Spanish Chorizo Pizza with Olives and Greyhound

Hello and welcome to Pizza and a Movie! Today I have a super simple pizza that packs a ton of flavor – with spicy Spanish Chorizo and Manzanilla Olives, finished with thin slices of Manchego Cheese. This pizza is rich, savory, a little spicy and would go so well alongside a big green salad. This week’s movie is one my Mom has been telling me to watch for months. I don’t usually pick a war movie to watch, so I put it off. “But Tom Hanks!” She’d say. And she’s right; I really like Tom Hanks. I have to say this movie was pretty excellent. Don’t let the fact that it’s a war movie put you off – it’s really well done. Well, let’s get to the pizza.

A Simple Pizza

The base for this pizza is just mozzarella cheese. I have fresh mozzarella, but in your home oven, low moisture shredded mozzarella works just fine. If you can though, buy a block of mozzarella and shred it yourself. The pre-shredded variety at the store is coated in cellulose to keep it from clumping, but this also keeps it from melting smooth and evenly.

Spanish Chorizo is a lot like pepperoni. It’s a hard pork sausage, like salami, but cured with spices and paprika to give it that bright red color. You can eat it without cooking it; unlike Mexican Chorizo which is a raw sausage that cooks into a consistency of ground meat. I can find pre-sliced Spanish chorizo at the supermarket, but often you can find the sausage whole, in which case, just slice it thinly for the pizza.

Top the chorizo with a little more cheese and Manzanilla olives. I started with whole, pimiento-stuffed olives and I just sliced them in half lengthwise. And this is ready for the oven!

Bake the pizza in an oven preheated to 450 degrees, for about 15 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly.

When it comes out of the oven, use a vegetable peeler to peel thin strips of Manchego cheese to scatter over the pizza.

Spanish Chorizo Pizza with Manzanilla Olives

This pizza is so simple, but using chorizo instead of pepperoni, in tandem with the manzanilla olives, you get a slightly different flavor profile that feels a little more grown up, if you will. The addition of Manchego cheese adds a sharpness, not unlike Parmesan would, but the Manchego is mellower and creamier in flavor.

Movie Night: Greyhound

We have our pizza ready, so let’s get to the movie! Greyhound is based on actual events from the Battle of the Atlantic, in 1942. Tom Hanks plays captain Ernest Krause, who is leading a convoy of ships across the North Atlantic to the front lines of WW2. The entire film takes place over the five day period in which the convoy must pass through the “Black Pit”, an area of the Atlantic where the convoy has no air support.

Greyhound is full of tension and action, but no real violence. Perhaps this is because it’s a Naval battle, with no hand-to-hand combat. That said, even though it’s practically start to finish fighting, it’s not gratuitous. Actually, given the tension of the chase between the U-Boats and the Navy Destroyers, the gun fights and depth charges, the film feels quite restrained. I mainly credit this to the actors. Hanks, especially, is a calm and collected captain; conveying orders to the crew with confidence and faith. Though relationships are not explored in depth, it is immediately clear that Captain Krause respects his crew and they respect him. The visual effects are pretty stunning. The shots of the massive ships passing one another is frightening and really lends to the drama of the story.

Thank you…

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I know some of you have made your Fridays Pizza and a Movie nights too, and I appreciate you stopping by here to get pizza ideas and movie recommendations. Be sure to follow me on Instagram and stay tuned as Alex and I head out to Tybee Island with the pups this weekend. Take care and be well everyone, xo Kelly

Print Recipe

Spanish Chorizo Pizza with Manzanilla Olives

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Dinner, Main Course – American/Italian

By Kelly Djalali – Serves: 2-4

Prep Time: 10 Minutes – Cooking Time: 15 minutes – Total Time: 25 Minutes

Using chorizo instead of pepperoni, in tandem with the manzanilla olives, gives a slightly different flavor profile that feels a little more grown up.

Ingredients

• 1 Prepared Pizza Dough
• 1/2 16-oz. Package of Sliced Fresh Mozzarella, torn into pieces (or fresh shredded low moisture mozzarella)
• 4 oz. Sliced Spanish Chorizo
• 1/4 cup Manzanilla Olives, sliced in half lengthwise
• Shaved Manchego Cheese, to finish

Instructions

1

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2

On a floured pizza peel, dust the dough with flour and create a crust around the perimeter of the dough and flatten down the center.

3

Stretch it out on the backs of your hands, left hand over right hand, until the dough is roughly 12-inches around.

4

Add more flour evenly on the peel and lay the dough on the peel.

5

First add mozzarella cheese, then evenly place chorizo to cover the mozzarella.

6

Scatter olives over pizza and bake for 15 minutes, until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly.

7

When the pizza comes out, evenly scatter thin Manchego slices on pizza.