Cuban pizza is part of our heritage, the inheritance we live and will pass on to future generations. This food, despite its simplicity, or precisely because of it, has been part of the meals between workdays, college lunches and that snack that is always at hand when we are away from home, throughout our lives.
With melted or gratin cheese, any option is valid when preparing one of the most popular dishes in the world. However, Cuban pizza has some rules. For example, the dough must be thick and the edge must be thin and quite toasted: that is the seal that allows us to say that it is our pizza.
If you want to surprise your family or friends with this dish that knows no detractors, today is your lucky day: Mandao has arrived to bring you some of the best recipes to make Cuban pizza at home. In this article we tell you which are the ingredients to make our pizza, how many degrees a Cuban pizza is baked at and more.
What are the ingredients to make a Cuban pizza?
Preparing this delicious and simple recipe has two very important steps that we are going to do in our kitchen: making the dough and preparing the tomato sauce. You can separate the ingredients to help you step by step.
Now, to make our pizza delicious, we will need:
To assemble the dough:
- 150g flour
- 5g fresh yeast
- 80ml of lukewarm water (½ cup)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon oil
For the preparation of the homemade sauce:
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 onion
- Spices to taste (garlic, oregano, etc.)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon oil
- A pot of water
We recommend the following ingredients that you can find in the different agromarkets in Mandao to flavor the sauce as you prefer:
- Romero
- Chili peppers of your choice
- Onion
- Oregano
For the superior content of our homemade Cuban pizza:
- 2 tablespoons homemade salsa
- 50gr of mozzarella cheese or other grated cheese
- 50gr of ham (the one you like the most)
- Olives (optional)
These ingredients will make your Cuban pizza awaken some nostalgia in all your family and friends… Hands to the dough!
How to make homemade pizza: Cuban pizza!
- For the Cuban pizza dough you must mix the ingredients (you can add water if your dough is dry) gently. When you finish mixing everything together, knead for about ten minutes, stretch the dough and fold it so that it gets enough air and is very fluffy.
- After those ten minutes, make a ball with the dough and place it in a container you have at home, cover it with a clean cloth and let it ferment for about two hours until its volume doubles.
While the dough is resting, we can start preparing the sauce:
- In a pot of boiling water we cook the tomatoes for five minutes, this will help us to peel them easily and then crush them (or blend them, whichever is easier for you).
If you choose to blend, control the amount of lumps as you like, this can be achieved by blending with more or less intensity.
You can find tomatoes in our agromarkets available in our app and our website.
- In a separate pot with hot oil, fry the onion and garlic over low heat until both are soft. The secret of this step is to prevent the onion from burning. In our agros you can also find these condiments that cannot be missing in any Cuban dish.
- We add the previously crushed tomato and let the sauce of our homemade Cuban pizza boil.
- After a few minutes of cooking, we will add the spices that we like the most when seasoning our meals (small recommendation: we can add a pinch of sugar to cut the acidity).
- Cook for twenty minutes and check in small lapses the cooking (if it boils quickly you can add a little water) then let stand.
After we have our sauce made and we check that the two hours of rest of our dough have passed, we will assemble our Cuban pizza. We will take a pan, grease the bottom with just a few drops of oil. These are the small steps to follow:
- Remove the pizza from the pan, give it a few small blows to remove excess air and soften it.
- Preheat the oven to 400º F (205ºC).
- Divide the dough into balls, make a well rounded shape and flatten it a little to place it in the dish, then pour over the tomato sauce, the cheese of your choice and the chopped ham (preferably in small squares).
In our agros, combos and Mercadito you can find these ingredients.
We are almost ready! At this point, a big question usually arises: how many degrees is a pizza baked? We must keep in mind that preheating the oven is one of the most important steps to prevent our homemade pizza from being overcooked. As we did in the previous step, it is always recommended at 400º F, after that the cooking time can vary between 10 and 20 minutes. If you see that after 15 minutes the pizza already has melted cheese, you can remove it.
If you follow these steps, our homemade Cuban pizza will be ready, with a delicious and spongy texture. We will be able to appreciate the bottom, the golden and crispy edges, ideal for the palate. As you will see, a Cuban pizza to share with your people is not very difficult to make at home! Although we recommend that you always add your ideal touch, you can experiment little by little until you feel comfortable. A variation worth trying is this same recipe for homemade Cuban pizza cooked in a skillet.
The personal touch of your Cuban pizza
It is always a good idea to try different sauces, such as Amatriciana, Diávola, Barbecue. If this is the case, ask for them in your Mandao and we will send them to you!
We must clarify that with this recipe you can also prepare your vegetarian Cuban pizza! In that case you have to add some onions, sweet potato, roasted bell pepper and pumpkin. Follow our tips and for sure your family and friends will want to come back for your homemade Cuban pizza.