As you can see, I’ve fallen out of the habit of taking good pictures of everything since leaving Instagram. That doesn’t matter much because on this pizza all of the informative looking stuff is hidden under an enormous salad.
I channeled this recipe for the first time in the summer of 2017 (I think) and I’ve been improving it since. I didn’t know it was given to me by Saturn until we reconnected in August 2025 and initiated our contract, upon which he asked me to make it, and I was like, that’s YOUR recipe? I thought that was MY recipe. And then I had to come to terms with the nature of being an Oracle. Nothing belongs to me. That’s why I attribute everything I publish here. I’ve never had an idea of my own in my life.
Strongly Recommended Equipment
Baking steel or pizza stone: Proper pizza crust requires sustained direct heat that can’t be adequately provided by a baking pan, even if it’s preheated first.
Wooden pizza peel: Makes getting your pizza in and out of the extremely hot oven much easier.
Box grater: Shredding the cheese helps it melt easier and more evenly.
For the pizza
Storebought pizza dough (I use half a batch of dough per pizza)
Handful of cornmeal or semolina
Storebought vodka sauce (I use Cannizzaro)
Low moisture whole milk mozzarella
Finnocchiona (Saturn’s favorite is Olympia Provisions)
For the salad
Arugula (I’m partial to Earthbound Farm’s wild red arugula)
Lemon
Dijon mustard
Salt
EVOO
Finishing
EVOO (I use Flamingo Estate’s Fennel Flower infused EVOO)
Dried oregano (I use Burlap and Barrel’s Oregano Buds)
Note on premium ingredients
In the recipe provided I state my preferred brands because that kind of thing matters to some people. If you shop differently than I do, I suggest making this recipe diagonally using ingredients that you would normally buy. You can use any type of salami or even pepperoni instead of finocchiona if that makes a difference to you. I do suggest going for a fennel seed flavor profile if you can.
Method
An hour and a half before you’re planning to cook your pizza, take the dough out of the fridge (only as much as you intend to use immediately).
Scatter a handful or two of cornmeal or semolina on the wooden pizza peel. Coat the surface of the dough with it and allow it to rest at room temperature.
Place the baking steel or pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven, and move any racks above it to the bottom so it has a clear headspace.
Preheat the oven to 500˚F.
When it’s time to make your pizza, stretch out the dough gently, trying to achieve an approximately circular shape. Try to get it as thin as you can without breaking. If your dough stops stretching before getting thin enough, coat it with more cornmeal or semolina and allow it to rest for five minutes, then keep stretching. Repeat as necessary until you have a flat circle of dough that more or less meets your expectations. I’m sorry that I can’t be more specific, but this seems to be something everyone has their own style with.
Make sure there’s a thin coating of cornmeal or semolina across the peels’s entire surface. Then lay the pizza dough down flat.
Place 3-4 heaping spoonfuls of vodka sauce on the pizza and spread it evenly across the surface, leaving about ½ inch of space around the edges.
Grate as much mozzarella as you need to scatter across the entire surface; I find that this is different for every pizza and sometimes I want more cheese than other times. Use your intuition.
If you bought pre-sliced finocchiona, lay it abundantly across the surface of the pizza. It will shrink a fair amount in the oven.
If you’re slicing your own finocchiona, get it as thin as possible (I use a mandolin). It probably won’t get as thin as pre-sliced, and it’s unlikely to shrink as much in the oven, so you can space them further apart. Try to achieve one per bite of pizza.
When the pizza is ready, test its slide by shaking the peel. It should move around easily without disrupting the toppings on the surface. The cornmeal / semolina acts like ball bearings, giving it easy movement.
Slide the pizza onto the baking steel and get the oven closed again as quickly as you can so you don’t lose too much heat.
Set a timer for 7 minutes.
While the pizza is in the oven, use a microplane to zest the lemon into a mixing bowl. Slice the lemon in half crosswise and juice half the lemon into the same bowl. Add a pinch of salt and a heaping teaspoon of Dijon. Mix everything together with a whisk.
Drizzle a nice finishing extra virgin olive oil into the dressing mixture slowly, whisking the whole time. Taste test occasionally until you have a balanced flavor.
Add an abundance of arugula to the bowl. For me the sweet spot is just over half a box. You want the pizza to be swimming in salad. Toss the greens in the dressing until evenly coated.
When the timer goes off, slide the pizza back onto the peel lightly and turn the oven off.
Let the pizza rest for 2-3 minutes. Finish it with a drizzle of EVOO and a sprinkle of oregano. Pile the salad on top of the pizza.
Cut into slices. I find it easiest to use scissors.
Best eaten immediately before the arugula wilts, but it’s just as good cold and wilted when you’re hungry again later.
