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Amanda gets to work on the dough, which calls for both all purpose flour and semolina.
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Semolina is typically used in pasta. Isn't it pretty?
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TasteFood has you mix the yeast with lukewarm water, and a little flour and semolina. After 30 minutes, it looks like this.
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Living proof that oil and water just don't mix.
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Amanda loves dough.
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And this one is really gorgeous.
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We let it rest until it doubled in size -- which only took us about an hour. It was hot in Amanda's kitchen.
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Amanda fills a big pot of water to blanch the broccoli rabe.
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You just want to blanch it for about 30 seconds -- any more, and it will be overcooked (you cook it twice more).
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Thinly sliced (1/8 inch) potatoes get dressed with olive oil and salt before going into the oven to soften and crisp.
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Broccoli's ready! Time for an ice-cold bath to stop the cooking.
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Confession: we ate the three darkest potato "chips."
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Punching down the dough before the second rise.
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After rise #2, TasteFood has you divide the dough into two discs and let them rise for a final 30 minutes. We won't mention what these reminded us of.
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The blanched broccoli rabe gets a rough chop.
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And a quick sauté in olive oil with garlic and crushed red pepper.
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Voila! Our dough is ready to be rolled out.
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Amanda is the expert dough roller.
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Now she's just showing off.
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Our favorite step: after brushing the dough with olive oil, you rub it all over with a crushed garlic clove. This perfumes the entire crust.
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A layer of fresh mozzarella goes on first, creating a creamy base. Then, potatoes.
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The broccoli rabe is strewn on top.
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Followed by a healthy dose of fresh rosemary leaves and some pecorino.
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Pierino calls for 3 cups of flour (450 grams) but our 3 cups of flour weighed 395 grams. We decided to go with that weight.
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The dough begins coming together. Once it did, we let the mixer do the kneading. The dough then rests overnight in the fridge.
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Chopping anchovy.
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The aromatics: onion, garlic and anchovy.
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Now sizzling away in olive oil.
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Merrill crushed the tomatoes in her hands as she added them to the aromatics.
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Pierino's sauce is gorgeous.
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We then put the sauce through the food mill.
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Don't forget to scrape the pulpy bits into the sauce.
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The dough is very elastic -- takes a bit of elbow grease to roll it out thin. The nice part is that it's a silky dough and needs barely any flour for rolling out.
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Merrill spreads the sauce on top.
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The buffalo mozzarella.
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Painting the edge of the dough with olive oil.
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Sliding the pizza onto the baking stone.
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