Memorial Day

Jersey Pizza with Roasted Garlic andĀ Arugula

May  5, 2010
5
2 Ratings
  • Serves 1 pizza dough
Author Notes

This is my husband's favorite pizza pie recipe. It's taken a long time to get it right, but with practice, it has become a family staple. - fattiefoodie —howtofeedagoon

Test Kitchen Notes

This arugula jersey makes for a perfect pizza pie. Thank you to fattiefoodie for the obvious recipe testing. This flawless recipe is powerful (I can still taste the smokey garlic) yet delicately balanced, thanks to the salty cheese and the peppery arugula. If you have larger arugula pieces, I recommend tearing or giving it a rough chop. This will make the eating process easier (and more flattering). And while a pizza stone is always ideal, you can make this magic happen in a heated cast iron pan. Serve with freshly sliced heirloom tomatoes and a crisp white wine. - CatherineJagers —The Editors

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Ingredients
  • 1 head of garlic
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 /2 cups very hot tap water
  • 1 packet active dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon cornmeal
  • 1 bunch arugula
  • 1/3 cup shaved parm
  • 1/3 cup diced Italian fontina
  • fresh ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut off the top of a head of garlic, drizzle with some olive oil, wrap in foil, and roast for 30-40 minutes, or until soft. Once cool, squeeze out roasted garlic into a bowl and set aside.
  2. Whisk honey into hot tap water (or nuke filtered water to 100 degrees), and mix in one packet of yeast. Allow yeast to proof (foam up) for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, add one cup of the flour and salt to a food processor and pulse several times. Once yeast mixture is foamy and thick, turn on the food processor and drizzle yeast mixture into the flour in a slow and steady stream until the flour just starts to stick together into a cohesive ball. You might not need all of the yeast mixture, and you do not want to add more liquid than needed, Remove the dough from the food processor and knead the dough on a floured surface for 2-3 minutes, Once dough is elastic and no longer sticky, place it in a small bowl and drizzle with olive oil until the entire dough ball is covered. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 1-2 hours.
  3. While dough is rising, heat the oven to 500 degrees, and place your pizza stone in the bottom of the oven. Once the dough has risen, punch it down, and press dough out on a floured surface into the shape of a circle. Place cornmeal onto your pizza peel, and place the dough on top. Drizzle dough with some olive oil, and spread with roasted garlic and season with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings. Add cheese. Place dough onto heated pizza stone and bake for 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is brown.
  4. Remove pizza from oven onto pizza peel. Toss arugula with olive oil, salt and pepper, and cover the pizza with the arugula mixture and allow to wilt. Serve hot.
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2 Reviews

Joe April 30, 2017
This recipe ill-advisedly calls for very hot tap water.

In the United States, hot water drawn directly from the tap generally is not potable. From one city's department of health to another, one will learn that heat-friendly bacteria may grow in the boilers that heat the water, and these bacteria may make one ill, sometimes seriously ill.

Hence, municipal departments of health generally advise using cold tap water for drinking and eating which is then heated over the stove or in the oven to the desired temperature.

Please correct this recipe and the many others on this site that advise the use of substances that are known to make one ill and caution readers to avoid this danger.
Reminds me of some yummy arugula pizza that we had in Rome. Look forward to trying it.