Granny Gemma's Pizzas. A recipe to remember.
Our family is growing, and so are the grannies we can feature in our journal. This is about Granny Gemma, and a recipe that's been handed down for 3 generations.
These are panzerotti, the street food cousins of pizza: self contained, easy to wrap and eat on the go, normally deep fried. They would make quite a menu at your next party too!
For some reason, through the decades went under the name “Pizze”(plural of pizza), and while technically incorrect, a tradition is a tradition… so here we go!
Ingredients for 8 people
For the Dough
240ml Milk
200g Unsalted Butter
1 cube of Yeast (if using the dried yeast powder, make it about 5g)
Pinch of salt
1 cube of Yeast (if using the dried yeast powder, make it about 5g)
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
800g Strong White Flour
Filling
800g Mozzarella (good quality, this is the hero ingredient here), dried and sliced
For the Topping:
2 cans of Chopped Tomatoes (400g)
6 Cloves of Garlic
10g Oregano
To Finish
Parmigiano Reggiano
Oregano
To Fry
1L oil
Method
To make the dough: in a bowl, melt the butter in lukewarm milk, add the yeast. Add the egg and the salt, whisk together for a few minutes. Slowly add the flour while keep whisking, this should take about 5 to 10 minutes to complete. Let it raise for at least 3 hours.
For the sauce: lightly fry the garlic until just lightly blond. Add in tomatoes and oregano, cook on low heat for about 3 hours. Keep it warm, ready for serving
To make the pizza: first of all, make sure the mozzarella is very dry. Roll the dough on a surface, in an oval shape. Place the mozzarella in the centre. fold the oval in a half moon shape. Pinch with finger to close it tightly, then cut the extra dough. Pinch again. If you would like a short demonstration, here's the Time Lapse.
Deep fry in about 160° oil… if too warm, the mozzarella won’t melt, if too cold, the pizze will taste a lot like fried oil… not what you want!
Serve on a plate, add tomato, parmigiano and oregano to your heart content!