In the humble opinion of Simon Towers — Powered by Ooni member and the owner and chef behind Il Pirata Pizzata (@ilpiratapizzata) in Saltaire, England — pistachios are up there among the most versatile ingredients. We have to agree. They go well in both sweet and savoury dishes, which happens to work out winningly on a pizza with a base of pistachio cream topped with fior di latte mozzarella and pecorino, and garnished post-cook with prosciutto crudo, crushed pistachios and lemon zest.

The inspiration behind Simon’s dish stems from award-winning London-based chef Marco Fuso’s pizza master class, where he first tried pizza pistachio with mortadella, a classic Italian combo. As an Englander, Simon didn’t care much for the mortadella, which reminded him too much of British supermarket ham, so he decided to put his own twist on the dish by swapping out the mortadella for the traditionally uncooked, aged and salt-cured prosciutto crudo. For a little extra zing, Simon added lemon zest to cut through the sharp saltiness of the pecorino.

And since the veteran pizza chef introduced Simon to the flavours in the first place (and Il Pirata Pizzata is named after his childhood hero, cyclist Marco Pantani), he thought it only fitting to christen this pie “The Marco,” after two Italian greats.