Pizza with Fresh Clams, Garlic, Mozzarella, Romano, and Basil Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you eat clam pizza? ›

Clam pizza is the kind of pie that you need to start eating immediately after it's cut into slices, before the copious clam juices have a chance to render the crust completely soggy (though some degree of sogginess is inevitable—some people even consider it a feature).

Fresh basil should go on pizza after it's baked, not before. Dried basil can go on before and/or after baking. What an easy question to answer! Of course, if you do put fresh basil on your pizza before it goes in the oven it's not the end of the world — at the end of the day, pizza is still pizza.

It's traditional to put the basil leaves on the pizza before baking, and it bakes with the rest of the pizza. But Franco Pepe at Pepe in Grani puts fresh basil on his margherita after it is baked, and so do others I admire. I like it both ways.

Several homemade pizza recipes call for 'Italian herbs' or 'Italian seasoning', a combination of dried basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, thyme, chilli flakes and garlic powder, which work perfectly well if you're making pizzas with the family.

Here's the truth: When you eat a clam, you eat the whole animal— all the soft tissue.

Use your fork and your fingers to hold the shell and get the meat out, then eat with fork, or you can use a discarded shell as 'tweezers' to get meat out and eat from there.

If you want to add fresh basil as a topping to your pizza, wait until after it comes out of the oven. However, if you use dried oregano on your pizza, add it before baking for the best flavor. At Pizza Bien, we use only the freshest ingredients on our Neapolitan pizzas so that you can taste the difference.

Soft herbs, like basil or cilantro, are best scattered on top of the pizza as it comes out of the oven. Seeds, like fennel or cumin, should be toasted in a dry pan, ground fresh for each use, and sprinkled on top of the pizza before it goes in the oven or added to the sauce when you make it.

Carefully pinch around 8 nice basil leaves and submerge them in the water. In a similar way to the oil and garlic, the salty water prevents the basil from burning, while the steam from the water in the hot oven helps diffuse the oils from the basil evenly across the pizza.

Fresh mozzarella cheese – The perfect rich counterpart to the tomatoes and basil. Cut it into thin slices or tear it before topping the pizza. Fresh basil – Its fresh flavor takes this pizza over the top! You'll sprinkle it over the pizza after baking so that it doesn't wilt in the oven.

How to add garlic to pizza? ›

Garlic infused oil – Mix olive oil and garlic in a small bowl. Pizza base – Make and roll out chosen pizza base, stretch onto pan. Top – Spread oil (and all garlic) onto the base, leaving the crust baked. Bake 8 minutes, turning after 4 minutes, or until the the cheese has golden spots.

Purists tend to prefer fresh mozzarella—either di bufala or the cow's-milk version, fior de latte—because it's what was used on the original Pizza Margherita in Naples, Italy.

STEPS TO MAKE PIZZA WITH EVOO

First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, spread a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil over your pizza pan. This will help the pizza crust crisp up in the oven and also add a nice flavor.

You can use garlic oil brushed on the dough before a bake, after a bake, in the sauce, as the sauce, as a dip, or drizzled on the pizza before serving.

Before you add the sauce or any toppings, lightly brush the stretched pizza dough with olive oil and prick it all over with a fork. Brushing it with oil will prevent any excess moisture from seeping into the crust. No more soggy pizza crust!

Don't request a slice of pizza. In Italy, unless sold on the street or “al taglio” (sold in rectangular or square slices by weight), it's always round and served on a plate. 2. You cut the pizza yourself and then eat it with a knife and fork, the most common way, or fold each slice and eat it with your hands.

Some folks like to cut off the dark tip of the siphon (neck). To eat raw, take a sharp knife and cut the clam right down the middle of the two shells. You will then have meat on both sides. Take your knife and shuck the meat just like you would an oyster, then slurp it down!