My son, Gino, and I planted tomatoes early this year. Two of my favorite varietals are Sun Golds and Early Girls. With the weather being so hot in California our harvest started early. While I was posting pictures on social media so many people asked for recipes using tomatoes. I decided to write a few. This one reminded me of my grandfather on the farm. He especially loved Sun Golds, and he was a big grower of squash. The combination of fresh burrata, ricotta stuffed squash blossoms and Sun Gold Sauce is absolutely delicious. Enjoy!
TONY GEMIGNANI is one of America’s most influential pizza makers. Instagram: @capopizza
Tony's Trending Recipe: The Sicilian Saucesquash
Author: Pizza Today
Recipe type: pizza
Ingredients
- 1 Sicilian pan, preferably 12x18
- 1 dough, approximately 30 to 36 ounces
- 19 squash blossoms
- 5 to 6 ounces ricotta in a small pastry bag
- 12 slices mozzarella (you can use whole milk or part-skim, but I prefer dry mozz)
- 4 ounces burrata
- 80 to 100 Sun Gold, Sweet 100s, or Sugar Plum Cherry tomatoes
- Shaved Parmigiano
- Salt & fresh cracked pepper
- 4 ounces rough chopped, partially cooked smoked bacon or imported pancetta (optional)
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Place tomatoes on a ½ sheet pan.
- Season them with salt, pepper and olive oil.
- Place pan into an oven until the tomato skins crack, slightly blister, and get soft.
- Remove from oven and run tomatoes through a food processor.
- Carefully strain tomatoes through a China cap and set the house-made tomato sauce aside.
- Using a spoon, make sure the ground tomatoes are pressed into the China cap and continue to stir. This will release as much sauce as you can.
- Also scrape down the outside wall of the China cap to capture all the excess tomatoes.
- Taste sauce, making sure it has enough salt.
- Shape and stretch dough in a lightly oiled pizza pan.
- Carefully remove the stamen from the inside of the squash blossom.
- Trim the stem off, almost to the end of the flower.
- Carefully stuff the blossom with ½ ounce of ricotta.
- Allow dough to rise for 1½ hours. Par-bake it at 500 F until it is 60-percent baked.
- Layer sliced mozzarella over the top of the pizza.
- Lay the squash blossoms down, slightly spreading them out.
- Spoon on the tomato sauce and continue to cook the pizza. If you’re adding bacon or pancetta, place this on now before the final bake.
- Remove the pizza from the oven and cut into desired square slices. Add fresh pinched burrata, sea salt, freshly cracked pepper and shaved Parmigiano. Serve.
