Pizza de Rúcula com Búfala

the São Paulo standard: a thin high-edged base baked hard, then buried under raw rocket and torn buffalo mozzarella the moment it leaves the oven, with sun-dried tomato and shaved parmesan

Origin: São Paulo, Brazil

From the journey of Rocket.

São Paulo has a serious claim to being the pizza capital of the world by volume, and its pizza is not Neapolitan. Between 1880 and 1930 well over a million Italians arrived in the state, the greater part of them from the Mezzogiorno and the Veneto, and the pizza that developed in the immigrant quarters of Bexiga and Brás went its own way: a base thinner and crisper than Naples permits, a far heavier hand with the toppings, and a repertoire of combinations that exist nowhere in Italy. Rúcula com búfala is amongst the most firmly established of them. The technique that defines it is that the rocket never sees the oven. The pizza is baked with nothing on it but a thin tomato base, or sometimes with the mozzarella already melting, and the rocket goes on afterwards, in a raw heap, in a quantity that looks unreasonable and is not: it collapses under the residual heat within a minute or two to roughly a third of its volume. What that brief wilting does is release the pepperiness without cooking it away, so the leaf arrives hot, soft at the base of the pile, still crisp on top, and unmistakably peppery. The buffalo mozzarella is likewise added off the heat or barely warmed, torn rather than sliced. Brazil has a substantial buffalo dairy industry of its own, largely in Pará and São Paulo state, so this is a local ingredient rather than an Italian import.

Ingredients

Dough

300 g strong white bread flour, plus more for shaping
195 ml water, cool
8 g fine sea salt
1 g fresh yeast, or 0.3 g instant dried yeast

Base

200 g tinned peeled plum tomatoes, crushed by hand and drained
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
0.5 tsp sea salt

Topping

250 g buffalo mozzarella, drained and torn into large pieces
100 g rocket (arugula), washed and dried very thoroughly
60 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and torn
40 g Parmigiano Reggiano, in shavings
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, to finish

Method

Mix the flour and water until no dry flour remains and leave it covered for thirty minutes. Add the salt and yeast and knead until smooth and elastic, then cover and leave at room temperature for two hours.
Divide the dough into two balls, place them in a lightly oiled covered container, and refrigerate for at least twenty-four hours.
Take the dough out two hours before baking. Heat the oven as hot as it will go, with a pizza steel or heavy baking sheet on the top shelf, for at least forty-five minutes. Meanwhile mix the crushed tomatoes with the oil and salt.
Stretch one ball by hand on a floured surface, working from the centre outwards and leaving a raised rim. Slide it onto a floured peel, spread a thin layer of tomato, and bake for six to eight minutes until the edge is blistered and the base is crisp.
Take the pizza out and immediately scatter over the torn buffalo mozzarella and the sun-dried tomato, so the cheese softens in the residual heat.
Pile the raw rocket over the top in a generous heap, shave the parmesan over it, drizzle with olive oil, and serve at once.

Notes

The rocket must be bone dry before it goes on, or the water runs down into the base and softens it. Wild rocket, with its narrower leaves and greater heat, stands up better to the cheese than mild broad-leaved rocket. In São Paulo this is very often finished with a scatter of toasted pine nuts or a drizzle of balsamic reduction, both entirely standard locally whatever an Italian might say about them. If buffalo mozzarella is unobtainable, ordinary fior di latte works but should still be added off the heat. Eat it within a couple of minutes: once the rocket has fully wilted the pizza loses the contrast it is built on.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pizza de Rúcula com Búfala
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 25 h
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Brazil
Ingredients: 300 g strong white bread flour, plus more for shaping; 195 ml water, cool; 8 g fine sea salt; 1 g fresh yeast, or 0.3 g instant dried yeast; 200 g tinned peeled plum tomatoes, crushed by hand and drained; 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; 0.5 tsp sea salt; 250 g buffalo mozzarella, drained and torn into large pieces; 100 g rocket (arugula), washed and dried very thoroughly; 60 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and torn; 40 g Parmigiano Reggiano, in shavings; 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, to finish

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control