Images courtesy of Salvatore di Meo
Pizza con guanciale di maiale, pomodoro del pendolo e basilico
To live and work in a small village in the countryside which is governed by its own natural rhythms, its own heartbeat, is a feeling which touches your very soul. It’s almost impossible to explain it to someone else.
So if you find yourself in a city like London or New York in autumn and you confide in a friend that you’re homesick for swarms of midges he’ll wonder what on earth you’re talking about. You see, our city friend doesn’t know that it’s the midges that tell us that the wine must has started to ferment, or that it’s the changing colours and smells of the countryside which herald the fact that soon a pig will be miraculously transformed into a tasty winter meal, that the mushrooms are ready to be gathered and the truffles to be uncovered.
And this same friend will be eternally grateful if you convince him to leave his city workload behind and follow you to the countryside where nature lives and breathes, emitting perfumes and flavours that, once combined together in the pan, make you feel glad to be alive.
Especially if your friend is a cook.
Ingredients
(serves four people)
For the pizza dough
500 g of sifted flour (ideally Italian 00 flour);
15 g brewers yeast; 250 g warm water;
a drizzle of olive oil; a pinch of salt;
70 g of grated pecorino cheese (dolce if possible).
For the topping
120 g pork cheek, sliced very thinly;
250 g bunch of vine tomatoes;
a chopped fried onion; a pinch of oregano
a drizzle of olive oil; freshly round salt and pepper.
Preparation
Dissolve the yeast and salt in warm water. Heap up the flour and pour the water into the centre, add a drizzle of oil and knead briskly and strongly to obtain a soft, elastic dough that doesn’t stick to your hands. Cover with a tea towel dusted with flour and set aside for 70 - 80 minutes, by which time it should have doubled in size.
Spread the dough out to form a disc no more than 2-3mm thick and put in a well-oiled pizza pan or baking tray and place in a pre-heated oven at 2200C. When the dough starts to change colour, ie is half-cooked, remove from the oven, turn over the pizza and add the topping in this order:
pork cheek (without overlapping the pieces)
onion
grated cheese
a generous sprinkling of pepper
the tomatoes, cut in half
oregano, basil, a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt.
Place back in the oven at the same temperature until done.
