Pizza Calabresa
This Homemade Cheesy Calabrese Pizza is simple to make, savory, slightly spicy, and very delicious! Perfect for Pizza Fridays!
This pizza Calabresa recipe is simple to make, savory, slightly spicy, and delicious! Y’all are going to love how delicious this pizza is!
Table of Contents
🍕Ingredients
This spicy, delicious Calabrese Pizza is paired with tomato sauce and the right type of cheese. One thing to offset the heat is to add a drizzle of honey on top. You will be impressed and hooked. Below are all the ingredients you’ll need to make this pizza:
- Pizza dough. The key to making delicious homemade pizza is the pizza dough, so we always go with homemade pizza dough, but store-bought will do.
- Marinara. Homemade or store-bought pizza marinara works. If we had to choose, make homemade marinara because it’s crazy easy! Our homemade marinara is ready in 10 minutes! However, Rao’s Marinara Sauce is always a good fallback.
- White Cheddar Cheese. It adds nice flavor and pairs nicely with the Havarti cheese and Calabrese. Another option is to use Mozzarella cheese.
- Havarti Cheese. It adds nice creamy notes. You are missing out if you haven’t tried Havarti cheese on your pizza. It’s super creamy and flavorful.
- Calabrese. We love the brand Gusto when we buy salami for pizza or cheese boards. Gusto’s Calabrese is not super spicy, but it has a ton of flavor and goes well with the melted cheese and tomato sauce on this pizza.
- Fresh Basil. Optional, but adds a nice herby flavor with each bite.
- Mike’s Hot Honey. Optional, but drizzling honey on this pizza after it bakes is amazing. You will be hooked.
🧀 Instructions
This pizza recipe is easy to make. First, you’ll need a few key items to make pizza at home a success. These items are parchment paper, a pizza peel, and a pizza stone.
- Preheat Oven & Prep Ingredients. Preheat the oven to 550 °F or the highest temperature it can get with the pizza stone inside, and keep it running for about 10 minutes before adding pizza. Your oven and the pizza stone need to be at the same temperature so the bottom of your pizza bakes nicely. Nobody wants a soggy pizza crust and overcooked cheese. Yes – that’s a thing! Your cheese becomes too chewy, and you want stringy and melty cheese for this pizza.
- Prep the pizza dough. Roll out the pizza dough into a thin layer and spread the marinara pizza sauce mixture evenly on top.
- Add Cheese. Generously sprinkle white cheddar cheese and Havarti cheese evenly on top.
- Bake the pizza. Transfer pizza to the pizza stone in the oven using a pizza peel and bake it at the highest temperature (550° F) your oven can get for about 12-15 minutes, or until doneness.
- Serve. Once you remove the pizza from the oven, add fresh basil leaves and drizzle Mike’s Hot Honey on top before cutting it into slices.
❔ FAQs
We selected a Cabernet Sauvignon to pair with this pizza. But, a full-bodied to a medium-bodied wine like Cabernet Franc, Merlot, or Shiraz would pair nicely. Every sip after each bite enhances the spicy notes more and more, making it the perfect match.
Leftover pizza is so good when heating it up in a saute pan with some olive oil, or in an air fryer!
This pizza Calabresa is simple to make, savory, slightly spicy, and delicious Don’t forget to make the our easy pizza dough to go with your pizza Fridays! We hope you all love this pizza. Enjoy! ♡
Pizza Calabresa
Ingredients
- Pizza dough – homemade or store-bought
- ⅓ cup marinara – homemade or store-bought
- ½ cup shredded White Cheddar Cheese
- ½ cup shredded Havarti Cheese
- 6-8 pieces Spicy Calabrese
- 2-3 basil leaves minced
- drizzle Mike's Hot Honey optional
Instructions
- Heat the oven. Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 550 degrees F or as high as possible. You want your oven as hot as possible.
- Prepare pizza dough. Flour a surface and add your pizza dough. Use your hands or a rolling pin to roll the dough from the center to the edges until the circle is about half an inch thick. Once fully rolled out, place parchment paper on your pizza peel, gently pick up the dough, and lay it on top.
- Add Toppings: Add about 1/3 cup of marinara and spread it evenly on the dough with the back of a spoon.Add spicy calabrese, and sprinkle the white cheddar and Havarti cheese evenly on top.
- Bake: Gently slide pizza onto the pizza stone and bake for about 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown. Turn on the broiler to make the cheese brown on top if needed. Be careful not to burn the pizza, as this process goes quickly.
- To serve: Remove pizza from the oven, add minced basil leaves on top, and drizzle Mike's hot honey or regular honey. Cut into slices to serve immediately.
WOW! The cheese recommendation for this pizza is perfect. Such a delicious recipe. Thank you.