Fall

Crispy Kale Pizza

by:
January 27, 2014
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves 1-6 depending on if you share or not!
Author Notes

This pizza came about by putting together random ingredients we hadn't gotten around to using and wanted to use before they spoiled. We were having an at-home movie night and what's better than pizza and a movie? (along with Trader Joe's Vinho Verde -- great find, delicious light white wine that is super inexpensive). We first made this dish with thawed out puff pastry (as we didn't have pizza dough in the fridge) and it worked but it really is better on pizza dough. —jfroscoe

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 store bought pizza dough (follow thawing instructions on box)
  • 1 small head of garlic
  • 1/3 cup hazelnuts
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup flat leaf italian parsley and basil (together not a cup of each)
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 cup shredded fontina cheese
  • 2 cups grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
  • 3 bunches curly kale
Directions
  1. thaw out your pizza dough (you might need to do this the night before) according to instructions on the packaging.
  2. heat the oven to 400. peel any loose papers off the garlic head. then chop the top third off to expose the cloves. if you have some smaller cloves that didn't get the top chopped off of, just use a small pairing knife to individually chop off those tops. use 1 tablespoon olive oil to cover the exposed tops. wrap/enclose in foil and bake on the oven rack for about 45 minutes (until the cloves are super soft). remove from oven, open foil packet and set aside to cool.
  3. peel the onions. (i recommend breaking out your onion glasses and hand held mandoline to make this step easy and painless!) slice paper thin. put the butter in a pan over low-medium heat and melt until it gets foamy. add the onions. let them cook stirring occasionally -- this can take anywhere from 45-60 minutes until they caramelize. take the pan off the heat and set aside (it's fine to keep the onions in the pan)
  4. while the onions are cooking, make the pesto. i use my mini cuisinart. throw in the hazelnuts and grind them. then add the parsley and basil leaves (you don't need to chop them) and roasted garlic cloves (i put in about 5 - 6 but add more if you love garlic) and 2 big pinches/small handfuls or the parmesan or pecorino and then blend. once you get a good chunky thick looking batch, add the olive oil tablespoon by tablespoon for your desired consistency. you want it thick and spreadable but not too soupy for this dish. (if the roasted garlic hasn't finished cooking, you can start on the kale - next step -- and finish off the pesto when the garlic is ready)
  5. now is a good time to preheat the oven. wash your kale. pull it off the stalks, ripping any big pieces in half. add 2 tablespoons olive oil, about 1/2 a cup of pecorino or parmesan, a little salt and pepper to taste and mix together so it's evenly covered. don't add too much salt, keep in mind baking the kale intensifies flavor so you can always add salt later once the pizza comes out if it's not salty enough for you.
  6. roll out the pizza dough and put on a cookie sheet, (again according to instructions). brush lightly with olive oil. spread pesto over the dough (leaving a 1 inch border). lightly cover in fontina cheese. sprinkle onions over fontina cheese. sprinkle remaining fontina cheese over the onions. bake for a few minutes (likely no more than 10) until the cheese is pretty much all melted. remove from the oven, cover the pizza in the kale, bake again for another 10-15 minutes until crust is golden and kale is crisped up.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

0 Reviews