These pizzas are inspired by the restaurant Roberta’s in Brooklyn. The team there just published a new cookbook and I highly recommend it. It is available here: Roberta’s.  I no longer live in New York City but I still can taste their Bee Sting pizza, its mixture of spicy and sweet, and the Spicy Salami & Honey pizza here is inspired by it. Have friends over, make a bunch of different pizzas, and have a great night. You will need a pizza stone though, I did mine in a wood burning oven but the directions below are for a conventional oven.

I buy my pizza dough at a local Italian grocer. You can make your own, but with good dough readily available it is almost not even worth it. Whole Foods also offers decent dough.My Nonno used to run a pizzeria so I defer to his pizza judgment. While letting the dough rise, he recommends rubbing the outside of the dough with a generous amount of olive oil to stop the outer portions of the dough from drying out and getting too hard.  Make sure you get your pizza dough real thin to start. If you use good ingredients like high quality tomatoes and good cheese, your pizzas can be very simple but strikingly delicious.For the kale pizza, load up on the kale. It will cook down tremendously. I should have even used more kale than here. The wood oven can’t be beat, but a hot pizza stone will almost get you there.Good to see kale in California finally being used in an unhealthy manner!  These chili peppers are a must for your kitchen. Their saltiness adds another element to the Spicy Salami & Honey pizza.A little bit of black around the edges never hurt anyone, enjoy that crust.

INGREDIENTS
– Spicy Salami & Honey Pizza
—–(Spicy Salami or Pepperoni, grated mozzarella, quality canned diced tomatoes, diced Calabrian Chili Peppers, pinch of red chile flakes, dried oregano, Honey)
– Kale & Ricotta Pizza
—–(4 large handfuls of kale, 1/2 cup ricotta, 1/2 cup burrata, a glug of olive oil drizzled directly on dough, grated parmesan or similar hard cheese to top kale, fresh black pepper to taste)
– Okra & Egg Pizza
—– (1/2 Lb. diced okra, grated mozzarella, quality canned diced tomatoes, 1/4 cup ricotta, 1 or 2 fried eggs just cooked to top pizza)

DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to the highest temperature possible. Place a pizza stone in the middle rack and let heat for 1 hour.

2) Roll out pizza dough and make three medium sized pizzas. Use flour on your surface as you roll out the dough so that it slides easily on and off the pizza stone.

3) Lightly coat two of the pizzas with the diced tomatoes. Do not use too much sauce! You just want a thin layer of tomatoes and do not want to leave the dough soggy. Top sauce with dried oregano and a pinch of sea salt. The kale pizza is a Pizza Bianco so no sauce needed, but give the dough a generous glug of olive oil and spread evenly.

4) Scatter all ingredients evenly throughout the dough.  Add cheese.

5) Bake the pizza till it is golden brown and bubbly.

6) For the okra pizza, add two fried eggs just cooked to top the pizza.  For the spicy salami, add about a tablespoon of honey as soon as the pizza comes out of the oven.  Let the honey melt, and smell the sweet and spice!