MEAT LOVER'S: BACON, SALAMI, FENNEL SAUSAGE, GUANCIALE, TOMATO, AND MOZZARELLA

Meat Lover's: Bacon, Salami, Fennel Sausage, Guanciale, Tomato, and Mozzarella image

Pellicano offers a meat lover's pizza, so I felt I had to offer one, too. Our version should be called a "pork lover's pizza" because all four of the meats we put on it-fennel sausage, salami, guanciale, and bacon-are pork.

Yield makes 1 pizza (serves 1)

Number Of Ingredients 21

Ingredients

1 round of Nancy's Pizza Dough (page 126)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
1/4 cup Passata di Pomodoro (page 25) or tomato sauce
2 ounces low-moisture mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 ounces Fennel Sausage (recipe follows)
2 thick slices applewood-smoked bacon
5 thin slices salami
1/4 ounce thinly sliced guanciale or pancetta
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
4 pounds boneless pork shoulder
1 pound pork fatback
3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic (about 10 large cloves)
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons hot paprika
1 tablespoon fennel pollen (see page 19)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup ice water
(makes 5 pounds)

Steps:

Prepare and stretch the dough and preheat the oven according to the instructions given in "Nancy's Scuola di Pizza" (page 128).
Brush the rim of the dough with olive oil and season the entire surface with salt. Ladle or spoon the sauce onto the center of the dough and use the back of the ladle or spoon in a circular motion to spread the sauce over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1-inch rim without any sauce. Scatter the cheese on the pizza. Break the sausage into 1/2-inch pieces and scatter them over the pizza. Cut the bacon slices in half crosswise and rumple one half onto each quadrant of the pizza and scatter the salami slices and guanciale slices over the pizza. Slide the pizza into the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown and crispy, 8 to 12 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven, cut it into quarters, making sure that each slice of pizza gets a piece of bacon, and serve.
Toast the fennel seeds in a small skillet over high heat, shaking the skillet to keep the seeds from burning, until they are fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour the seeds onto a plate and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Cut the pork shoulder and fatback into 1-inch cubes and put the cubes in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the garlic, salt, sugar, pepper, paprika, fennel pollen, and toasted fennel seeds. Stir the seasonings together and sprinkle them over the pork and fatback. Toss to coat the meat with the seasonings, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to two days. (If you are in a hurry, you can put the meat in the freezer until it is ice cold, but not frozen.)
Fit a meat grinder with the largest die and have the bowl of a standing mixer handy. Remove the meat from the refrigerator (or freezer) and pass it through the grinder, catching the gound meat into the mixer bowl.
Fit the standing mixer with the paddle attachment. Combine the vinegar and ice water. Put the bowl with the ground meat in it on the standing mixer and mix them on low speed, gradually adding the vinegar and water until the meat is slightly sticky; you may not use all of the liquid. Use the sausage according to your recipe, or transfer it to an airtight container or several containers. Refrigerate the sausage for up to five days or in the freezer for up to three months.
Lambrusco Reggiano Secco (Emilia-Romagna)