Anchovy Pizza

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is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

You can find my ➽ anchovy pizza recipe here in this post.

The original is called Pizza Acciughe or Pizza Romana in Italy.

The simple tomato and anchovy pizza flatbread comes without cheese on the plate.

Find out all the relevant tips for preparing the fine pizza here.

A top result is certain after reading this guide.

Have fun reading, tasting and good luck!

1. Recipe Anchovy Pizza

You need my pizza dough recipe for the preparation.

I recommend a 24 or 48 hour pizza dough for anchovy pizza.

You can find a quick pizza dough as a variant in the article.

Also note my tips and ideas after the recipe.

You can send me your cooking questions using the comment function at the bottom of the page.

Anchovy Pizza

Baked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt

Servings 2
Calories 831
Total Time 30 Min.
Preparation Time 15 Min.
Cook Time 0 Min.

Simple instructions for making your own anchovy pizza.

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Anchovy Pizza
Anchovy pizza recipe image © Thomas Sixt

Ingredients

500 g yeast dough (Pizza dough)
250 g canned tomatoes (Datterini or San Marzano tomatoes can)
primal salt
Pepper black, ground
brown cane sugar
1/2 tsp. Oregano
5 pieces glove of garlic (or young green garlic)
1/2 Glas black olives
1/2 Glas anchovy fillets

Instruction

Pizza dough on the board with flour
Pizza dough on the board with flour

Pizza dough

Prepare the safe pizza dough 24 to 48 hours before preparing the pizza.

To make it easier to work with, take the dough out of the fridge a good 30 minutes before preparation and set aside at room temperature.

Preheat pizza stone
Place the pizza stone in the middle of the grid in the oven at 280°C

Preheat oven

Preheat your local oven at 280°C on the lower and upper heat setting.

If you want to use a pizza stone, please insert it in the middle of the grid, then preheat for at least an hour.

For sheet pan pizza, remove the baking sheets from the oven before heating.

Brush the cleaned baking sheets with olive oil and set aside.

Pass tomatoes for pizza tomato sauce
Pass tomatoes for pizza tomato sauce

Prepare tomatoes

Provide a fine sieve (hair sieve) with a bowl.

Drain the tomatoes on the sieve.

Season the drained tomatoes with salt, pepper and a little sugar.

Young garlic sliced for pizza
Young garlic sliced for pizza

garlic 1

Cut the young garlic green into fine, thin rings.

Prepare the fine garlic rings for topping the pizza.

Garlic cloves
Garlic cloves

garlic 2

Instead of the young, green garlic, you can also peel the garlic cloves, cut them in half, remove the inner green and cut them into very thin slices.

Olives for pizza
Olives for pizza

Prepare olives

Provide high-quality, black, Italian olives, pickled in olive oil.

Drain the olives in a sieve.

Oregano for pizza
Oregano for pizza

Prepare oregano

Prepare the dried oregano to sprinkle over the pizza.

anchovies for pizza
anchovies for pizza

Prepare anchovies

Remove the anchovies from the jar and drain well.

Set aside for topping the pizza later.

Shaped pizza dough
Pizza dough shaped on the cutting board.

Shape dough

Form the pizza dough provided with your hands on a large board using a little flour or ground durum wheat semolina.

Pizza dough with tomatoes and olives on a pizza peel
Pizza dough with tomatoes and olives on a pizza peel

Top pizza

Place the already shaped pizza dough on a baking tray that has been drizzled with oil and shape it to fit.

Pizza stone variant:

Sprinkle the pizza peel sufficiently with durum wheat semolina.

Place the formed flatbread on the pizza peel.

Cover the pizza dough with the tomatoes, olives and garlic.

Anchovy pizza in the oven
Anchovy pizza in the oven

bake pizza

Bake the pizza for 12 to 18 minutes, depending on the possible temperature.

Then you cover the baked pizza with the anchovy fillets.

You can either serve the pizza right away or put it in the oven for another minute.

Anchovy Pizza ready baked
Anchovy pizza recipe image © Thomas Sixt

serve pizza

Serve the anchovy pizza drizzled with olive oil.

Sliced anchovy pizza
Sliced anchovy pizza, pizza Acciughe crispy fine

Slice pizza

Alternatively, you can slice the pizza and serve slices.

Bon appetit!

Courses

Cousine

Keyword

2. Calories And Nutritional Values

The Anchovy Pizza nutritional values and calories are calculated and listed in the table below.

