Pizza quattro stagioni — artichokes, garlic mushrooms, olives and egg

dairy Italian · hard · 210 min, including 60 hands-on

Two 28 cm pizzas with four distinct quarters, Roman style: artichoke hearts in oil, mushrooms cooked with garlic and parsley, black olives, and an egg added to the fourth quarter halfway through baking, with the yolk still runny. Crushed tomato, fior di latte and a long-fermented homemade dough complete the pizzas.

easy version

Ingredients for two

Method

1. The day before, dissolve the yeast in the 195 g room-temperature water. Add 300 g flour and mix until no dry flour remains. Cover for 10 minutes, add 8 g salt, then knead for 8–10 minutes, using a little of the 20 g flour reserved for dusting: the dough should become smooth, supple and elastic.
2. Shape into a ball and place in a closed container large enough for the dough to double in volume. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour, then refrigerate for 8–24 hours. The dough should rise slowly and develop small bubbles without collapsing. If it more than doubles before the end of this time, give it a fold to knock out the gas and return it to the fridge.
3. On the day, 3 hours before baking, divide the cold dough into two balls of about 250 g. Shape by tucking the edges underneath, place in a container lightly dusted with the remaining flour and close the lid. Leave at room temperature for 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours: the dough should relax, and an indentation made with your finger should spring back slowly.
4. 45 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 250°C conventional, with an upturned heavy baking tray or a pizza stone in the upper third. If you have not done this the day before, tear the mozzarella into 2 cm pieces and drain in a sieve in the fridge for 30 minutes, then pat dry. Drain the peeled tomatoes for 10 minutes, saving the juice. Weigh out 180 g and crush them by hand with 3 g salt and the oregano: keep a coarse, raw tomato texture rather than making a purée. Add the remaining tomatoes to the reserved juice for tomorrow's sauce.
5. Slice the mushrooms 5 mm thick. Heat 10 g oil in a 24 cm frying pan over a medium-high heat with the crushed garlic clove. As soon as the garlic sizzles and turns pale golden (30 seconds), remove it and add the mushrooms. Cook for 6–8 minutes, stirring, until their water has evaporated and their edges are golden. Off the heat, add 1 g salt, the chopped parsley and 5 turns of the pepper mill; spread on a plate to cool slightly. Drain the artichoke hearts (rinse them if packed in brine), quarter them and pat dry along with the olives: the surface of each topping should be dry. Crack each egg into a cup.
6. Dust the work surface with some of the semolina. Press out one dough ball with your fingertips, working from the centre outwards and leaving a 1 cm rim. Stretch over the backs of your hands to a 28 cm round, without using a rolling pin. Shake off excess semolina and place the round on a sheet of baking paper cut to fit, on the back of a cold baking tray or a thin board to use as a peel.
7. Spread 90 g tomato in a spiral, leaving 2 cm clear around the edge. Scatter 125 g mozzarella over the whole round in well-spaced pieces, then divide it into four quarters: 50 g artichoke quarters on the first, half the mushrooms on the second and 20 g olives on the third. On the fourth, arrange the mozzarella in a ring to make a nest that will hold the egg. Drizzle with 5 g oil, especially over the artichokes. Set aside the same quantities for the second pizza.
8. Swiftly pull the paper and pizza onto the hot tray. After 3 minutes, the dough will have set: lift the edge with a spatula, pull the paper out sharply and discard it so the base can brown. After 5 minutes, pull the oven shelf halfway out and pour the egg from its cup into the nest on the fourth quarter; close the oven immediately. Bake for 9–11 minutes in total: the rim should puff up and develop brown spots, the base should be dry and coloured, and the egg white set with the yolk still runny. Rotate the pizza halfway through if the oven heats unevenly.
9. Shape and top the second pizza on a second sheet of baking paper while the first bakes, then cook it in the same way, including the egg. Tear the basil over each pizza as it comes out of the oven. Share the first while the second cooks, or keep it on a wire rack for no more than 10 minutes to preserve the base.

On your plate

Cooking tips

This is a dairy dinner: serve no meat, and choose a pareve or dairy starter. Allow 60 minutes of active work on the day, plus 25 minutes the day before for the dough; the stated 210 minutes cover the dough balls' final rest, preheating and baking both pizzas. You can also make the dough that morning: leave it at room temperature for 1 hour, then refrigerate for 5–6 hours. Never leave it out all day (at 25°C or above, it collapses and turns sour). In a very warm room, check the dough balls after 2 hours: they should stay puffy, not spread into puddles. Baking paper avoids the most common mishap at home—a topped pizza sticking to the peel; remove it after 3 minutes so the base can brown. Cook the mushrooms before topping, otherwise their water will soak the centre. To save work on the day, take the mozzarella out of its liquid the day before, tear it up and leave to drain in a sieve over a bowl in the fridge, covered with cling film. Use the remaining tinned tomatoes and their juice for tomorrow's pasta sauce, and the leftover mushrooms for an omelette. Adding an egg halfway through baking is the Roman capricciosa technique; if you prefer to leave it out, top the fourth quarter with 60 g jarred roasted red peppers (poivrons_grilles_bocal), drained, patted dry and cut into strips.

Equipment : large mixing bowl, lidded container for the dough, accurate scales for the yeast, heavy baking tray or pizza stone, baking paper (both methods), peel: a thin board or the back of a cold baking tray, wide spatula, wire rack, sieve, 24 cm frying pan, 2 cups for the eggs

Roman-style pizza quattro stagioni (carciofini, funghi trifolati, olive, uovo), adapted to be kosher and vegetarian by replacing cooked ham with egg; dough slowly fermented in the fridge and baked on a preheated tray.