Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizza and Frida

Hello and welcome to Pizza and a Movie! Today’s pizza is a special request. After seeing so many commercials for stuffed crust pizza during the baseball games on TV, Alex thought it might be a good one to try. He was right! This pizza is simple, delicious and so easy to make. I am sure it’s 100% better than the pizza we saw so many commercials for. So let’s get right to it! Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizza.

First of all preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a pizza stone or steel. I am topping this pizza simply, with crushed tomatoes, mozzarella, pepperoni and pickled jalapeños. You can top it with your favorite combination. Instead of using more mozzarella to stuff the crust, I am going to use Fontina cheese. Fontina is a nutty, buttery cheese that melts really well.

The mozzarella for topping the pizza is freshly grated. For the cheese stuffing, I have sliced the Fontina into thick batons. The Fontina came in a rectangle which I sliced into 1/4-inch planks, then I sliced those planks into 1/4-inch thick batons. I am using a Trader Joe’s pre-made pizza dough which is notoriously sticky. Because stuffing the crust is a little fiddly and will take an extra few minutes, I will lay my stretched dough on a sheet of parchment to keep the pizza from sticking to the peel. An insurance policy, if you will.

Building the Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizza

Roll or stretch your dough out to about 14-inches round. Lay the stretched dough on a sheet of parchment lightly dusted with flour, placed on the pizza peel. Leave about 1/2-inch border of dough, line the edge of the dough with the Fontina batons.

Then, lift and fold that bit of dough border over the Fontina baton. Seal the fold by pressing the dough.

Then, top the center with the crushed tomatoes. Follow that with the grated mozzarella.

Then the pepperoni. Top the pepperoni with a little more mozzarella. Finally, the jalapeños.

Now we are ready for the oven. Just like without the parchment underneath, use the peel to slide the pizza on the parchment onto the preheated pizza stone or steel.

This next part is optional, but I want to ensure a crispy bottom, so after the crust has set and has begun to rise (after about 5 minutes in the oven), use a metal pizza peel to go between the pizza and the parchment. Lift the pizza up off the parchment, pull out the parchment and put the pizza back on the pizza steel, slide out the metal peel and continue baking the pizza until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

When the pizza comes out of the oven, drizzle olive oil over the crust. Let the pizza sit for about 5 minutes before slicing.

You can see from the areas of melted Fontina on top of the toppings that we had a few breaches in the crust. But that’s totally ok, there’s still plenty of cheese stuffed in the crust.

This pizza is a real treat! So easy and so much better than delivery! Plus, you can stuff the crust with whatever cheese you like, get creative! I told Alex, next time I will add pepperoni to the cheese in the stuffing. I do hope you give this one a try. Assembling the pizza on the parchment-lined peel is the perfect way to go because it takes the urgency to keep the dough from sticking to the peel out of the equation.

Movie Night: Frida

We have our Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizza ready so let’s get to the movie! It’s hard to believe this movie is 20 years old. Frida came out in 2002, starring Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo and Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera. Likely you’ve seen this movie, but it’s worth a rewatch. Everything from the acting performances, the soundtrack, the vivid magical-realism, the costumes and set design are all wonderfully immersive and entertaining.

The movie follows Frida’s personal and professional life; beginning when she was a teen and suffered injuries from the bus accident that would give her health problems for the rest of her life. Through her relationship and marriage(s) to Diego Rivera; the rise of her own career; and toward the end of her life when she gave shelter to Leon Trotsky and his wife when they were exiled from Russia by Stalin. Frida is available to watch on HBO Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime (with subscriptions); and is available to rent on Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube and Vudu.

Thank you so much for joining me for Pizza and a Movie! Remember you can always find past pizzas and movie recommendations by looking through the Pizza and a Movie archives through the Series Tab on the Djalali Cooks main menu. Take care and be well! xo Kelly

Key Equipment

Print Recipe

Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizza

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Dinner, Main Course – American/Italian

By Kelly Djalali – Serves: 2-4

Prep Time: 15 Minutes – Cooking Time: 10-15 Minutes – Total Time: ~30 Minutes

Fontina-stuffed crust pizza; topped with crushed tomatoes, mozzarella, pepperoni and pickled jalapeños is rich, spicy and delicious!

Ingredients

• 1 Prepared Pizza Dough
• 6-8 oz. Fontina Cheese, sliced into 1/4-inch thick batons
• 1 15-oz. Can Crushed Tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup Grated Mozzarella
• Pepperoni
• Pickled Jalapeños
• Olive Oil, for drizzling on baked crust

Instructions

1

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a pizza stone or steel.

2

Roll or stretch your dough out to about 14-inches round. Lay the stretched dough on a sheet of parchment lightly dusted with flour, placed on the pizza peel. Leave about 1/2-inch border of dough, line the edge of the dough with the Fontina batons.

3

Then, lift and fold that bit of dough border over the Fontina baton. Seal the fold by pressing the dough.

4

Then, top the center with the crushed tomatoes. Follow that with the grated mozzarella.

5

Then the pepperoni. Top the pepperoni with a little more mozzarella. Finally, the jalapeños.

6

Just like without the parchment underneath, use the peel to slide the pizza on the parchment onto the preheated pizza stone or steel.

7

This next part is optional, but to ensure a crispy bottom, after the crust has set and has begun to rise (after about 5 minutes in the oven), use a metal pizza peel to go between the pizza and the parchment. Lift the pizza up off the parchment, pull out the parchment and put the pizza back on the pizza steel, slide out the metal peel and continue baking the pizza until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

8

When the pizza comes out of the oven, drizzle olive oil over the crust. Let the pizza sit for about 5 minutes before slicing.

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