Up, Up, And Away With The Balloon Pizza!

It may look like a simple calzone at first, but this wonderful dish is actually so much more. To begin, the balloon pizza isn't folded like the Neapolitan classic — air is instead blown into a pizza covered by a layer of dough to create this amazing effect. Once in the oven, you'll soon hear the dough dome crisping up nicely as the room slowly fills with delightful aromas. The dome is then slowly removed to reveal the beautifully cooked pizza inside. After adding some finishing touches, the final result is a real feast for the eyes.

You'll need:

  • some flour
  • 2 round portions of pizza dough
  • 3.3 fl oz tomato sauce
  • 1 mozzarella ball, sliced
  • 7 black olives
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1.5 fl oz warm rum
  • 3 oz Serrano ham
  • 1 cup arugula
  • 3 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 2 tbsp basil, chopped
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Here's how:

  1. Roll out one of the portions of pizza dough on a work surface dusted with flour. Spread pizza sauce onto the dough without covering the edges. Place the mozzarella slices and olives on the pizza before sprinkling oregano on top.
  2. Spread egg yolk on the edge of the pizza. Then place four drinking straws next to each other at one of the edges. Cover the pizza with the second portion of dough. Press together the edge of the top layer of dough with the bottom layer so that the two pizzas are attached. Blow into the straws until the top layer of dough forms a dome. Remove the straws and quickly close up the opening. Bake the pizza at 390°F for 15 minutes.
  3. Once cooked, pour the rum onto the dough dome and light it with a match. Then remove the dome and garnish the pizza inside with Serrano ham and arugula.
  4. Flip the dough dome around and fill it with chopped up tomatoes, garlic, basil, and olive oil. Break off pieces of the dome to dip into the tomato bruschetta mix.

With enough to go round, this extraordinarily inventive dish is the perfect centerpiece for your next party. So what are you waiting for — let yourself be taken away by the Balloon Pizza!

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Also hefty