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–+ servings

Speck Margherita Pizza Recipe

Todd Mitchell
A Neapolitan-style Margherita pizza with speck
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian
Servings 2 people
Calories 634 kcal

Equipment

  • 1 Wood-burning pizza oven This is ideal for a classic Neapolitan style pizza, but use what you've got!
  • 1 Cutting board
  • 1 Pizza Cutter

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Pizza Dough ball (8-9 ounces) (Refer to our recipe for making AVPN Neapolitan dough)
  • 3 Tbsp Flour (Semolina is ideal, AP is good, but any flour will be fine for this)
  • .25 Cups Tomato sauce (Refer to our recipe for making your own sauce from canned tomatoes or try Mutti brand sauce)
  • 2.5 Ounces Mozzarella You can use fresh grated or fresh sliced
  • 2 Ounces Speck (about 6 thin, large round slices or 8-10 smaller square slices)
  • 1 Ounce Basil fresh
  • 1 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your pizza oven to ideally about 800°F to 900°F.
    Adding wood to the pizza oven.
  • Pre-cook your pancetta. Cook on medium for about 4 minutes until it just begins to brown - you don't want to over cook it since it will cook again in the oven.
    If you're being health conscious, you can dab the pancetta with paper towel to remove some of the liquid fat.
    Set aside.
    Rendering the pancetta.

Prepare the Dough

  • If you are using a pre-made dough ball, give it at least 30 minutes to come to room temperature.
    Dough ball
  • Put 2 tablespoons of flour on your work surface
  • Put 1 tablespoon of flour and the cornmeal on the pizza peel.
    Floured pizza peel
  • Begin stretching your pizza dough on your work surface. With 8 ounces of pizza dough, you should be able to make an 11" to 12" pizza, depending on the dough. True Neapolitan pizza will leave about a half inch outer ring slightly taller than the center.
    Work surface has been prepared with semolina flour and the dough ball is being stretched.

Prepare Before Putting the Dough on the Peel

  • If you are using regular mozzarella, I suggest using freshly grated - do this now.
    If you are using fresh mozzarella, remove your mozzarella from the water, dry with a paper towel, and chop into slices or strips.
  • Check your pizza oven temperature. Add more wood if necessary. Do not proceed to the next step if your oven is not ready.
    Pizza oven smoking as it comes up to temperature.

Apply the Toppings

  • Transfer your dough to the pizza peel.
    Neapolitan pizza dough on the pizza peel.
  • You will want to quickly apply your toppings and get the pizza into the oven before the dough sticks to the peel.
  • Apply the tomato sauce to the center of the pizza. Use a spoon to spread the sauce out from the center in a spiral pattern but keeping the sauce off of the outer ring.
    Add the sauce
  • Distribute the mozzarella cheese evenly over the pizza.
    Distribute the mozzarella over the pizza.
  • Distribute the cooked pancetta evenly over the pizza
  • Distribute the sliced speck over the pizza. You can cut it into smaller slices if you prefer.
    The pizza is topped and ready for the oven.

Cooking with an Outdoor Pizza Oven

  • Check the pizza oven temperature again. If you have an infrared thermometer, check for the hottest part of the pizza stone.
    Infrared thermometer
  • Launch the pizza into the oven on the hottest part of the stone without being in the flames.
  • Before rotating the pizza, make sure that Rotate the pizza one quarter turn every 30 seconds. Generally, the pizza will be done in 3 minutes or less. So watch it closely!
  • Remove the pizza from the oven and let it rest for about 3 minutes.
    Pancetta Coppa Pizza
  • Cut and serve immediately.

Notes

Conventional Oven option:
  • If you are going to cook this in a conventional oven, you'll want the highest temperature you can get the oven to. 
  • If you have a pizza stone (or pizza steel), that's going to help a lot in getting the most authentic crust. If not, a pizza pan (or cookie sheet) will still turn out a great pizza.
  • You can either start the pizza on a pan (or cookie sheet) and transfer it to the stone after about 15 minutes (when the crust is firm enough to be safely transferred). At this point, turn off the oven and let the pizza cook on the stone for another 5 minutes. Remove and let rest on a cutting board for another 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
  • Alternatively, you can start by launching the pizza directly to the pizza stone in your oven. This is more tricky and you might want to practice with some dough with no toppings!

Nutrition

Calories: 634kcalCarbohydrates: 70gProtein: 23gFat: 30gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0.04gCholesterol: 42mgSodium: 1453mgPotassium: 242mgFiber: 3gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 1105IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 278mgIron: 5mg
Keyword capocollo, coppa, Neapolitan Pizza, pancetta
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