Hurry, Give Your Pizza a Cheesy Bottom

One would assume that at this point in history, we have already explored the world map of pizza to its very edges (which are probably stuffed with cheese). You can fry it, slice truffles on it, use cauliflower in place of batter, and spread all sorts of weird shit on the crust. But a recent discovery has given me another way to elevate your pizza to an absurdly cheesy level. There is a surface that we haven’t covered with extra cheese yet and it was right in front of us the whole time. This is the bottom.

Yes, it’s time to add giant frico chips to the back of your pizza.

Friko is a simple and original cheese appetizer. Just cheese piled up and baked in the oven or fried in a pan, where it melts and browns. When cooled, it turns into a crispy crust. Cheese pairs perfectly with just about everything, and so does frico, especially if you’re looking for textural contrast. We recently showed you how to wrap french fries in a frico , fry an egg on it , or use it in a crispy cheese pickle . Making a crispy frico layer on a chewy pizza base is a natural progression.

Attaching a layer of crispy cheese to a pizza must be a lot more difficult than it really is. Where you would normally dust the surface of a pizza dough with flour, this time you’ll be using grated cheese. That’s all. I used grated parmesan and a small amount of grated low-moisture mozzarella, but any semi-hard to hard cheese will do. Place a large cast iron skillet coated with a tablespoon of olive oil in a 400°F oven to preheat. Meanwhile, prepare the filling and stretch the dough. Place a handful or two of grated cheese on a work surface and spread the pizza dough over it. Flip over to cover both sides. (Don’t flour the dough, as this will remove the stickiness, and the idea is to get as much of the cheese stuck to the bottom as possible.)

Stretch the dough to the desired size, adding more cheese as sticky patches appear. A lot of cheese will remain on the work surface, and this is normal; we will use it in the next step.

Carefully remove the hot pan from the oven. This thing is about 400°F, a fact it will remind you of pretty quickly (and painfully) if you forget. Take a handful of cheese from the work surface or from the bag and sprinkle it on the bottom of the pan. Cover the bottom with an even layer. You may need two or three handfuls – expect to use about a cup of cheese.

The grated cheese will immediately begin to sizzle and melt. When you’re happy with the layer, take the dough and place it in the pan with the cheese side down. Gently adjust the size of the dough and make sure it is in contact with the cheese at the bottom as much as possible. The dough will begin to cook as soon as it hits the pan, so don’t leave – quickly add the filling and then place it all in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes.

Once cooked, the pizza will have nicely browned edges and should come off the pan easily. Transfer it to a cutting board, not allowing yourself to admire the crisp layer of cheese on the bottom long enough to slice it. The resulting taste and texture is about what you would expect, which is damn delicious. My choice of grated parmesan and a bit of moza became tender and crunchy, adding a subtle chewiness. The added saltiness and nutty notes made each mouthful a meditative moment.

The cheese browns and takes on a golden brown hue, so you might think, “It’s just dough.” It’s actually a whole layer of cheese.

On the side, you can see a distinct layer of cheese along the edge of the slice. I respect pizzerias, but this might be the best pizza I’ve ever had.

I have a pizza stone and a baking steel and I love them both, but in this case I recommend the cast iron skillet, which worked great. The pan holds the cheese in place and the pizza stones are more porous and I didn’t want to risk the cheese burning on them. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, baking steel is worth trying, and you can try a dark pan if you don’t have other options.

Frico bottom Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil (for the cast iron skillet)
• 1-1.5 cups grated cheese (I use parmesan)
• 8 oz pizza dough, thawed
• 2 tablespoons sauce
• 1-2 cups toppings of your choice, chopped and cooked (I used pieces of boiled sausage and olives)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Add oil to a 10-inch cast iron skillet and brush all over the inside of the skillet. Place the skillet in the oven to preheat for at least 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the pizza topping and stretch the pizza dough. Place a cup of cheese on a work surface and cover all sides of the dough with grated cheese. Stretch the dough into a disc, picking up the cheese as needed to cover the exposed areas of the dough. Once it’s stretched to the right size, place it on your work surface with the rest of the cheese. Press the rind into the excess cheese to cover the underside more tightly.

Carefully remove the skillet from the oven. Add enough grated cheese to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin but even layer, about a cup. Transfer the dough from the work surface to the cast iron, carefully adjusting the dough so that it fits into the mold and is in good contact with the cheese layer. Quick, sauce and pizza on top. Bake in preheated 400°F oven for 20-25 minutes or until edges are dark brown and crispy. Let cool for five minutes. Remove from pan and cut.