In the humble opinion of Simon Towers — Powered by Ooni member and the owner and pizza chef behind Il Pirata Pizzata (@ilpiratapizzata) in Saltaire, England — pistachios are up there among the most versatile ingredients. We have to agree: They go well in both sweet and savory dishes, which happens to work out swimmingly on a pizza with a base of pistachio cream topped with fior di latte mozzarella and pecorino, and garnished with prosciutto crudo, crushed pistachios and lemon zest..
The inspiration behind this dish stems from award-winning London-based Italian chef Marco Fuso’s pizza master class, where Simon first tried pizza pistachio with mortadella, a classic Italian combo. As an Englander, Simon didn’t care for the cold cut, which reminded him too much of plain old British supermarket ham, so he put his own twist on the toppings by swapping the mortadella for traditionally uncooked, aged and salt-cured prosciutto crudo. For a little extra zing, Simon added lemon zest to cut through the sharp saltiness of the pecorino.
And since a veteran pizza chef introduced Simon to the dish in the first place (and Il Pirata Pizzata is named after his childhood hero, cyclist Marco Pantani), he thought it only fitting to dub this pie “The Marco,” after the two Italian greats.