Depending on how much dough you use per pizza, it will contain more or fewer calories.

A 30 cm diameter pizza has an average of 700 to 900 calories.

The pizza becomes vegetarian and vegan if you leave out the anchovies.

But then it is no longer a pizza Acciughe but a pizza marinara with olives.

3. Pizza With Anchovies Chef Tips

Here is a clear summary of my chef’s test kitchen:

Pizza dough for anchovy pizza:

You need a safe pizza dough.

You can buy ready-made dough, but it will never be as good as homemade.

Often only a wheat flour type 00 – further designation W 260 or type 550 – is recommended for pizza dough.

I always make the pizza dough with wheat flour and then ground durum wheat semolina.

This dough is optimal for temperatures from 220°C to 350°C.

I only bake wheat pizza yeast dough without durum wheat semolina at 220°C so that it can rise better.

You can find my pizza dough recipe elsewhere:

Make your own pizza dough

Pizza dough fast

Types of flour for pizza dough
Types of flour for pizza dough
Knead pizza dough with yeast
Knead pizza dough with yeast
Pizza dough risen after 24 hours
Pizza dough risen after 24 hours

Prepare anchovy pizza on the baking tray or pizza stone:

To make your decision easier:

I’ve been baking my pizza on the pizza stone since 2000.

This creates a real pizzaiolo feeling.

Still, the baking sheet is better!

The time to preheat the oven is reduced to 30 minutes.

There is not much difference in how the pizza bakes.

A small photo overview of stone and sheet metal follows here:

Pizza stone with pizza peel
Pizza stone with pizza peel
pizza stone
pizza stone
Preheat pizza stone
Place the pizza stone in the middle of the grid in the oven at 280°C
Pizza dough shaped baking sheet
Pizza dough shaped baking sheet
bake pizza
bake pizza

4. Anchovy Pizza Too Salty

Pickled anchovy fillets from a jar or can have a salty taste.

To be honest, I’ve never soaked my anchovies to reduce the salty taste.

I prefer to use the best quality from my Italian delicatessen.

Nevertheless, briefly soaking the small fillets is an option to reduce the salty taste.

I recommend putting the anchovy fillets in cold water for 30 minutes.

You can try a fillet after just 15 minutes and taste whether you feel comfortable.

Please dry the fish fillets for the pizza topping well, we don’t need oil and liquid as a topping.

By the way, the anchovy pizza tastes too salty if you bake the anchovy fillets with the pizza.

When prepared correctly, the anchovy fillets only come onto the pizza after it has been baked.

Anchovy anchovies for pizza
Anchovy anchovies for pizza
Anchovy fillets
Anchovy fillets

5. Herb Tip For Anchovy Pizza

In the original Italian version, the Pizza Acciughe is prepared with oregano.

You can use fresh oregano from the garden or dried oregano for your pizza flatbread.

I tend to use the dried oregano and only put it on top of the pizza at the end, after baking and just before serving.

I find gently warmed oregano tastes magical. It is good for the palate and caresses the senses.

Oregano is more common than marjoram in recipes for southern countries.

Good info:

Oregano is hardy and therefore in good hands in your own garden.

I wish you a special anchovy pizza and therefore here are some alternative herb tips:

Herb ideas for anchovy pizza:

The pizza goes well with other herbs such as rosemary, thyme and basil.

Rosemary:

Pluck the needles from the rosemary and fry briefly in sunflower oil.

Then drain on paper towels and season with salt.

Sprinkle the crispy rosemary needles on the finished anchovy pizza.

Thyme:

I put fresh thyme leaves on the pizza just before serving.

I bake dried thyme right from the start with the pizza or put it on the anchovy pizza 2 minutes before the end of the baking time.

Basil:

You can sprinkle fresh leaves on the finished pizza.

I find whole leaves better than chopped basil.

Crunchy Basil Leaves:

Fry the leaves in hot oil until crisp, then drain and season with salt.

Decorate the baked anchovy pizza with basil chips just before serving.

Different herbs are the secret to individual pizza!

Herb tip from chef Thomas Sixt for pizza
Oregano for pizza
Oregano for pizza
thyme fresh
thyme fresh
Fried, crispy rosemary needles
Fried, crispy rosemary needles
basil for pizza
basil for pizza
Deep fried basil leaves.
Crispy fried basil leaves are the highlight topping.

