Destination
Buenos Aires
The story
Fugazza is Buenos Aires' Genoese pizza: thick, doughy, and topped with a mountain of raw onion cold-shocked into sweetness. Not the thin Neapolitan slice most of the world calls pizza. This is bakery bread with cheese and onion, cut in generous squares and slid across a marble counter on wax paper. The classic bodegón order comes with a slab of fainá (chickpea flatbread) balanced on top: pizza al caballo, pizza on horseback.
Method
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. Add the warm water and olive oil. Mix on low with the dough hook until it comes together, then knead 6 to 8 minutes on medium until smooth and elastic. Cover and rest 1 hour in a warm spot, until doubled.
While the dough rises, slice the onions as thinly as you can (a mandolin is a friend here). Cover with cold water and a good pinch of salt. Leave 20 minutes, then drain and pat dry hard with a tea towel. Soaking pulls the aggressive bite out and leaves them sweet.
Heat the oven to 240°C (465°F) with a heavy baking tray inside if you have one.
Oil a 30cm round pizza tin generously. Turn the dough out, press it into the tin with your fingertips, right to the edges. Dimple the surface with your fingers so the oil pools in the pockets. Rest 20 minutes.
Scatter the mozzarella over the dough. Pile the onions on top in a thick, even layer, right to the edges. Drizzle with olive oil, dust with dried oregano, and season with sea salt and cracked pepper.
Slide the tin onto the hot tray in the oven. Bake 18 to 22 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the onion tips are just starting to catch. If the onions look like they might burn before the base is done, cover loosely with foil for the last 5 minutes.
Slide onto a board and cut into big squares. Best eaten immediately, standing up, ideally with a cold glass of white or a slab of fainá stacked on top.
Tips
- The onions must be dry. Wet onions will steam the cheese into a puddle. After soaking, spread them on a tea towel and press hard, then leave to air-dry for another minute.
- Don't skimp on the oil in the tin. Fugazza dough should almost fry against the base as it bakes, giving you a crisp, oil-blistered underside.
- Use fresh mozzarella, never the pre-shredded kind. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in anti-caking starch that stops it melting cleanly and gives the pizza a floury edge.
- Genoese fugassa purists use no cheese at all, just olive oil, onion and oregano. If that appeals, skip the mozzarella and finish with flaky salt.
- Leftovers reheat well. Cut cold squares, wrap in foil, warm in a hot oven for 8 minutes. Never microwave: the dough goes to rubber.
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