Recipe: Pizza Margherita with Speck

Last week we made a simple pizza: Pizza Margherita with Speck. I should explain what speck is. It's not the same as the German speck found in German speaking areas of Northern Italy. (Actually, in German, speck literally means bacon.)  Their speck is more like what Italians call lardo, which is a very fatty bacon cured with loads of spices. Speck as we discovered it in Italy (as far south as Puglia) is basically a smoke-cured prosciutto. It's much less fatty and perhaps a bit saltier tasting, but not overly so.

The pizzas we had in Italy with either prosciutto or speck placed the meat on the pizza after it came out of the oven. As you can see in the photo, the speck is crispy because I put it on before the pizza went into the oven. It is absolutely delicious crispy like this. It's also great when used in pasta dishes like carbonara. You can find speck in Italian specialty markets and online--even on Amazon.  But, unless you have a deli slicer, I wouldn't recommend getting a large one online. Like prosciutto, speck needs to be sliced paper thin. I really recommend finding an Italian deli that carries it and have it cut to order.

--Jerry Finzi

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