Ever since the Netflix show, “Chef’s Table: Pizza” came out in the summer of 2022, everybody’s been wanting to make the pizzas seen in the different episodes, including me. It’s nice to change it up every once in awhile. You can’t just eat pepperoni and Margherita pizzas all the time. (My girlfriend Lori could though.)
Episode 3 of Chef’s Table: Pizza features Korean, James Beard Award Winning, Chef Ann Kim. We learn that Ann’s first passion was acting, but after being constantly type-cast, she was over it. Her new passion became making pizza, and she wanted to do it her way by infusing her Korean heritage into some of the pies, such as in the Lady Zaza Pizza Recipe. However, this one, as the name implies is all about the Italian flavors, and it is packed with flavor and spice and still quite different and unique.
Ann owns four restaurants in Minneapolis. The Amalfi Coast Pizza is featured on the menu at Young Joni. This one kicks it up a bit with imported Calabrian chilis, and Italian fish sauce (who knew?!?), which is called Colatura di Alici.
DO NOT SUBSTITUTE ASIAN FISH SAUCE.
I never knew there was such a thing as Italian fish sauce, and it is different than Asian fish sauce. They are both made from anchovies. The Asian version does not taste like fish or anchovies to me. It has umami, saltiness, and the fermented taste of soy sauce. The Italian version tastes like “anchovies-lite” as it would be named and spelled if it was an American soft drink. It has a faint, approachable flavor of anchovy that I could only detect when I sipped it straight. On the pizza it is even more subtle.
One Little Difference…
Here is the menu description of the Amalfi Coast Pizza as of this publication.
Amalfi Coast – Italian red sauce, garlic, kalamata olive, red onion, basil, colatura di alici, Calabrian chili, Parmigiano-Reggiano.
The “Kalamata olive” on the pizza is green. Green kalamata olives remain a mystery. Searching for them, I found one result on Etsy that actually looks like a green kalamata. However, kalamata olives are actually purple, and then they turn black after ripening.
What the olives on this pizza look like, and what came up when I Googled “green kalamata olives” was Castelvetrano or Sicilian Green Olives. That’s what I used for the recipe.
Ann’s pizza uses a Neapolitan dough and is made in a wood-fired commercial pizza oven. I use a NY-style dough recipe, and bake it in a regular home oven. Trust me. It comes out great. I do it all by hand, just like Ann.
This recipe is for a 14″ pizza, with some measurements also given for a 12″ pizza. See my NY-style Pizza Dough Recipe here, and see my How-To on Forming the Pizza Base here.
As I said, I baked this in a conventional home oven. I have a pizza stone on the bottom rack, and a pizza steel on the top rack. The oven gets preheated to 525º F, and then holds for one hour before baking the pizza. (If your oven will go to 550º, do that, and if you have convection, do that too.)
I went for 7 minutes on the stone on the bottom, and then switched to high broil, and moved the pizza to the steel on the top rack for 1.5 minutes. (Keep an eye on it though. It may need more or less time on broil.)
If you only have a stone, just keep it on the bottom rack the whole time. If you only have a steel, keep it on the top rack, and just switch to broil at the end.
The prep time does not include making and fermenting the dough, which is linked in a separate recipe. You can substitute a store-bought dough if you want, but making your own and fermenting it isn’t hard, and yields phenomenal results.
Ann Kim's Amalfi Coast Pizza
Equipment
- 1 Pizza Peel (Wooden)
- 1 Pizza Stone or Pizza Steel
- 1 Mandoline Slicer optional
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- 14 oz Pizza Dough for 14" pie (See dough recipe link in instructions below.) 12 oz for 12" pie) (See dough recipe link in instructions below.)
Pizza Sauce
- 5-6 oz Jar Goods Classic Spicy tomato sauce https://jargoods.com/collections/tomato-sauce/products/classic-spicy-tomato-sauce
Pizza Toppings
- ½ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano Fine grated
- 6 cloves Garlic Chopped
- 3 oz Sliced Calabrian Chili Peppers
- 10 Sicilian Olives Halved lengthwise
- 1 small handful Fresh Basil Fine chopped
- ¼ Red Onion Sliced thin on a mandolin, then slices cut in half to form little half moons.
- Colatura di Alici (Italian fish sauce) For drizzling after the bake.
Instructions
Preheat Conventional Home Oven
- I baked this in a conventional home oven. I have a pizza stone on the bottom rack, and a pizza steel on the top rack. The oven gets preheated to 525º F, and then holds for one hour before baking the pizza. (If your oven will go to 550º, do that.)
Pizza Dough Base
- See my Pizza Dough Recipe: https://pizzaismylife.com/pizza-dough-recipes/easy-ny-style-pizza-dough-recipe/
- See my How-To on Shaping the Dough: https://pizzaismylife.com/pizza-dough-recipes/how-to-form-the-pizza-round/
Topping the Pizza (Pre-bake)
- Spread the pizza sauce with a ladle
- Sprinkle the Parmigiano Reggiano over the dough
- Drop chopped garlic
- Spread out the Calabrian chilis, leaving spaces in between for olives.
- Place the Sicilian olives cut side down.
- Spread the red onions in a random order.
- Sprinkle fine chopped basil
Baking the Pizza
- Bake at 525° F 8-9 minutes for 14", or 7-8 minutes for a 12" pizza.
Topping the Pizza (Post-bake)
- Slice the pizza first
- Drizzle Italian Fish Sauce
- Serve
Notes
