One dish that’s been experimented with a lot, by culinary artists and chefs around the world is - pizza. Fast food chains have made innovative tweaks to pizza recipes and come up with fusion dishes such as momo pizza, chocolate pizza and more. While these dishes may be fun to see and ‘gram about, the experiments don’t always turn out to be the most appetising ones. The momo pizza for instance, couldn’t strike too much of a chord with foodies. It is very rare to find a new tweak to pizza that doesn’t spoil the taste of this cheesilicious delight. However, we think that there is one exception to this rule and that is - ice-pizza.
If you’re wondering what ice pizza really is, relax! It’s not literally a frozen pizza. Ice-pizza is made by following the trend to add ice cubes to your pizza dough before you pop it in to the oven to bake. Why do people add ice to their pizza dough you ask? The ice cubes melt in the pizza and create a starchy sauce. The pizza is then topped with loads of cheese and some pepper and baked. What you get out of the oven is a cheesy pizza, undiluted in taste because of absence of any pizza sauce at all. This pizza version is best enjoyed when making a sourdough pizza.
The way to make this pizza is very fascinating and here's how you do it: Go about the normal way while making your pizza dough. Flatten the pizza dough with hand, and then instead of putting any sauce on it, put some ice cubes. Once the pizza is put in the oven, the ice cubes start melting and form a starchy sauce that bubbles away. You take it out of the oven once the sauce starts bubbling and top it with parmesan or mozzarella cheese and some pepper. You could also at this point put some oregano or chilli flakes if you like to have a heavily seasoned pizza. Bake the pizza once again and there you have it - a peppery, cheesy ice-pizza! Top it with some olive oil for a truly delightful experience.
Chef Stefano Callegari of Sbanco, an eatery in Rome, Italy made this ice-pizza a viral trend. He termed the pizza, “Cacio e Pepe.” A wonderful by-product of making this pizza? You don’t end up burning the centre of the pizza as this technique moistens the dough. In a video online, Chef Stefano can be seen saying that this pizza tastes crispy at the base, saucy (without any flavour except the goodness of cheese) in the middle and sandy on top (because of the grated seasoning, olive oil and grated cheese).
If you’re looking to try this cheesy ice-pizza out, here’s a recipe:
Cacio e pepe Pizza recipe adapted by Chef Stefano Callegari, Sbanco:
Ingredients:
Pizza dough - one
Olive oil - 50 grams
Pecorino ramano - 75 grams
Crushed black pepper
Method:
Preheat your oven at 500 F
Stretch or roll out your dough into a 12 inch round. Switch the oven to broil.
Lightly dust your pizza peel with semolina flour, place dough on top. Carefully place 2 or 3 ice cubes over the center of the dough.
Broil for 2 minutes, open oven and rotate pizza about 180 degrees. Close oven and continue on broil for 1-2 minutes.
Pour olive oil all over the center of the cooked pizza dough, next grate that pecorino all over the top, and finally drizzle the pepper or any pizza topping of your choice and enjoy!