The phrase “bella donna” translates to “beautiful woman.” Any way you want to pronounce it, Bella Donna is a delicious pizza.
We are in the mid-summer heat as I write this, and I figured it was time to give you a super refreshing pizza. By now, we have all seen a pizza made with squash blossom. For this one, I added some thinly sliced lemon, zucchini, marinated yellow datterini and zucchini blossom before the initial bake. I then added some more post-bake – along with some beautiful stracchino cheese and fresh lemon zest. You will want to use a slicer to get the lemon and the zucchini as thin as you can while still ensuring they are full circles. If you trust your knife skills, I believe in you! Good luck.
I used provola in this recipe as well. The way the smoke plays with the tart lemon is magic to your tastebuds.
- 2 ounces provola
- 2 ounces fresh mozzarella (dried and torn)
- 12 zucchini pieces (sliced super thin)
- 8 lemon pieces (sliced super thin)
- 2 squash blossoms
- 3 yellow datterini, cut in half
- 2 ounces stracchino cheese
- Start by stretching your dough to the desired size, then top with provola, fresh mozzarella and a sprinkle of Romano.
- Gently lay and stagger the lemon, zucchini and 1 torn squash blossom over your pizza.
- Bake at 550 F for 8-10 minutes or to desired doneness.
- Let the pizza cool on a rack while resting one more squash blossom.
- Then, arrange it on top of the pizza, followed by some yellow datterini and small quenelle of stracchino.
CHRIS DECKER is co-founder of Truly Pizza.
