Every once in a while the child within screams out: I want a pizza pocket! And so I oblige.
I’ve managed to find a good quality mild pepperoni—something I rarely eat—and I want to make it the star of my pizza pocket, nestled in between homemade marinara sauce and melted mozzarella.
You can use purchased pizza dough for this pocket, but if you’re lucky to live with a pizzaiolo (pizza maker) as I am, you’ll have him make the dough for you. Craig is using the following ingredients for his dough:
| Hydration % | 61 |
| grams | |
| 00 Flour | 130 |
| Water | 100 |
| Semolina Rimacinata (twice ground and finer than regular) | 36 |
| Sea salt | 5 |
| Instant yeast | 5 |
| Olive oil | 14 |
| Honey | 5 |
Here’s his mise en place for the dough. He weighs everything.
Into the Cuisinart mixer it goes, mixing for about eight minutes (it should start climbing up the dough hook when it’s ready).
Looks a bit shaggy, ready for resting. Craig takes the dough and places it on a floured countertop. He uses the mixing bowl to cover it and lets it rest for 20 minutes.
Craig folds the dough inward in repeated motions until it looks smooth and supple like this.
That goes into the mixing bowl which goes into a 30-degree F oven, covered with a damp tea towel or a silicone lid for about an hour—or until it doubles in size. Next, he forms the dough into two balls and that goes through a cold proof, covered in the fridge, for 48 hours. Craig says that’s what gives the dough its springiness and tanginess.
Take the dough out, bring it to room temperature. Divide the dough into smaller dough balls (weighing in at 150 grams). Generously sprinkle a ball of dough with all-purpose flour and plop that onto a plate of refined semolina flour. Push down on it to flatten the dough. Turn the dough over and do the same.
Transfer the thick disk onto a floured countertop and stretch it into a round (about 9 inches in diameter).
Ready for the filling, which consists of only three ingredients: marinara sauce (I made it from scratch by simmering a can of san marzano tomatoes, 1 tbsp tomato paste, salt, pepper, dried oregano to taste.
That simmers on medium-high heat for about 20 minutes, then it gets pureed into a sauce.
Along with my tomato sauce, the filling consists of pepperoni and torn mozzarella but you can customize this to your liking. Ricotta and spinach? No problem.
Tomato sauce goes down on one half of the dough, leaving room around the edges so the sauce doesn’t drizzle out when baking.
Pepperoni goes down.
Mozzarella goes down.
Fold the dough over to create the pizza pocket.
Crimp the edges of the dough to seal everything in.
Important: Poke 2-3 holes, using a knife, into the top of the pizza pocket to allow heat to escape. Some of the filling will bubble over onto the top of the pizza pocket and that will make it even more delicious.
I sprinkle some semolina flour onto a pizza peel, slide my pizza pocket onto the peel, and deposit it onto a hot pizza stone that’s been heating in a 375 F oven for 30 minutes.
If you don’t have a pizza stone, no problem. Just heat a baking sheet and, at the last minute, drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle some semolina onto the sheet before placing the pizza pocket on top of the hot sheet.
That bakes for about 20 minutes—until the pizza pocket is golden brown.
That gets placed onto a cooking rack to cool down a bit. I plate my pizza pocket with a bowl of the homemade marinara sauce topped with grated parmesan cheese—perfect for dipping.
—Trish Hennessy, with Craig Pickthorne.
A Year in Sandwiches 