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
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Ingredients
- Pizza Dough
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1.5 teaspoons
active dry yeast
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1 cup
warm water
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3 tablespoons
olive oil
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2 teaspoons
salt
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1 tablespoon
chopped chives or thyme, or combination
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2 to 2.5 cups
all purpose flour
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olive oil to oil the bowl
- Make The Pizza
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1 bunch
green garlic (substitute 2 garlic cloves if you must)
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2 cups
arugula
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1/4 cup
pistachios, roasted & unsalted (if unable to find unsalted, reduce other salt in the recipe)
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1/2 teaspoon
salt
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1/2 cup
olive oil
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1/4 cup
freshly grated parmesian
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2 tablespoons
butter, softened
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6 ounces
duck breast proscuitto
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12
small new red potatoes
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1 piece
large fresh mozzerella, sliced into 12 pieces
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8 cups
fresh arugula or spinach
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2
duck egg
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Salt & Pepper
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Parmesian Curls (optional)
Directions
- Pizza Dough
-
Scatter yeast over the warm water and allow it to sit for 5 minutes until it bubbles.
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Add one cup of the flour and stir well. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes.
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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.
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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.
- Make The Pizza
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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