This recipe is for panzerotti, aka fried pizza. Panzerotti is like the perfect mix between a calzone and a turnover, but instead of being oven-baked, they are fried. Panzerotti originated in the south of Italy, in the region of Apulia. The name comes from the Italian slang word “panza” which means belly because of the puffed-up shape the dough takes when fried.
I mean, how can you go wrong combining fried food and pizza?
The most common filling for this recipe is pizza sauce and mozzarella. Make sure the tomato sauce is more on the thick side and that the mozzarella is nicely drained. Any wet liquid is not a friend of the dough in this recipe as it may get too thin and break while frying.
The recipe is very easy with very few ingredients and the recipe for the dough can also be used to make pizzas at home.
Buon appetito!
Panzerotti (Fried Pizza)
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups Bread Flour
- ⅔ cup Semolina Flour
- 1 ¼ cup Lukewarm Water
- 1 tsp Dry Yeast
- ¾ tbsp Salt
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 2 tbps Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 cup Pizza Sauce
- 1 ½ cups Mozzarella
- 1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- Frying oil as needed
Instructions
- To make the doughcombine the flour, dry yeast and sugar in a bowl. Mix with our hands.In another bowl pourthe warm water with salt, extra virgin olive oil and start mixing with yourhands. Then add the flour tothe water mix a little bit at a time and mix until you get an homogeneous andelastic dough.
- Transfer to a counterand start kneading the dough until smooth, 3-4 mins max. Drizzle some oliveoil in a clean bowl, transfer the dough inside the bowl and cover with akitchen towel and let rest in a warm area for 2 hours or until the dough hasdoubled.
- Once the dough hasrisen, move it onto a lightly floured countertop, knead it a little with yourhands and form a loaf. From the loaf you should be able to form 8-10 smallballs (around 80 grams each).
- Keep on the counterand cover with a kitchen towel for 20 more minutes. After 20 minutes, we roll out our balls, one atthe time, with a rolling pin and a little flour, if necessary, until we get around shape of 1/8 of an inch thick.
- Put a tablespoon orso of pizza sauce in the middle of each disk, sprinkle some mozzarella andgrate some Parmigiano Reggiano. Fold the dough in a half moon shape making sureto seal well the edges with your fingers. Use a knife or a pizza cutter to cuta regular border.
- While the fryingoil is getting hot keep the panzerotti covered on the counter or move them to abaking tray lined with some parchment paper and cover. Bring the fryingoil at a temperature of 350-375 F.
- Fry the panzerottiuntil they are golden brown on both sides, it will take about 4 minutes.Once the panzerottiare cooked to a nice golden brown drain them on paper towels to remove theexcess oil. They are now ready to eat.
