Fried mini pizzas with courgette flowers - In viaggio in cucina

Fried mini pizzas with courgette flowers and salted ricotta

26 July 2019
Recipe - Starter & Appetizer - Bread & Co.
Fried mini pizzas with courgette flowers and salted ricotta


I love pizza in all its variations and I find that these fried mini pizzas with courgette flowers and salted ricotta, besides being delicious, bring lots of cheerfulness to the table, especially if served to a nice company of friends for an aperitif time or as a snack.

To evoke colors of summer and give a touch of freshness to the course I used courgette flowers, that out of season you can replace with other ingredients to your liking, but what absolutely cannot be missing is a good tomato sauce.

Some tricks before directions

Salted ricotta or ‘cacioricotta’ is a Southern Italian cheese often used instead of Parmesan to flavor pasta or other courses.

It is generally made with sheep’s milk, but sometimes mixed milk is also used (a combination of cow and sheep or goat milk).

If you don’t find it, you can replace it with another delicate sheep’s milk cheese.

To shape your fried pizzas you can proceed as I explain below or cut them with a 10 cm diameter food ring mould.

In this case you will have to roll out the dough after rising to a thickness of about half a centimeter and use the food ring mould to obtain some disks.

You will then have to reassemble the left-over dough, let it rest for 5 minutes, then spread it and use the food ring mould again.

With this method it will be easier to get fried mini pizzas of the same size and rounder, but in my opinion it is less practical.

If you have some fried pizzas left-over, you can freeze them without dressing and when you want you can defrost it at room temperature, heat it quickly in the oven at 180° C and dress it as you prefer.

Fried mini pizzas with courgette flowers

Fried mini pizzas with courgette flowers and salted ricotta recipe

Preparation times
1 h 30 min
Cooking times
10 min
Nutritional values
( per serving )
Carbohydrates: 20 gr
Calories: 240 kcal

Ingredients

Serves 10
(for 10 fried mini pizzas)

    For the dough

  • 250 gr of medium strength wheat flour (11% c.a of protein)
  • 140 gr of water
  • 6 gr of fresh brewer's yeast
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon of fine salt
  • For the dressing

  • 330 gr of cherry tomato sauce
  • 120 gr of salted ricotta
  • 5 courgette flowers
  • Pepper as required
  • Peanut oil for frying as required


Directions

Put the flour on a pastry board, form the fountain and place the crumbled yeast in the centre, add a little water and, using your fingertips, start kneading it with a little flour.

Proceed in the same way until you used all the water, then add oil and salt and knead vigorously for at least 10 minutes until a smooth and elastic mass is obtained, soft but not sticky.

Form a ball and transfer the dough into a large bowl lightly oiled with extra virgin olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and place in a sheltered place to rise until doubled in volume (about an hour depending on the temperature, if you are in a hurry, put it at a temperature between 28 – max 30°C).

Once the dough has risen, turn the dough on a floured surface, roll it into a loaf and divide it into 10 pieces of the same size, making a ball from each.

Place the balls in a row on a floured surface, lightly sprinkle with flour and cover them with some plastic wrap, let them rest for about 10 minutes.

After this time, form the base of the fried small pizzas: flatten the balls starting from the center and going outwards leaving the edges a little higher.

Fry them a few at a time in abundant hot peanut oil (175-180° C), put them in the oil first on the side with the high edges and when they are golden turn them on the flat side.

Once ready, place the fried pizzas on absorbent paper to remove excess oil (turn them over on both sides on the paper).

Before serving, cut the end part of the courgette flowers out (where the stem is attached), open them and remove the pistil, rinse quickly under cold flowing water and place them on a clean kitchen towel, gently pat them with absorbent paper.

Cut the courgette flowers into strips keeping aside some ends of the petals to be used for decoration.

Dress your little pizzas with the cherry tomato sauce, the courgette flower salad and the diced salted ricotta.

If you like it, before serving the fried mini pizzas with courgette flowers and salted ricotta sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.

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