If you’re a Trader Joe’s shopper, you know some items don’t stick around long. They appear on the New Items shelf one week and a month later, they might be gone, not popular enough to keep their shelf space. I worry that the Hot ‘n Sweet peppers are going to be one of those items, especially around here, where most people ask for 1-star spicy at restaurants. These little peppers are fan-freaking-tastic on pizza and they’re one of the items on today’s #FridayNightSlice — the DailyWaffle Deluxe.
The Deluxe of my childhood was also known as a Garbage Pizza because the pizzeria down the street just went down the line and put on every topping in the bain marie — well, everything but anchovies. Pepperoni, sausage, ham, mushrooms, olive, green peppers, onions, pineapple, maybe even ground beef (I know, wuhhh?). Those dried out little nubs of sausage always got picked off and fed to the dog. Still do. Now, we can use good sausage and go with the best of those toppings — pepperoni, Italian sausage, black olives, the hot ‘n sweet peppers and for no other reason but that they’re in season right now — garlic scapes.
So what if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s in your ‘hood? Best I can tell, these are peppadew or cherry peppers, so you’ll surely be able to find those on a supermarket shelf, though they won’t necessarily have the sweet tang the TJ’s version does. And, we’re comin’ up on pepper season, so you can always DIY it and make your own, if that’s your thing.
Our go-to dough is Serious Eats NY-Style – it’s best made 2 days ahead to allow fermentation time in the fridge, but,Trader Joe’s dough is good in a pinch, or if you’ve decided to make this at about 3:30pm on Friday afternoon. :-)
Preheat oven at 500 for one hour to heat up your baking steel (or pizza stone).
Turn it up to 550F about 15 minutes before ready to bake.
Pat the pizza dough into approximately an 8-inch round and transfer it to a pizza peel dusted with cornmeal or flour. Make sure the dough slides easily on the peel before topping.
Spread the crushed tomatoes onto the dough using the back of a large spoon. Evenly distribute the pizza, sausage, black olives, pepper slices and garlic scapes. Top with mozzarella cheese.
Bake for 4-6 minutes until the cheese is starting to brown and bubble.