Fresh Artichoke Pizza With Scamorza Cheese

This artichoke pizza combines the earthy taste of artichokes with gooey strong cheese and the sweetness of sundried tomatoes. The artichokes are fresh, cooked beforehand then roasted over the pizza.

Jump to:

• Why this pizza is the best artichoke pizza
• The Scamorza cheese
• How to clean an artichoke
• Precooking the artichokes
• Preparing the artichoke pizza
• Pizza recipes you might also like
• 📋Artichoke Pizza with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Scamorza Cheese

Why this pizza is the best artichoke pizza

While most artichoke pizzas are made with preserved artichokes, this pizza is made with fresh artichokes. Even if you buy the BEST quality of canned artichokes with the BEST extra virgin olive oil, they will have vinegar.

For me, vinegar and cheese don't go together, and if you read my articles on Pasta Caprese, you know that already...

I always use fresh artichokes, they are not difficult to clean, their flavour is so much better and you can find the instructions below.

There is no tomato sauce in this pizza because I like the gooey taste of the cheese around the artichokes. The juices from the tomato sauce will make it too wet. Many of my vegetable topped pizzas don't have tomato sauce for the same reason. Instead, I use sundried tomatoes.

For this pizza, I also use sundried tomatoes which are not preserved in oil. If I can, I never used preserved vegetables as the oil in which they are preserved can be "anything". As my grandma said: "oil made with umbrella handles".

I just boil them for few minutes to sterilize them and remove any salty residual. For the pizza, I make a sundried tomato paste mixing it with some extra virgin olive oil.

The Scamorza cheese

Since the artichoke has a strong flavour, I decided to use a strong cheese to contrast it. Scamorza is a semi-soft cheese made with cow milk. The consistency is firmer than mozzarella but stringy as the mozzarella. As the mozzarella, scamorza is originally from the South of Italy.

If you cannot find it you can replace with provola, provolone or a firm mozzarella. You can also try with a matured cheddar, but the gooeyness is not the same.

If you want to find out more about Italian gooey cheeses, you can read the article: The Best Italian Grilled Cheese.

How to clean an artichoke

Before you clean fresh artichokes wear a pair of gloves as artichokes stain:

1. Remove the hard external leaves
2. Cut the top spikes of the artichoke
3. Peel the green part of the stem
4. Immediately immerse them in water and lemon otherwise they will get dark

5. Shorten the stem and even the bottom
6. Cut the artichokes in quarters
7. Remove the choke inside the artichoke
8. Cut in slices

Precooking the artichokes

The artichokes need to be pre-cooked and to do that I use the pressure cooker. It takes only 5 minutes instead of 20 minutes for simple boiling.

How do you keep artichokes from turning brown?

The artichokes have a high content of iron, that is why they turn brown when cleaned and cooked. To avoid it you have to put them in water with lemon juice as soon as you remove the first leaves.

If you want to preserve the green of any vegetables with a high content of iron, you can boil them in a blanc of water.

Blanc of water

To 8 cups - 2 litres of water add:

• Lemon juice from 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon flour dissolved in cold water
• 2 tablespoon of olive oil

1. Put the vegetables in the Blanc of water while still cold and gradually bring to boil.
2. As soon as it starts boiling, skim the water and lower the flame.
3. Cook with a lid for the time required.

Preparing the artichoke pizza

I make my own pizza dough in the bread machine. But if you do not have one, you can find the recipe on the article: How to Make Pizza Dough without a Bread Machine. Once the pizza dough has rested for at least 8 hours I am ready to make my pizza:

1. Lay the pizza dough on the already hot pizza stone
2. Add the scamorza cut in cubes
3. Top with the boiled artichokes and sundried tomatoes
4. Cook in 220 C - 430 F hot oven for 10 minutes

An original Italian pizza made with fresh artichokes, scamorza cheese and sundried tomatoes

Pizza recipes you might also like

For more pizza recipes, check out the category: Pizza

Also check the recipes below:

• Fried Pizza
• Pizza with Fresh Vegetables
• Traditional Italian White Pizza With Pesto
• Pissaladiere Nicoise
• Focaccia Pizza
• Pizza with Nutella

If you are making the Artichoke pizza with scamorza and sundried tomatoes, leave your comment below I would like to hear from you. You can find more delicious ideas if you FOLLOW ME on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.