Neapolitan Style Heart-Shaped Pizza
Heart Shaped pizza has always been a Valentine’s Day tradition that I love. On Valentine’s Day while I lived in Italy, my roomates and I found a local pizzeria that served heart shaped Neapolitan style pizzas. Last year, my boyfriend and I called many pizza places near us to find ones offering heart shaped pizza on Valentine’s Day. For me, there is just something about making dinner together on Valentine’s Day that is so much more meaningful than going out to a fancy dinner. So I combined one of my favorite Valentine’s Day traditions and making dinner at home for the perfect romantic and delicious way to celebrate Valentine’s Day (or any day for that matter)! I wanted to keep my pizza festive in color so I opted out of adding basil but you are more than welcome to.
Neapolitan Style Heart-Shaped Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 ball of dough (store-bought or homemade if you have time)
- 1-28 ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 log of fresh mozzarella (sliced and placed between two paper towels)
- 1 package Turkey pepperoni
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- any other desired toppings
Instructions
- Place pizza pan or stone in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. If your oven doesn’t have this high of a setting then 450 degrees will work just fine, but you will want to leave it in longer. You want the pan to be very hot when transferring the pizza so the dough doesn’t stick to the pan.
- Follow package directions for dough and proof as needed. On a floured surface, roll out dough to ¼ to ½ inch thickness.
- Cut an upside down triangle out of the top to form the top of the heart. Cut the sides forming a point at the bottom of the heart. Adjust the dough until you’re happy with the shape.
- Brush dough with olive oil including the crust.
- Pour tomatoes into a food processor along with the salt and pulse until desired consistency. Spread a thin layer onto the crust.
- Top with your sliced mozzarella.
- If you have a small heart-shaped cookie cutter, use that to cut the pepperoni into hearts. If you don’t have one, fold pepperoni circles in half cut one of the corners. When you open it up you can finish cutting until it resembles a heart shape. Continue this step until you have enough pepperoni hearts to fill your pizza.
- Drizzle extra olive oil over the top before putting it into the oven.
- Carefully remove the hot pan or stone from the oven and transfer the pizza onto it. Bake for 5-7 minutes until cheese has melted. Remove from the oven and dig in!
