Portuguese Pizza
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Yes, you are reading this right. The name of this pizza is “Portuguese Pizza”! “But you said you were going to share a recipe for a Brazilian pizza!”, you’re probably thinking (or yelling at the computer!) Don’t fret, kiddos! This IS a Brazilian pizza!!! However, I have no idea why it is called “Portuguese Pizza”. I even tried researching and all I could find – from not very reliable sources – is that it is called like that because it has the colors of the Portuguese flag. But that doesn’t make any sense to me, because it is lacking the green…Maybe it used to have the colors of the Portuguese flag before, in the original recipe? Maybe they had peas or green peppers or something in it? I don’t know! Another version says that the Italian immigrants in São Paulo used to bake their pizza in the Brazilian bakeries ovens, cause there were no pizzerias back then. And who used to own these bakeries? The Portuguese! And so one day the Portuguese decided to make the pizza richer and added ham, olives and eggs to it, creating the latter called “Portuguese Pizza”. I have no idea if any of those stories are true… But honestly I don’t care! All I care is getting that delicious pizza in my belly!!!!!!!!
I told you before that Brazilian pizza is one of the best pizzas in the world, right? Mostly in São Paulo, because of the huge immigration of Italians in the 19th century. The Italians taught us how to make pizza and we made it better! Lol You will not have a shortage of “Paulistanos” saying that their pizza is better than the one in Naples. They claim that it’s the quality of the ingredients and the inventiveness of the toppings. I’m not sure about the quality of the ingredients, since unfortunately I’ve never been to Italy, but we do have thousands and thousands of different pizza varieties. You would be impressed! Some of the common toppings are hearts of palm, catupiry cheese (which is a very creamy kind of cheese, similar to cream cheese but creamier and not as tangy!!), fresh corn, sausages (the most common is the “calabresa” which is an Italian spicy sausage), shredded chicken, ham, onions, eggs, olives, and of course, tomatoes. We also have a huge variety of dessert pizzas! Some of the popular ones include chocolate, strawberries, bananas, dulce de leche, Nutella, guava paste and even ice cream!
In São Paulo we have the habit of putting a LOT of toppings in our pizzas. My Uncle Alfredo – who was born and raised in Italy – used to say that Brazilian pizza had too much stuff in it for his taste! But not for mine. There’s no limit as to how much cheese you can put in my pizza! :)
In São Paulo we are so serious about our pizza that we have our own Pizza Day, that happens on July 10th! We also have the tradition of having pizza with our families every Sunday night, either delivered to the comfort of our homes or in pizzerias. One thing we do not do, though, is have pizza for lunch (unless it’s leftovers), because most pizzerias don’t open until 6pm.
There are over 6000 pizzerias in São Paulo, varying from the neighboirhood kind that only does deliveries to the very fancy and expensive ones. According to the local association of pizzerias, more than a million pies are sold every day in São Paulo. Oh yeah, we also don’t have the “slice” culture. It’s the whole pie only. Go big or go home, right? The only occasion pizza is served in slices is in the “rodízio-style” pizzerias, which is an “all-you-can-eat” pizzeria with different kinds of pizza being served to you at your table until you burst! (Seriously, I’ve never left a rodízio pizzeria feeling just satisfied! I always leave saying that I will never eat that much again!)
Anyway, I don’t wanna annoy you bragging about Brazilian pizza because you might get depressed. Or, if you’re a New Yorker, we might get into a discussion that would last hours and wouldn’t get anywhere unless I could take you on a plane to São Paulo to taste our pizza. Since that won’t likely happen, you can make this Portuguese Pizza at your home and let me know what you think. How does that sound?
You might think it’s too much work to make pizza from scratch, but it really isn’t. However, you can totally make this with store-brought dough and sauce. Or you can make your dough and sauce at home. I posted a recipe for sauce on Tuesday and I promise I’ll post a recipe for homemade pizza dough in the near future. :)
For the toppings all you need is shredded mozzarella, ham, onions, black olives (I used Kalamata olives) and 2 hard boiled eggs! Top your pizza with these ingredients and them bring it to the oven at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes on a pizza stone. If you don’t have a pizza stone, a pizza pan will do. But I do recommend you get a pizza stone. It was one of the best investments I’ve ever done as I use it a loooot, and you can find affordables ones nowadays. Using a pizza stone is the closest you could ever get from a brick oven pizza. If you’re using a pizza stone, make sure you preheat it for at least 30 minutes (1 hour is better) to enhance the results! :)
Anyway, I hope you like this pizza as much as I do! If you’re like me and you believe that there’s nothing better than homemade pizza, this is the perfect recipe for you! Enjoy!!!
