Pizza parigina is a sheet pan pizza that is classic Italian street food. With a pizza dough base, filled with Italian meat, tomatoes and cheese and topped with puff pastry.
First, to be clear, Parisian pizza is not from Paris, or France. Pizza alla parigina or simply parigina, is a rustic pizza, popular in and around Naples, Italy. Parisian is simply the English translation of the Italian word parigina.
Made with a pizza dough base and a puff pastry topping, parigina is stuffed in the centre with tomatoes, Prosciutto cotto (ham) or other Italian cold meats and provola (provolone) cheese. The result is a bite that is flaky on top, soft on the bottom and tomatoey, savoury and ample melted cheese on the inside!
Parigina lives somewhere between a pizza and a sandwich. It’s lovely warm, next day or at room temperature.
Ingredients and substitutions
A few notes about the key ingredients …
Tomatoes – use your best or favourite canned tomatoes. such as San Marzano. I’ve used whole canned tomatoes here, which I drain the excess liquid off of. You could also use any tomatoes, but the drier the better, to avoid a soggy crust.
Italian cold meats – Prosciutto Cotto is most traditional, which is really just thinly sliced cooked ham. I’ve used a variety of Italian cold meats here. Use what you enjoy.
Sliced Provolone Cheese – I’ve used sliced Provolone here, since I don’t have access to a wide variety of nice Italian cheese. It works well though, and has more flavour than mozzarella. If you have access to a better selection, Caciocavallo would be a great choice.
Puff Pastry – I love using the pre-rolled puff pastry sheets and all-butter is my preference. The sheets I used were 10×10-inches, so I needed two of them to cover the entire top of the pizza (10×15-inches).
How to make pizza parigina
This is a summary of the steps to make this recipe. Always refer to the complete instructions in the Recipe Card below when making this recipe.
- Spread the pizza dough onto a well-oiled baking sheet.
- Top the dough with the homemade tomato sauce .
- Scatter the Italian meats on top of the tomato sauce.
- Place rounds of provolone cheese on top of the meat layer.
- Place the puff pastry on top of the parigina and brush with and egg wash.
- Prick the puff pastry with a fork before baking.
Recipe tips!
- While probably not traditional, I think some fresh basil leaves tucked into the filling would be a fabulous addition to this one.
- Make parigina faster and easier by using store-bought pizza dough. You will need a 650g-ish (1 1/2 lb.) ball of pizza dough for this one, though you can do with a little less for a thinner bottom crust if you need to. Simply use a smaller pan if needed. You could also use a store-bought pizza sauce if you prefer.
- If you’d like to make the dough ahead and refrigerate it overnight, you can prepare the dough through to forming into a ball. Refrigerate overnight, removing from the fridge and letting it come to room temperature and finishing its rise, as necessary, before spreading onto the baking pan and proceeding with the recipe.
Making ahead, storage and freezing
You can make this ahead, refrigerate and bake when needed or go ahead and bake ahead and re-heat to serve.
To re-heat from refrigerated or frozen, place onto baking sheet, cover the top loosely with aluminum foil and place into a 350F oven until warmed through. From frozen, this will obviously take longer, 40-45 minutes or more. From refrigerated, it should re-heat nicely in 20-25 minutes.
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Get the Recipe: Pizza Parigina (Parisian Pizza)
Ingredients
For the Dough (or use store-bought pizza dough – see Note 1 below for details):
- 1 1/4 cups (310 g) lukewarm water
- 1 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon white granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 cups (500 g) all purpose flour, approximately
For the filling:
- 28 oz canned whole peeled tomatoes, or *see Note 2 below for options
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 12 oz (350 g) Prosciutto Cotto or other Italian deli meats
- 11-12 oz (330 g) sliced Provolone cheese
For the topping:
- 2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon water
Instructions
- Make the base dough: In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the kneading hook, add the lukewarm water, yeast and sugar. Stir to combine and allow to stand 5 minutes. Add the olive oil, salt and 2 cups of the flour. Mix to combine. Begin adding the remaining 1 cup of flour, adding in small increments and mixing in between additions, adding only as much flour as needed to create a moist, but not sticky dough, that wraps around the kneading hook and cleans the bowl. (You may need a little bit more flour that the 1 cup. If so, add as needed).
- Remove dough to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. Form into a ball, place in a large greased bowl (large enough for the dough to triple in size), cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until tripled in size, about 3 hours.
- Meanwhile, drain canned tomatoes into a sieve set over a bowl. Break tomatoes up lightly with a fork and then let stand to drain while the dough rises.
- When dough is ready, remove from the bowl and deflate lightly. Brush a 10×15-inch sheet pan (give or take – you can use a slightly larger or slightly smaller pan) with olive oil, then spread dough in pan, covering the entire bottom of the pan. It may shrink back as you work, but just keep stretching. If it is very stubborn, allow the dough to rest 5-10 minutes in the pan and try again. Once spread, cover the pan with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for about 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, remove the drained tomatoes to a bowl. Sprinkle in the salt and stir to combine, breaking up the tomatoes a bit more to form a chunky paste. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 390F (regular bake/not fan assisted).
- When dough has rested, spread tomato evenly over the dough. Place meat evenly on top of the tomatoes, then top with sliced provolone.
- Lightly roll the sheets of puff pastry to smooth, then place over-top of the pizza, trimming any excess. Stir together egg and water, then brush the top of the puff pastry. Use a fork to prick the puff pastry 10-12 times evenly across the pastry.
- Bake 390F for 45-50 minutes (place pan underneath as it can bubble over a bit), or until puff pastry is very golden and bottom of pizza dough is set and lightly golden. You can cover the top loosely with foil if puff is at risk of over-browning.
- Allow pizza to stand for 10-15 minutes before serving, then cut into squares to serve.
Notes
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Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Why have I never heard of this Jennifer?? It looks and sounds absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to give the recipe a try. I bet my boys would LOVE it!
I know! I thought the same thing :) It was delicious!