Mushroom Leek Pizza

On my first trip to Italy I learned that all pizzas are not slathered in red sauce and heaped with mozzarella. At the time I was bitterly disappointed because my pizza had no cheese. Though the menu didn’t mention cheese I thought nothing of it, after all Dominos doesn’t list cheese as one of their toppings, it’s a given. Well, not in Rome. In Rome when the menu says olives and tomatoes, that’s what you get, and when you’re nineteen and have a food budget of six dollars a day that is all you get. Until the Japanese tourists next to you take pity and share their margarita pizza with you. Cheese!

These days I have a wider definition of pizza and the closest I get to Domino’s is when the delivery car drives past our house on their way somewhere else.

I love making pizza at home. Saucy, yes, sometimes. But last night I had the yen for something lighter. A hint of Parmesan, a hint of heat. Olive oil. Leeks. Shiitake mushrooms. The dough was started two days ahead so it was complex enough to add its own notes of flavor. And then, in a final tip of the hat to lazy, I topped the whole thing with mixed greens and a light drizzle of balsamic and made a salad pizza.

I don’t use a recipe for pizza dough, I don’t weigh and I don’t measure. Sometimes I use water and sometimes I use beer for the liquid. Often I add whole-wheat flour (about a quarter of the total amount) but sometimes I skip it. I almost always use bread flour instead of AP. Sometimes there is olive oil but usually not. I do like to start the dough the day before but sometimes I don’t have time. Sometimes it turns out amazing; sometimes it’s just really good.

It turns out that my pizza dough philosophy resembles Deb’s from the smittenkitchen. Except she makes notes when she tries different styles and she takes pictures of the process. So if you’re scared of making your own pizza dough I highly recommend this post. It will give you all the info you need to make it easy and make it good in whatever amount of time you have.

If you make pizza at home on a regular basis you probably already have a system and I say go with that.

Because the toppings are so light on this particular pizza I do recommend a long ferment for the dough. This particular batch was started on Saturday and baked on Monday, left on the counter for the first overnight (keep in mind the kitchen is only about 65 degrees now so if you make dough in the summer everything changes) and then tossed in the fridge on Sunday when our plans changed once again. I took the dough out about two hours before I was ready to shape it.

Thanks to my friend Andre for telling me he likes to put leeks on the pizzas he makes at home.

Mushroom Leek Pizza with salad greens

Ingredients

• Enough dough for two 14 inch pizzas (the recipe from smitten kitchen is about right)
• About 4 ounces shiitake mushrooms
• One leek, white and light green parts only, cleaned and cut into bite sized bits
• Extra virgin olive oil
• One or two cloves thinly sliced garlic
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• About a cup of freshly grated Parmesan or Reggiano cheese
• Optional- I made one of the two pizzas with chopped chicken as well.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 525 (or however high it will go, 500-550)- if you are using a pizza stone preheat it too, this can take a half hour or so.
2. Preheat a cast iron pan over medium low. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook until they begin to sweat. Add the leeks and the olive oil and continue to cook until the leeks are soft, stirring occasionally.
3. Prep the pizza pan by rubbing it with a bit of oil and dusting with cornmeal or flour.
4. On a well floured surface roll or pat out the dough to your desired thickness and shape.
5. Place dough on the pizza pan and then slather with extra virgin olive oil.
6. Add the garlic, one quarter of the parmesan, and pepper flakes.
7. Top with half of the cooked leek mushroom mixture and another quarter of the cheese.
8. Bake until bottom is browned. I cook my pizzas on the pan until the dough is set and then slide the pizza directly on to the stone until the bottom is crisped usually about three or four minutes for the first bit and another three to five for the second.
9. After cooling for a minute or two, top with salad greens or baby spinach and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Mushroom Leek Pizza

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

  

• Enough dough for two 14 inch pizzas the recipe from smitten kitchen is about right
• About 4 ounces shiitake mushrooms
• One leek white and light green parts only, cleaned and cut into bite sized bits
• Extra virgin olive oil
• One or two cloves thinly sliced garlic
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• About a cup of freshly grated Parmesan or Reggiano cheese
• Optional- I made one of the two pizzas with chopped chicken as well

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 525 (or however high it will go, 500-550)- if you are using a pizza stone preheat it too, this can take a half hour or so.
• Preheat a cast iron pan over medium low. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook until they begin to sweat. Add the leeks and the olive oil and continue to cook until the leeks are soft, stirring occasionally.
• Prep the pizza pan by rubbing it with a bit of oil and dusting with cornmeal or flour.
• On a well floured surface roll or pat out the dough to your desired thickness and shape.
• Place dough on the pizza pan and then slather with extra virgin olive oil.
• Add the garlic, one quarter of the parmesan, and pepper flakes.
• Top with half of the cooked leek mushroom mixture and another quarter of the cheese.
• Bake until bottom is browned. I cook my pizzas on the pan until the dough is set and then slide the pizza directly on to the stone until the bottom is crisped usually about three or four minutes for the first bit and another three to five for the second.
• After cooling for a minute or two, top with salad greens or baby spinach and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Tried this recipe?Mention @recipefiction or tag #recipefiction!