Burrata Pizza and Lucy and Desi

Hello and welcome to Pizza and a Movie! Consider today’s pizza a classic combination. Just like the subjects of our movie, Lucy and Desi – it’s a combination that endures. This tomato sauce and burrata pizza features the flavors of a Pizza Margherita: tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil, and turns the richness and textures up a few notches. Let’s get right to it – Burrata Pizza!

Tomato Sauce

The tomato sauce is playing a lead role today, so let’s start with that. I have one can of hand crushed San Marzano tomatoes, some tomato paste, about 1/2 cup of chopped green and black olives, crushed Calabrian chilis and a bunch of fresh garlic.

This sauce is super informal as far as measuring goes. The main idea is the crushed tomatoes and the olives. The Calabrian chilis will add some fruity spiciness, the garlic will bring texture and flavor. The tomato paste will bring a bit of umami.

Get the saucepan with the crushed tomatoes going over medium-low heat. The olives I am using are a random leftover bunch from the deli olive bar at my local grocery store, so it’s a mix of green and black olives with a few sweet cherry peppers. Go with what you have in your fridge, or with what you prefer. They have pits in them, so I just smashed them a little with the flat side of my knife, picked out the pit and rough chopped the olive meat.

Toss that in the saucepan with the tomatoes. For the garlic, I have about 25 tiny little cloves that I am just going to run my knife over to rough chop. Then, add the chopped garlic to the tomatoes. Use as much or as little garlic as you like. If you like Calabrian chilis, stir in as much as you like. I stirred in a little less than a tablespoon for a fairly spicy sauce.

Add about 1 tablespoon of tomato paste to the mix, give it a good stir and bring the tomato sauce up to a simmer. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally for about 40 minutes, until the sauce has thickened a bit. Taste for seasoning and add kosher salt and black pepper to taste. Once it’s thickened and chunky, remove from heat. Transfer the sauce to heat-safe bowl to cool before using it for the pizza.

Burrata Pizza

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a pizza steel or stone while we let the sauce cool. Also pull the burrata from the fridge to let it come up to room temperature. We want to use room temp burrata so that it’s not super cold cheese going on a hot pie.

On a lightly floured pizza peel, roll, stretch or spin your pizza dough to a roughly 12-inch round. Use a spoon with a slightly flat bottom to spoon and spread the sauce on the dough, leaving a 1-inch border for the crust.

And that’s it – going into the oven, anyway. Bake the pizza for 10-12 minutes, until the dough is puffy and golden.

When the pizza comes out of the oven, use a silicone brush to brush olive oil over the crust. Then, break apart the burrata on the pizza. evenly distributing the fresh mozzarella and cream. Use one or two spheres of burrata to get the cheese coverage you want.

I used two small spheres of burrata. Once you have the burrata on the pie, drizzle olive oil over the cheese and cream. Then garnish with as much fresh basil as you like.

The zesty, spicy sauce is punctuated with great garlic flavor and the meaty olives add such a great briny bite. Making a punchy sauce is important. Because the burrata is so rich and creamy, it needs a richly flavored sauce for balance.

Movie Night: Lucy and Desi

We have our new classic, the Burrata Pizza ready, so let’s get to this week’s movie! Lucy and Desi is a new documentary about…you guessed it, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The film is by actor and comedian Amy Poehler. It focuses on the incredibly strong love that Lucy and Desi had, which led them to work together on I Love Lucy, and to start Desilu Studios.

I am a big fan of I love Lucy; and I quite enjoy Hollywood documentaries, so this film was really interesting to me. The glimpse into the creation of I Love Lucy was especially eye-opening: it was Desi Arnaz who pioneered the 3 camera, live studio audience format we all know as sitcom TV. Not only was Desilu Studios the largest production company in Hollywood for a time, but it was responsible for many of the hit television series we now consider classic, 20th century TV. A fascinating look into the private and professional lives of the two icons, Lucy and Desi is a must-watch for any Lucy fan. Available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Thank you all so much for joining me today for Pizza and a Movie. I hope you try this Burrata Pizza, it’s so simple, yet it’s amazingly delicious and so satisfying. Remember you can catch up on Pizza and a Movie, whenever you need inspiration for your Friday Night plans! Take care and be well, xo Kelly

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Print Recipe

Burrata Pizza

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Dinner, Main Course – American/Italian

By Kelly Djalali – Serves: 2-4

Prep Time: 50 Minutes (plus 20 minutes sauce cooling time) – Cooking Time: 10-15 Minutes – Total Time: ~1 Hour, 20 Minutes

Zesty, chunky tomato sauce pizza topped with creamy burrata and finished with olive oil and fresh basil – a new classic pizza combination!

Ingredients

• Tomato Sauce
• 1 28-oz. Can Whole San Marzano Tomatoes, hand crushed with their juices
• ~1/4 cup Chopped Fresh Garlic
• ~1/2 cup Chopped Black and Green Olives
• 1 tbsp. Tomato Paste
• 1/2 - 1 tbsp. Chopped Calabrian Chilis (optional)
• Kosher Salt and Black Pepper
• Burrata Pizza
• 1 Prepared Pizza Dough
• 1 cup Tomato Sauce
• 1-2 Burrata Spheres, at room temperature
• Fresh Basil leaves
• Olive Oil

Instructions

Tomato Sauce

1

Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to let simmer for 40 minutes. Simmer, stirring occasionally until the sauce has reduced a bit and thickened. Taste for seasoning and add kosher salt and black pepper to taste.

2

Once it's thickened and chunky, and seasoned to your liking, remove from heat. Transfer the sauce to heat-safe bowl to cool before using it for the pizza.

Burrata Pizza

3

On a lightly floured pizza peel, roll, stretch or spin your pizza dough to a roughly 12-inch round. Use a spoon with a slightly flat bottom to spoon and spread the sauce on the dough, leaving a 1-inch border for the crust.

4

Bake the pizza for 10-12 minutes, until the dough is puffy and golden.

5

When the pizza comes out of the oven, use a silicone brush to brush olive oil over the crust. Then, break apart the burrata on the pizza. evenly distributing the fresh mozzarella and cream. Use one or two spheres of burrata to get the cheese coverage you want.

6

Once you have the burrata on the pie, drizzle olive oil over the cheese and cream. Then garnish with as much fresh basil as you like.

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