6. Pizza Acciughe Original – Anchovy Pizza Ingredients

The real Neapolitan pizza Acciughe is prepared with the following ingredients:

  1. Original pizza dough that is allowed to rise in the refrigerator for 24 or 48 hours.
  2. Peeled tomatoes (San Marzano) or Vesuvius tomatoes (piennolo).
  3. Anchovy fillets to be added to the pizza after baking.
  4. Dried oregano
  5. Garlic (cloves cut into thin slices)
  6. Black olives

I only changed one ingredient in my recipe.

This is the clove of garlic:

Perhaps you have already discovered the garlic cloves with the green stalk in the supermarket.

If not, you should definitely keep an eye out for it!

In contrast to conventional garlic, the green stalk tastes particularly pleasant and fine.

To fully enjoy the aroma, you can cut the stem into fine rings and put it directly on your pizza.

Or how about crispy garlic rings as a topping?

Simply fry the rings briefly in hot oil, then drain on kitchen paper, salt and place on the finished pizza.

A taste experience that you should not miss!

Pass tomatoes for pizza tomato sauce
Pass tomatoes for pizza tomato sauce
Young garlic sliced for pizza
Young garlic sliced for pizza
Olives for pizza
Olives for pizza
Pizza dough on the board with flour
Pizza dough on the board with flour
Oregano for pizza
Oregano for pizza
Anchovy anchovies for pizza
Anchovy anchovies for pizza

7. Tomato Sauce Tips For Anchovy Pizza

The most important things first:

Avoid too much liquid on the pizza dough.

No matter which tomatoes you use, please always pass them through a sieve and squeeze them out.

My favorite canned tomatoes for this and other pizzas are:

–> Small Datterini tomatoes from Sicily.

–> San Marzano tomatoes typical of Neapolitan pizza.

–> Emergency tomato sauce: Tomato paste mixed with water and olive oil.

You can bind very liquid tomatoes with tomato paste and achieve a good result.

Important for the taste:

The tomato paste reduces the fresh taste of the tomatoes.

Too much tomato paste in the tomato sauce makes the taste very strong.

Tomatoes for pizza tomato sauce
Tomatoes for pizza tomato sauce
Pass tomatoes for pizza tomato sauce
Pass tomatoes for pizza tomato sauce
Pizza dough formed on the baking tray with tomato sauce
Pizza dough formed on the baking tray with tomato sauce
tomato paste
tomato paste
Prepare tomato topping
Prepare the tomato topping

8. FAQ Anchovy Pizza

My collected questions and answers about Pizza Acciughe are summarized below:

Where does the name Pizza Acciughe come from?

The pizza is topped with anchovy fillets (Italian acciughe – the anchovy). That’s where the name comes from. The famous pizza is also called “Pizza Romana” because the Romans love anchovies.

When do the anchovies go on the pizza?

Place the anchovy fillets on the hot, baked pizza just before serving.

Why does the anchovy pizza taste too salty?

The anchovy fillets on the pizza become particularly salty if you place them on the pizza before baking.

The high heat dries out the fish fillet considerably and makes it taste saltier.

Always place the anchovy fillets on the hot pizza after baking.

Which pizza dough can you recommend for anchovy pizza?

Prepare a pizza dough with wheat flour and re-ground durum wheat semolina. The proportion of durum wheat semolina should be 25-50% of the total amount of flour.

Examples:

Pizza dough with 250 g flour (tipo 00) and 250 g reground durum wheat semolina.

Alternativ:

Pizza dough with 350 g flour (tipo 00) and 150 g reground durum wheat semolina.

Which garlic is good for anchovy pizza?

Use finely sliced garlic cloves for the original.

I prefer finely sliced or ringed young green garlic.

For a crispy garlic pizza topping, you can deep-fry young, green, finely chopped garlic in a little oil, then salt it and sprinkle it on the finished pizza.

How much oregano do I put on the pizza?

Use little oregano for anchovy pizza because the dried spice tastes very strong.

Which decoration is right for Original Pizza Acciughe?

Decorate your finished pizza with the anchovy fillets and cold olive oil just before serving.

Does balsamic vinegar go well with anchovy pizza?

The real balsamic vinegar is not an original ingredient for pizza. Try adding just a few drops of Aceto Balsamico tradizionale.

This conjures up a fine acidity to the pizza flat and harmonises excellently with tomatoes, anchovy fillets, olives and oregano.

9. More Pizza Recipes

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