Pizza Di Scarola Napoletana, a savoury and delicious stuffed pizza from Naples Italy

Love What UEAT
Aug 26, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Apr 21, 2025

Main Meals#stuffedpizza #pizza #pizzadiscarola #escarole #vegetarianpizza #veggiestuffedpizza #pizzapie

Pizza di scarola is a double crust stuffed pizza pie that is soft and tasty and is perfect to be served on many occasions. It can be sliced and served as a home appetizer or to accompany an antipasto. You can eat it on its own as a family meal and is great to take along on a picnic (called scampagnata in Italian). Once baked, this pizza pie is a little crunchy on the outside, soft and flavourful on the inside. It can be eaten hot, cold or room temperature.

Like every Italian family, the ingredients added to the escarole vary. We will show you our family’s version of ingredients. All in all, it is simply a magical combination of different ingredients and flavours that work wonderfully together !

PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE AND DIRECTIONS

This pizza dough makes 2 thin crust pizzas- (8 slices) or one thick crust or pizza pie 9inch

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DOUGH

10 grams (about 2 tsp) Quick rise instant yeast

215 ml (about 7 1/2 ounces) of warm water

45 ml (about 3 tbsp) of olive oil

5 grams (about 1 tsp) of salt

300 grams (about 2 1/2 cups) flour

DIRECTIONS

for best results use a scale (you can find affordable ones on amazon for about 20$)

Add yeast to bowl with warm water and olive oil, give it a light whisk and set aside for 5 mins, meanwhile measure out the flour and add your salt to it and gently whisk.

Now add the dry to wet and with a stand mixer start slow to incorporate the flour into the wet mixture- scrape down the sides if needed-

once fully incorporated, turn up the speed to a 5/6 (medium high) and mix for an additional 3 mins.

once done, scrape sides to gather dough into a ball and add a drizzle of olive oil to coat the bowl and dough so as dough rises it can grow easily and slide up the bowl as it grows.

for the dough to properly rise, cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap or kitchen towel and place it in a warm spot to be left unbothered and to rest and rise. dough should rise in about 1 hr (double in size)

While the pizza dough is rising, let’s prepare the escarole filling.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING:

1 1/2 head of escarole

1 1/2 cup (135 g) roasted pine nuts

1 1/2 cup (110 g) sliced Gaeta olives (or Kalamata olives)

1 1/2 cup (120 g) sliced green stuffed olives 🫒 (or Cerignola olives)

3-4 large pieces of roasted red peppers 🌶️

Sprinkle of garlic powder

Drizzle of olive oil

Salt and black pepper to taste

oregano

chili flakes

fresh basil

FILLING DIRECTIONS:

1) In a wide frying pan, over medium heat, roast the pine nuts till slightly browned.

Set aside to cool.

2) NOTE: escarole can have lots of dirt tucked inside each bunch. Trim off the root

end and any discoloured leaves. Cut the bunch into 3 or 4 sections.

3) Place the cut escarole in a clean sink filled three quarters of the way with cold

water. Swirl the leaves around. The dirt will loosen and drop to the bottom of the sink. If needed, rinse one or two more times in clean cold water or till there is no more dirt.

4) Scoop out the cleaned escarole, place in a deep frying pan, (or pot), over medium/high heat for a few minutes. Remove from heat. Pour the escarole into a colander to drain and cool.

5) Slice your roasted peppers, black and green olives. Set aside.

6) With clean hands (or a cheesecloth) squeeze out the excess water from the escarole.

7) In a large frying pan, over medium heat, drizzle the olive oil and add all the prepared filling ingredients in the pan. Add the salt, black pepper and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Mix well and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Just long enough for all the flavours to marry together. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.