The wonders of bacon courtesy Giovanni’s 

We met the ever chirpy and hardworking Dimuthu Gamage and his fantastic team on a rainy Colombo evening. The meet up was not just to dive into Giovanni’s delectable pizzas but to pick up two recipes using bacon as a base (after all, you can never have too much bacon can you!). Dimuthu and his friendly pizza chef Manju made these too scrumptious starters for us, which I need to warn you were delicious and filling! 

Giovanni’s stuffed pepper with bacon 

What you will need: 

Pizza Dough 
Capsicum 
Bacon 
Garlic 
Italian Herbs 
Chilli Flakes 
Mozzarella 
Gorgonzola 
Olive Oil 
Oil for deep frying 

For garnishing - Tomato wedges, olives, mozzarella, chilli flakes 

How to whip it up: 

First flour your surface and roll out the pizza dough. Cut the dough out into two inch strips, flour and keep aside. Clean up the capsicum coat it with olive oil and then stuff it with bacon, garlic, herbs, chilli and the two cheeses. Wrap it up with the strips of dough and deep fry. Once cooled, cut and serve with wedges of tomato, mozzarella, olives and chilli flakes. 

Gnocco Fritto with bacon 

What you will need: 

Pizza Dough with milk 
Bacon 
Mozzarella 
Chilli Flakes 
Oregano 
Garlic 
Oil for deep frying 

For garnishing - Tomato wedges, olives, mozzarella, chilli flakes 

How to whip it up: 

Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Make two, three inch strips and keep one aside. Place mounds of bacon leaving space for cutting in between each mound and top the bacon with the mozzarella, oregano, chilli flakes and garlic. Then cover them with the second layer of dough. Cut them out, crimp the edges with a fork and sprinkle flour and set aside till your oil heats up and deep fry. Once cooled, cut each patty in half and serve with tomato, mozzarella, olives and chilli flakes. 

By Natasha Fernandopulle 
Video and photographs by Kanishke Ganewatte