!).

1 ball of buffalo mozzarella
1/8 pound spicy sopressata (you will probably not use all of this)
1/2 cup of homemade tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
Parmesan for sprinkling
Basil Leaves
Honey (I ordered Mike's Hot Honey but you can use regular honey and mix in red pepper flakes).

Preheat your over to the highest temperature it can go and slide in your pizza store.  You will want to heat your stone for at least 30 minutes, but closer to an hour is good!  Shape your dough, use your hands!  It doesn't need to be perfect (personally I prefer them looking misshapen) on a floured surface - once its in the best shape you can get it, quickly remove the stone from the oven and place the dough on it.  Add half your tomato sauce to the dough, top with half the mozzarella, some of the sopressata, and a sprinkle of parmesan.  Slide the stone back into the oven.  In terms of baking times it's about 8 minutes.  But keep an eye on it!  Sometimes it takes longer and sometimes shorter.  When the crust is golden and dark in spots remove from the oven.  Top with basil and a generous drizzle of honey.