Impress your friends and family my making this star shaped pizza. This pizza is shaped into an eight pointed star and each point is stuffed individually with a mix of cheese hidden inside, not only is it visually striking it’s the ultimate stuffed crusted pizza as well!
Don’t be intimidated, this pizza is easy to make, just take your time and go over my tips and instructions a couple of times.
You’ll need a half a pound of pizza dough to make one pizza, that will result in the look of a nicely shaped star, so just think from one pound you can make two of these beauties!
You’ll want to actually roll this dough out with a rolling pin, no pressing down with your fingers like a traditional pizza. The dough has to be flat all the way to the end for best results with the stars tips.
Aim for a ten to twelve inch circle, I like rolling my dough circle on parchment, then I just plop it over onto my lightly oiled and slightly dusted with cornmeal, pizza pan.
Then using a sharp knife make eight two inch slits from the end of the circle towards the center, be careful not to go more than two inches, it won’t look as nice, plus you need room in the center for your toppings as well.
So again you want eight cuts all together like the marks on a clock.
Within those eight sections is where you’ll place your cheese for the crust. I used a mix of shredded mozzarella and ricotta. Keep in mind cheese when melted spreads, so less is more to protect it from breaking open and oozing out all over.
Here’s where you can get creative, use whatever mix of cheese you want as well as the toppings you prefer in the center.
This pizza was a simple margarita style with tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella in the center with a nice drizzle from my stash of basil pesto that I have in my freezer.
A fun pizza to make and eat, just grab an end and share it with the people you love!
- ½ lb. of prepared pizza dough, room temperature
- ½ cup ricotta and ½ cup of shredded mozzarella mixed together with salt and pepper to taste
- tomato sauce for center of pizza, a cup or so
- 2 or 3 slices of fresh mozzarella, torn up
- 1 or 2 tablespoons basil pesto or fresh torn basil
- olive oil
- dusting of cornmeal or polenta for pan preparation
- Heat oven to 500F.
- Prepare your pan by drizzling olive oil all over and a dusting of cornmeal or polenta for a crispy crust.
- Roll your dough out on parchment into a 10 or 12 inch circle, flat all the way to the ends.
- Then pick up your parchment and plop the dough round onto prepared pan, straightening it out if need be.
- With a sharp knife make an incision 2 inches long 8 times, like the marks on a clock face, be careful to not go over 2 inches.
- Within those 8 sections place a scant teaspoon of the ricotta and shredded mozzarella mixture, be careful not to overstuff because it will be hard to seal each point. ( see post for visual )
- Then pick up the corners of each section that is filled and start pinching the dough together from the point to the center to form a triangle. The edge of the triangle shape should point outwards, and as you continue doing it you'll create an 8 pointed star shape all around.
- Then fill the center with your sauce and fresh mozzarella and a quick drizzle of olive oil on top.
- Place into the hot oven for around 15 minutes.
- Garnish the pizza with basil pesto or fresh torn basil.
- Pull apart and share!
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
