The Hot Italian with Burrata and Fantastic Fungi

Hello and welcome to Pizza and a Movie! Today, I have a pizza that my dear reader Mari will recognize from her weekly Stump the Chef game. In the comments section of each Pizza and a Movie post, Mari challenges me to come up with pizza combinations for specific movies. I thought of today’s pizza when she challenged me to come up with something for A Clockwork Orange. The pizza sounded so good I wanted to make it ASAP, even though today, our movie is a bit more…tame, shall we say? Today’s movie is connected to this week’s Ingredient Spotlight on Mushrooms. Fantastic Fungi is a movie on Netflix all about the world of Fungi. But let’s get right to The Hot Italian with Burrata.

This pizza is so simple and so well-balanced. Brown about one pound of hot Italian sausage and have that ready to go. Other than that, we have buttery Fontina cheese as the base. That’s all that’s going into the oven on the dough. When it comes out though, we will top it with chopped Calabrian chilis and burrata cheese. Preheat your home oven to 450 degrees.

Build the Pizza

Roll, spin or stretch out the dough to about a 12-inch round. Then top with about 1 cup of grated Fontina cheese. Top the cheese with the cooked hot Italian sausage.

This pizza is ready for the oven! We are back out at the wood oven today. It has been over a month since we fired it up. We tried to shoot this post yesterday, but we couldn’t get the fire hot enough. A combination of a damp oven (we have had so much rain lately!) and damp wood; so we just let the fire burn so everything could dry out. We were ready to go today with a nice hot oven!

The toppings that finish this pizza are really what make it special. The crushed Delallo Calabrian Chilis are spicy but have a sour note to them, not quite like a pickle, but just enough to give this pizza some acid to balance out the creamy cheese and the rich sausage.

Dollop the crushed chilis on top of the sausage and then tear one ball of burrata into several pieces and place evenly on the pie. The soft texture and cool creamy flavor of the burrata mellows out the spiciness of the sausage and the chilis.

The Hot Italian with Burrata

Given this week’s movie, I should have featured a mushroom pie, but stay tuned because week after next, I will have a great mushroom pie to share with you!

Movie Night: Fantastic Fungi

We have our Hot Italian with Burrata ready, so let’s get to the show! This movie inspired this week’s Ingredient Spotlight on Mushrooms, so I wanted to feature it here today. I absolutely love nature documentaries and this one does not disappoint. This movie covers so many interesting aspects and facts about fungi. The fact that they are their own kingdom is in, and of itself amazing. A fungus called the honey mushroom, in Oregon is the oldest living thing on this planet! Fungi has anti-viral properties, as well as the ability to clean up oil spills. And we all know about the studies on psilocybin and its positive effects on PTSD, depression and anxiety. There are simply too many amazing fungi facts to list here – watch this movie! Fantastic Fungi is available on Netflix.

Fantastic Fungi features gorgeous time-lapse footage. In fact, there is a short video interview from Wired Magazine with the director of Fantastic Fungi, Louie Schwartzberg. In this interview he describes, and shows, how he got the amazing time-lapse shots featured in the movie. It’s cool to see behind the scenes of the documentary. So check it out!

Thanks everyone for spending some time with me today for Pizza and a Movie, I hope you make this pizza and watch this fascinating documentary! If you make or any other Pizza from Djalali Cooks, send me a pic – I’d love to feature some of your takes on Djalali Cooks recipes. Send images to kelly@djalalicooks.com. At the beginning of October, I will compile your images and feature your dish as part of a reader favorites round-up on the blog! Take care and be well! xo Kelly

Print Recipe

Hot Italian with Burrata

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

Dinner, Main Course – Italian

By Kelly Djalali – Serves: 2-4

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

Buttery Fontina cheese and creamy burrata mellow out spicy Italian sausage, crushed Calabrian chilis bring balance with a spicy/sour note.

Ingredients

• 1 Prepared Pizza Dough
• 1 cup Grated Fontina Cheese
• 1 lb. Ground Spicy Italian Sausage, cooked and drained
• Crushed Calabrian Chilis
• 1 4-oz. Ball of Burrata Cheese

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 Fontina Cheese and top with cooked sausage.

6

Bake for 15 minutes or until the crust is puffy and golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

7

After the pizza comes out of the oven, dollop the crushed Calabrian chilis evenly around pizza.

8

Tear the Burrata into several smallish pieces and distribute them evenly over the pizza.

9

Slice and Serve!