This recipe would suit a variety of pizza styles, but we think our classic pizza dough would be a great fit. Make sure to prepare your dough ahead of time to ensure it rises at room temperature before firing up your oven.
For the vodka sauce, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan, add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about one minute. Add the shallots; stir, and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the herbs and spices, and cook until the garlic and onions begin to caramelise about 5 more minutes. Pour in the vodka and cook until the alcohol has evaporated, about one more minute. Mix in the tomatoes, bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and cook until the sauce has broken down to a smooth and uniform texture, about 20 to 30 minutes.
Remove from heat, add the cream and Parmesan, then purée with an immersion blender or countertop blender until smooth. Season with salt to taste.
Fire up your oven, aiming for 450 to 500°C (850 to 950°F) on the stone baking board inside. (Use an infrared thermometer to quickly and accurately check the temperature of the stone.)
Place a dough ball on your lightly floured work surface. Push the air from the centre out to the edge using your fingers. Stretch the dough out to a 12-inch-round base, then lay the stretched dough over your lightly floured pizza peel or countertop.
Spread 80 grams of vodka sauce in the centre of the pizza.
Sprinkle a quarter of your mozzarella evenly over the sauce.
To create the olive spiders, slice each olive in half lengthwise. Use one half for the spider “body” and cut the other half into 6 strips roughly the same width to create the “legs”.
When topping the pizza, place 3 slices on either side of the olive “spider body”. Repeat until you have covered the pizza with spiders. (Roughly 6 spiders will fit on a 12” pizza.)
Cook for 60 to 90 seconds, rotating every 20 seconds to ensure an even bake.
Remove from the oven when finished and slice, trying to keep your olive spiders intact. Repeat for the remaining three pizzas, and enjoy!