Description
Looking to amp up your pizza night? This spicy pizza diavola is a fan favorite, starring Kalamata olives, spicy peppers, and gooey mozzarella cheese.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 ball Best Pizza Dough (or Food Processor Dough or Thin Crust Dough)
- 1/3 cup Homemade Easy Pizza Sauce
- 4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese (or about 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
- Kosher salt (optional)
- 8 to 10 Kalamata olives
- 1 Fresno or Calabrian chili pepper
- 2 basil leaves
- Semolina flour or cornmeal, for dusting the pizza peel
Instructions
- Follow the Best Pizza Dough recipe to prepare the dough. (This takes about 15 minutes to make and 45 minutes to rest.)
- Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500°F. OR preheat your pizza oven (here’s the pizza oven we use).
- Prepare the Easy Pizza Sauce.
- Slice the mozzarella into 1/4 inch thick pieces. If it’s incredibly watery fresh mozzarella (all brands vary), you may want to let it sit on a paper towel to remove moisture for about 15 minutes then dab the mozzarella with the paper towel to remove any additional moisture.
- Slice the olives in half. Thinly slice the chili pepper (keep the seeds).
- When the oven is ready, dust a pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina flour. (If you don’t have a pizza peel, you can use a rimless baking sheet or the back of a rimmed baking sheet. But a pizza peel is well worth the investment!) Stretch the dough into a circle; see How to Stretch Pizza Dough for instructions. Then gently place the dough onto the pizza peel.
- Use the back of a spoon to spread a thin layer of pizza sauce across the dough. Top with mozzarella cheese, saving out a small bite for tasting. Taste a bite of the mozzarella cheese; if it does not taste salty, add a pinch or two of kosher salt to the pizza. (The pizza has olives, which also adds saltiness.) Top the cheese with the sliced olives and chili peppers.
- Transfer the pizza to the pizza stone using the pizza peel, then bake until the cheese is melted, about 7 minutes in the oven (or 1 minute in the pizza oven).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for minutes, then top with torn basil leaves. Slice into pieces and serve immediately.
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: Pizza, Vegetarian Pizza, Neapolitan Pizza, Italian Pizza, Pizza Oven, Vegetarian, Entertaining, Diavola Pizza, Diavola, Kalamata Olives, Chili Peppers, Basil