Pizza piena Napoletana

August 14, 2019
Pizza piena Napoletana

The pizza piena is pure, simple perfection – each mouthful serves as a celebration of Italian flavour.

Recipe and styling by Fortunato Mazzone
Photograph by Annalize Nel

Build your base: basic pizza dough

Pizza piena Napoletana

Serves: 10
Total Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

  • 18 free-range eggs
  • 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 400g home-made/store-bought standard pizza dough, rolled out thinly into 2 discs
  • 650g mozzarella, sliced
  • 250g Parmesan, grated
  • 300g Parma ham, diced
  • beaten egg, to brush

Instructions

1

Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Beat the eggs well and add the freshly ground black pepper.

2

Grease and line the sides and base of a 25cm springform tin. Line with 1 disc of pizza dough to form a pie crust on the base and sides.

3

Crumble a mixture of the cheeses over the base and sprinkle with the diced Parma ham.

4

Spoon over a large ladleful of the beaten egg mixture and repeat until the springform tin is filled to the brim with the different layers.

5

Use the second thin pizza base to cover the top of the springform tin, pinching the sides and top together to enclose. Brush the lid with a little beaten egg and bake in the preheated oven until the filling has set, about 1 hour 20 minutes.

6

Allow to cool a little and serve the pizza piena in generous slices.

Notes

There is no salt in the filling – the meat and cheeses are salty enough.

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