The difference between pizza rossa and pizza marinara

I generally make pizza rossa for one of my sons as he hates melted mozzarella (still trying to figure out why).  He also loves anchovies, so I add them with some olives and capers.  If you prefer, you can just cook the base with the tomato sauce and sprinkle a little torn basil on it after it has finished cooking. Pizza rossa differs from pizza marinara in that it generally doesn’t have garlic or oregano on it, but just a pure tomato sauce.  As it is one of the only ingredients used to make the pizza, other than the dough itself, the sauce should be very good quality.  If you have a small space to grow tomatoes, you can even bottle it yourself.  

Marinara in all its forms

Just for the record, when Italians use the word marinara sauce for pasta, it often means that it has seafood in it. In the U.S.A, it means that it is a simple sauce made with tomato, and maybe garlic and oregano. So hopefully now if you come from the States and travel to Italy, you won’t be confused or upset when you order pasta “marinara” and get seafood with it. On the other hand, marinara sauce on a pizza in Naples will just be one with tomato sauce, garlic and oregano.

Nothing like building a fire in the backyard

I am lucky that we have a fantastic wood-fired pizza oven in our garden, so I can make Italian pizza whenever I want to,  just like the ones we get when we go across to Italy. This is not a sponsored post at all, but I have to say that I adore this oven from Alfa Pizza.  I have been using it once a week for a few years now to make pizza (even in the Winter) and it’s easy to do as, if you have nice dry wood, it only takes about 15 minutes to heat up, and then cooks each pizza in about 2 minutes. I have even made pizza in the rain a few times holding an umbrella over the pizza as I put it into the oven.  That’s how much we like pizza in our household.  When it’s really pouring, snowing or freezing cold, I will sometimes cook the pizza in the kitchen oven.  It comes out alright, but the one in the wood-fired oven comes out so much better that even if I have to put a jacket and wool hat on, I’ll get out in the garden and fire up the pizza oven.  There’s something very satisfying about cooking with fire.  It brings out the wilderness girl in me.  We often then scrape the coals into a fire-pit and the kids make s’mores from graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows, which is a trick we picked up on a trip to the States.  More about that in another post.  We’re off to Canada next week, so I’m sure that there will be much open-fire making and s’mores eating there.  I’ll tell you about about it when we get back.

Travel Photo of The Week

As pizza comes from Southern Italy, and because Alfa Pizza is based south of Rome, here’s a photo of Rome for you to enjoy.  This is the view from our hotel window over the neighbourhood of Trastevere at sunset.  I’ll be telling you more abut that little trip in the near future.  I promise!

By Lisa Watson

Print Recipe

Red Pizza With Anchovies

Not all pizzas need mozzarella cheese on them.  Make a “red” pizza and add your favourite topping!

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time2 minutes mins

Total Time7 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 1 pizza

Ingredients

• 250 g Pizza Dough
• 5 tbsp tomato puree
• 5 – 8 Anchovies in oil
• 5 or 6 Capers
• 5 Black Olives

Instructions

• Make pizza dough using this recipe  (click on the words “using this recipe” to find the recipe.  For some reason I can’t make it blue!) or use store-bought dough. Note: making the dough will take an overnight rising so start the day before you want to eat the pizza.
• If you have a wood-fired pizza oven, make the fire and wait for it to heat up.  If using an indoor oven, use a pizza stone and place it on a rack in the top third of the oven.  Heat the oven to its highest temperature for at least 45 minutes before putting the pizza in to cook.
• Spread out the pizza dough with your fingers on a floured surface that you can use to slide the pizza off straight into the oven.
• Add the tomato puree and spread it over the base with the back of a spoon.
• Sprinkle the pizza with anchovies, capers and olives. Note: do not add salt if you have used the recipe on this blog for making the dough.  there is already enough salt in the dough.
• Bake in the oven.  In a indoor oven, bake the pizza for about 6 minutes.  In a wood-fired oven, bake it for approximately 2 – 3 minutes, turning it by quarter turns every few seconds so that it cooks evenly.
• Eat immediately.