Memorial Day

Duck Carbonara Pizza with Green Garlic, Arugula & Pistachio Pesto

May  5, 2010
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves 2
Author Notes

Whenever I make pizza, and that's usually about once a week, I have a good long stare into the refrigerator and then start to concoct something tasty from whatever I uncover. Recently, I put together this pizza, and since that first one, can't seem to drum up any interest in further experimentation. It's pretty much everything I want in a pizza. As with all my yeast doughs, I allow for a rise in the refrigerator as long as 48 hours to develop a crisp exterior and a tangy flavor. —MrsWheelbarrow

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Pizza Dough
  • 1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 tablespoon chopped chives or thyme, or combination
  • 2 to 2.5 cups all purpose flour
  • olive oil to oil the bowl
  • Make The Pizza
  • 1 bunch green garlic (substitute 2 garlic cloves if you must)
  • 2 cups arugula
  • 1/4 cup pistachios, roasted & unsalted (if unable to find unsalted, reduce other salt in the recipe)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesian
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 6 ounces duck breast proscuitto
  • 12 small new red potatoes
  • 1 piece large fresh mozzerella, sliced into 12 pieces
  • 8 cups fresh arugula or spinach
  • 2 duck egg
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Parmesian Curls (optional)
Directions
  1. Pizza Dough
  2. Scatter yeast over the warm water and allow it to sit for 5 minutes until it bubbles.
  3. Add one cup of the flour and stir well. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes.
  4. Add another cup of flour, the herbs, salt and olive oil and stir into a shaggy mass. Turn out on to a floured countertop or board and allow it to rest while you rinse out the bowl. Once rinsed, dry off and oil the bowl with a little olive oil.
  5. Gently turn and knead the dough until it's smooth. Place back into the oiled bowl, cover and allow to rise either one hour in a warm spot, or up to 48 hours in the refrigerator.
  1. Make The Pizza
  2. Make the pesto: In a blender or food processor, puree the green garlic bulbs and scapes, arugula, pistachios, salt, olive oil and parmesian until smooth. Stir in the softened butter. Set aside. This will make much more pesto than you need for the pizza, but that's a good thing. Try it stirred into scrambled eggs.
  3. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and divide it - then place each onto a separate piece of oiled parchment. Form into vague rounds and allow the dough to come to room temperature for about 20-30 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 450.Place your pizza stone on the oven rack not at the very top, but one level down. Allow the stone to heat for at least 30 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile, boil the new potatoes whole. I used tiny potatoes no bigger than a grape and they were cooked in 8 minutes. Drain and cut in half and place on a piece of parchment. Drizzle the cut side with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and slip into the oven, on top of the pizza stone, and roast for 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
  6. Assemble the pizzas. Press out the rim of the dough using your fingertips (see photo.) Then press from the center out until you have a nice round of pizza dough with a little ridge at the edges. Do the same with the other half.
  7. Brush the dough with some olive oil, then spread a nice layer of pesto all over the dough, avoiding the edges. Divide the potatoes, cut side up, the proscuitto and the mozzerella slices between the two pizzas.
  8. Using a pizza peel, or create one by turning a cookie sheet upside down, slide the parchment paper onto the peel and then slide the entire paper and pizza onto the stone.
  9. Take a deep breath. Set the timer for 12 minutes. Toss the 8 cups of arugula with salt, pepper, and enough olive oil to just coat it.
  10. When the timer goes off, pull out the entire rack/stone. Dump 4 cups of arugula on each pizza. Make a little indentation in the center of the arugula and crack in a duck egg. (You might notice that I missed the center of my pizza.) Gently push the rack back in the oven. Set the timer for 6-8 minutes.
  11. Grab the parchment with tongs and slide the pizza right out onto your peel, then on a cutting board. Sprinkle coarse salt on the egg yolk and decorate with Parmesian curls, that is, if you haven't just run out of Parmesian making the pesto.
Contest Entries

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • melissav
    melissav
  • aargersi
    aargersi
  • WinnieAb
    WinnieAb
  • testkitchenette
    testkitchenette
  • lastnightsdinner
    lastnightsdinner
Four cookbooks. 100s of recipes online. It all started with Food52

14 Reviews

melissav February 21, 2011
Thanks Mrs. W. My duck proscuttio is hanging in the wine fridge so I will be giving this try over the weekend once it is cured. Can't wait.
 
melissav February 19, 2011
Can you clarify the yeast amount? 1.5 packets or TB or tsp? Thanks. This looks delicious.
 
MrsWheelbarrow February 19, 2011
Melissa, Thank you for pointing that out!
It's 1.5 tsp of dry yeast.
Hope you enjoy it! - Cathy
 
dovesandfigs May 10, 2010
You do have some fabulous things lurking in your fridge! This looks delicious and I especially love the duck egg
 
aargersi May 6, 2010
Cheater - and I mean that in the best way :-) This looks pretty darn winner-ish. YUM!!!! They actually have duck eggs at our farmer's market on occasion, barring that, we do have a duck pond right down the street ... hmmmm ....
 
MrsWheelbarrow May 6, 2010
It's definitely duck egg season. They've been at all the farmers markets lately. They are huge and have more yolk to white than chicken eggs. Also, at least these eggs, had a stronger, more grassy flavor than chicken eggs. Hope you can try this pizza without robbing the nest!
 
WinnieAb May 5, 2010
Hello yumminess!
 
testkitchenette May 5, 2010
Drool.
 
MrsWheelbarrow May 5, 2010
Ha! thanks!
 
lastnightsdinner May 5, 2010
I have two words for you: pizza party. We just need to figure out where. ;)
 
MrsWheelbarrow May 5, 2010
I'm now wondering if I can make this in a cast iron pan, of course.
 
mrslarkin May 5, 2010
Yum, Mrs. W. I want that. Now. (I was ogling LND's cast iron, too. It's mighty pretty.)
 
nannydeb May 5, 2010
All I can say is...yum.
 
MrsWheelbarrow May 5, 2010
thanks! give it a try (you can always use a chicken egg, of course.)