The Next Pizza You Make at Home Should Be This Anchovy Pie From Austin’s Bufalina

Bufalina is one restaurant that’s consistently easy for Eater Austin editor Nadia Chadhury to recommend. Since its opening, it has been cherished for its Neapolitan pizzas. But while the pies get much of the spotlight, the restaurant’s wine list from local wine pro Rania Zayyat has garnered just as much of a following.

Zayyat, who curated the wines for Eater Wine Club in March — her theme was wines from the Mediterranean and Aegean seas — has a simple philosophy when it comes to pairing anything with wine. “As the saying goes, ‘what grows together, goes together,’ so when I’m thinking about what to drink with a bottle from Greece, for example, I like to look to indigenous ingredients,” Zayyat explains. In the case of Greek wine, that might mean spanikotpota, fish with herbs like oregano, and any sort of creamy cheese. And when it comes to pairing wine with pizza and all of its toppings, that can mean a whole lot of things.

Using Zayyat’s rule of thumb for this recipe for Bufalina’s white anchovy pizza, we recommend partnering the white anchovy pizza recipe below with wines that hail from sunny, coastal place: a Greek bottle to complement the pizza’s kalamata olives, or a wine from southern Italy or the Canary Islands to sing with the acidic San Marzano tomatoes. And for anyone daunted by the idea of making pizza dough, here’s one more recommendation: You can always buy dough from a local pizzeria.

Bufalina White Anchovy Pizza

Makes 6 (12-inch) pizzas

For the Neapolitan dough:

2 1/2 cups room temperature water
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
6 cups (900 grams) Italian 00 flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

For the pizza toppings:

1 (28-ounce) can San Marzano tomatoes, with juice (DiNapoli brand is recommended)
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved lengthwise
6 medium garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Chili flakes
30 white anchovy fillets
Chili oil

Instructions:

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, salt, and yeast and stir to dissolve. Add half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed until the mixture is fully combined, about 2 minutes. Switch to the dough hook, add the remaining flour and mix on the lowest speed until the dough is springy and elastic, 5 to 8 minutes. The dough will be quite stiff at first, so keep an eye on the mixer. Cover the mixing bowl with a damp towel and set aside at room temperature for 2 hours.

Step 2: Divide the dough into 6 equal portions, about 250 grams each. Form each portion into a ball and place each ball in a zip-top bag or put all of them in a large airtight container. Refrigerate overnight.

Step 3: Put a pizza stone on a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the oven to 500 degrees. If you have convection or convection roast, use it. Heat up the pizza stone for 1 hour. Meanwhile, remove the dough from the refrigerator.

Step 4: Process the tomatoes in a food mill fitted with the largest disk or pulse them in a food processor until mostly pureed. Stir in the salt and set aside.

Step 5: When the pizza stone is fully heated, remove one ball of dough from a bag or the box. Gently stretch it out on a lightly floured countertop, using your fingertips to spread the dough out into about a 6-inch diameter. Place the round on the back of your hands and fingers and gently stretch the dough out until it is about 12 inches in diameter.

Step 6: Place the dough on a lightly floured pizza peel and spread 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the tomatoes over the dough evenly. Make sure to avoid getting any sauce on the peel or the pizza will stick to it. Spread 8 to 10 slices of garlic and 8 to 10 olive halves evenly over the dough. Sprinkle with a pinch or two of chili flakes.

Step 7: Carefully slide the pizza onto the pizza stone and bake until the dough is puffy around the edges and you see the sauce begin to bubble a little, about 2 minutes. Switch on the broiler and broil the pizza, watching carefully, until the edges of the crust are lightly charred, about 2 minutes.

Put the pizza on a large cutting board and cut into 6 pieces. Top each slice with an anchovy and a drizzle of the chile oil and serve immediately.

To make the remaining pizzas, return the oven to 500 degrees and let the stone regain some of the heat it lost, before sliding on another pizza and using the same bake-then-broil method. (The excess dough can be frozen in individual zip top bags; defrost it overnight in the refrigerator before using.)

Dina Avila is a photographer in Portland, Oregon.
Recipe tested by Ivy Manning