Name: Cuban Sandwich Pizza
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 14 oz Pizza Dough for 14" pie (See dough recipe link in instructions below.); 1¼ cups Shredded Swiss cheese; ¾ lb Shredded Mojo pork ((I bought pre-cooked from Publix. You can use your favorite recipe instead.)); 3 thin slices Honey glazed ham, torn ((I used Boar's Head Maple Glazed Honey Coat® Ham)); ½ sausage Salami, sliced thin ((I used Boar's Head Genoa Salame, Uncured)); 20-30 pickle slices (I sliced my own from 2½ pickles. They were smaller diameter, so it took 30 slices to cover the pizza.); Yellow mustard (To drizzle after the bake. I always use French's.)

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The true Cuban Sandwich does have salami on it, in addition to the mojo pork and ham, and that’s what I’m going with here. In my 10 Best Cuban Sandwiches in St. Petersburg, I wrote:

The Cuban Sandwich was invented in Ybor City in the late 1800s by Cuban immigrants with some influence from Italian immigrants. The original included a Spanish dried sausage that was later replaced with salami.

Later, when Miami picked up on the Cuban Sandwich, they left the salami off. Oddly, ironically, and likely because of the larger population, the Miami version is the more popular one. Because of this, many people think that the Miami version without salami is the true one, but it is not.

One of the best pizza places in my city of St. Petersburg, Florida had the Cuban Sandwich Pizza for their March 2023 Pizza of the Month, and I loved it! If you’re ever in the area, you have to check out Nicko’s Pizza and Subs, 1239 4th St S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.

Their Cuban Sandwich Pizza was excellent! Here it is.

Nicko's Cuban Sandwich Pizza — Nicko’s Cuban Sandwich Pizza

I didn’t ask how he made it, but two obvious things that I decided to do different were to use torn pieces of thinly sliced ham instead of diced ham, and to drizzle the mustard on top instead of having it hidden underneath. This is not a criticism of the Nicko’s Cuban. Lori actually liked it better with the mustard on the bottom. It’s just a difference in style that I chose to do.

I had some difficulty removing the wax paper casing from the Boar’s Head Genoa Salame, (Uncured) – even using the wet paper towel trick, so I sliced it down the sides, which worked nicely and gave it a more rustic feel. For the ham I used Boar’s Head Maple Glazed Honey Coat^® Ham, thinly sliced and torn.

I sliced whole pickles only because I have a huge jar of them. I sliced them with a knife by hand into chips or disks. On the Perfect Pickle Pizza I used a mandoline slicer and sliced them horizontally into planks as that’s how Ann Kim had them sliced. Plus, they needed to be extra thin for that pizza.

I like to place the pickle slices on paper towels to soak up some of the liquid so they don’t go on the pizza too wet. I put a paper towel on top and press down as well.

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.

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Cuban Sandwich Pizza

The OG Cuban Sandwich was created in Tampa with salami, unlike the Miami version that more people are familiar with. We're going with the OG Tampa version.

Prep Time20

Cook Time10

Total Time30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Cuban, Pizza

Servings: 1 12"-14" Pizza

Author: Kevin Godbee

Equipment

1 Pizza Peel (Wooden)
1 Pizza Stone or Pizza Steel

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 Toppings

1¼ cups Shredded Swiss cheese
¾ lb Shredded Mojo pork (I bought pre-cooked from Publix. You can use your favorite recipe instead.)
3 thin slices Honey glazed ham, torn (I used Boar's Head Maple Glazed Honey Coat® Ham)
½ sausage Salami, sliced thin (I used Boar's Head Genoa Salame, Uncured)
20-30 pickle slices I sliced my own from 2½ pickles. They were smaller diameter, so it took 30 slices to cover the pizza.
Yellow mustard To drizzle after the bake. I always use French's.

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.)