Portuguese Pizza
Yield:
4
Cook Time:
10 minutes
Total Time:
10 minutes
Ingredients
- 1lbs pizza dough
- 1 cup homemade pizza sauce
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella
- 3 slices uncured slow cooked ham
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
- 25 black olives (I used kalamata olives)
- Oregano to taste
- Olive oil to drizzle
Instructions
19 Comments on “Portuguese Pizza”
This pizza looks incredible Olivia! Craving a slice right now.. pinned!
My friend this is my favourite flavour of pizza!This is definitely the best!!!
Probably called Portuguese pizza because Brazil is (was) a colony of Brazil.
having spent some time in Brazil, they usually add peas for the green, corn for the yellow, and it’s eaten with mustard.
Hi Steve, I’m born and raised in Brazil and never seen it eaten like that or with peas and corn. Where did you live? I’m thinking it wasn’t in São Paulo. :)
Hi…yes! Definetely with peas!!
Hi Olivia, nice post!
In Santos we also add palm hearts and peas.
In São Paulo I already ate with corn.
As an example you can see this video where they add corn, it’s very common in “Padocas” (bakery): https://youtu.be/tMiewtfcYBo
I can’t find it now on my phone but I posted You gota the name Olivia and My Aunt in Spain is her name is Olivia an your Uncle name is Alfredo and that is my Puerto Rican friends name Alfredo too we worked together in York Pa for the City of York and we went to the New York City from York a lot But Olivia I Amoor Olivia I Love Olivia I eat her every chance I get Spanish Olive oil that is Yes I’m a true Espanol I drink the Olive oil too beside use it in all my cooking But I haven’t tried the Portuguese Olive oil yet don’t even know where to get it at in Columbus Oh I go there for my FAVAS FAVA BEANS AND OTHER BEANS YOU CAN’T GET HERE CAUSE I COOK THE eSPANOL FOODS AND PORTUGUESE FOODS TOO
Will any standard pizza dough work? I have dozens of different recipes, but I’m wondering whether there’s one you prefer. My favorite calls for some 00 flour (for texture) and a little whole wheat flour (for flavor). Some call for letting the dough sit for a day or two (or even three) in the fridge to develop more flavor. As far as I can see, the main difference between this recipe and most others is the combination of ham, eggs and olives. In March, I cooked 35 (14-inch) pizzas for 18 guests for a birthday party for my grand-daughters (they share the same party since they’re only 10 days apart). The favorite one was a Reuben pizza (corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese with a little mustard on a rye pizza crust.)
This is really a Brazilian pizza, The Portuguese version is “without” ham and instead they use palm hearts.
I.e., mozzarella, onions, hard-boiled eggs, palm hearts and black olives
Enjoy!!
Do you put the pizza screen on top of the pizza stone when cooking?
Hi Lucy, I rarely use the screen anymore as I find parchment paper better. But yes, I assemble the pizza on the screen (or parchment paper) and I slide it into the stone! It was a trick I learned at a pizza class and I find it easier to move that way! I hope that helps!
The green is meant to be olives.
Answering rhree of your “don’t know statements.
It’s called Portuguese Pizza because Brazil didn’t grow olives and they came from the home country,
It’s called limonada suiça because the Nestle cans of milk were made in Swift
It’s called torta holandesa because the cocoa used was “dutched
Hi Martin,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us! :)
I loved making this. Believe it or not, I’m from São Paulo living in the U.S and I am so glad I found this recipe. I enjoyed making my own paulista pizza. Delicious!
Nothing like a little taste from home! ❤️
Looks delicious! The original recipe from Sao Paulo, Brazil, had sweet peas in it, thus the green color that was lacking in the Portuguese Flag :)
Thanks for that info! 😊 That makes sense.