Pizzette

As a disclaimer this dish is in no way healthy! However, it is super delicious! It is fried dough with pizza sauce, basil and mozzarella cheese.

Ingredients:

Fried dough:
3 cups bread flour (sifted) and a little extra for kneading
Dash of salt
1 tbsp fast raising yeast
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of water (110 degrees exactly)
1/2 tsp of sugar
Olive oil

Pizzette:
Fried dough
Pizza Sauce/Pasta Sauce
Fresh Basil leaves
Fresh Mozzarella cheese sliced

If you are not blessed with a kitchen aid mixer, which I am not, here what you do to make the dough:

To make the dough you combine the sifted flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Form a well in the mixture and add the yeast and sugar into it. Pour the 110 degree (you need this temp to activate the yeast) water into the yeast/sugar well. Add in the vegetable oil and stir vigorously. Side note: this is a great arm workout! Add in more water or oil depending on the texture you are getting from your dough. It should be a little sticky, but not too dry. Too dry add some water, too sticky add a little vegetable oil. Too moist add a little flour. I suggest mixing with a spoon initially and then your hands.

Once the texture is right, take the dough out of the bowl onto your floured surface and start kneading. Fold the dough into itself and put some muscle into it. You should do this about 5 to 10 mins.

Oil a medium sized mixing bowl with the olive oil (not too much, but just enough). Put your kneaded dough into and turn twice to coat in the oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a clean dry kitchen towel and let raise for an hour. (Sorry this is a slow process). After an hour punch raised dough down, recover and let raise again for another 30 to 45 mins (I find 45 mins helps the dough to get fluffier). This can also be made a day or two ahead of time, just let it sit out of the fridge about 30 to 45 minutes prior to cooking so that it raises and warms again.

Fried dough:
Once the dough is done raising, break off baseball size pieces (or smaller) and flatten out on a floured surface. Once the dough is shaped and flattened, heat over medium heat a mixture of vegetable oil and olive oil in a frying pan. Sprinkle some flour into the oil to see if hot enough (it will make that frying sound and dissolve). Add in your dough and fry a few minutes per side. Dough will puff as it is cooked. Set on a wire rake to remove excess oil.

Pizzette:

Heat sauce in sauce pan. Grease a baking sheet or two. Take freshly fried dough and put on greased baking sheet. Add a piece of mozzarella, ladle on sauce and add one or two leaves of basil. Add some salt and pepper. Then place pan on top rack of oven with the broiler on high. Heat long enough for the cheese to melt.

I suggest eating these right out of the oven! Buon appetite!