Pizza Alla Benno: Speck, Pineapple, Jalapeños, Mozzarella, and Tomato

Name: Pizza Alla Benno: Speck, Pineapple, Jalapeños, Mozzarella, and Tomato
Yield: makes 1 pizza (serves 1)
Ingredients: 1 round of Nancy’s Pizza Dough (page 126); 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil; Kosher salt; 1/4 cup Passata di Pomodoro (page 25) or tomato sauce; 2 ounces low-moisture mozzarella, cut into 1-inch cubes; 8 very thin round slices jalapeño pepper; 10 paper-thin pineapple slices (cut the skin off the pineapple, cut the pineapple in half lengthwise, and slice the pineapple on a mandoline, including core; about 2 ounces); 4 thin slices speck or prosciutto (about 1/2 ounce); 1 fresh chive

January 26, 2012

I created this pizza, an upgraded take on “Hawaiian pizza,” typically made with Canadian bacon and canned pineapple, for my son, Ben. When he was growing up, that’s the pizza he always ordered and I cringed at the combination every time. When I opened up my own pizzeria, I wanted to come up with a pizza using the same or similar ingredients that would please both Ben and me. We start with fresh pineapple and slice it paperthin so it caramelizes in the oven, and we use speck in place of Canadian bacon. But what I think really makes this pizza is the addition of jalapeño peppers. Their heat cuts through the sweetness of the pineapple.

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