Pizza Margherita
By Cat, July 2008, updated Jan 2012 (photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons)
- See also: 1. Pizza (About); 2. Pizza Dough; 3. Crushed Tomato Sauce; 4. Caramelized Garlic; 5. Herb oil; 6. Baking Stone, Pizza Peel
- More pizza recipes: 1. Mediterranean Menu; 2. Savory Pies & Tarts
A local restaurant here serves a white pizza with mushrooms and garlic, but they use lightly sautéed garlic slices rather than caramelized garlic. It is still delicious.
My mom LOVED mushrooms of any kind, and we often went into the woods to pick them in the wild. Now I buy the more exotic varieties (shitake, morels, oyster, and so on) in dried form and reconstitute them. White button mushrooms and cremini mushrooms are available fresh in my local grocery.
Mushroom-Garlic Pizza
This recipe is an example of a pizza blanco (white pizza), and is adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine February 2012 issue; recipe by Peter Reinhart. Makes 4 pizzas to serve 8.
I’ve to yet tried this recipe, but I have had similar pizza at When In Rome restaurant here in Bigfork, and I find that I rather like a white pizza.
Ingredients & Equipment:
- Pizza Dough for two 13″ pizzas (see several options: Mediterranean Menu (scroll down to ‘Pizza Crust’)
- 1 recipe caramelized garlic (for garlic and flavored oil)
- 1 ½ cups sliced fresh shitake mushrooms *
- 1 ½ cups sliced fresh cremini or button mushrooms *
- Unrefined sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 cups shredded Gruyere or provolone cheese, divided
- 4 tsp Herb oil
- ¼ cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
- flour for dusting
- Equipment
- 12” cast iron skillet
- wooden pizza peel
- baking stone
- metal pizza peel (or large spatula)
* (or enough dried mushrooms reconstituted in white wine to make 1 ½ cups of each variety)
Method:
- Place baking stone on a lower rack in your oven. Preheat oven and baking stone to 500°F. If you are not familiar with using a baking stone, see Baking Stone and Pizza Peel for details. If you use a pizza pan or other baking sheet, set it on lowest oven rack, but do not preheat the pan.
- Warm 2 Tbsp of the reserved garlic-flavored olive oil in skillet. Add mushrooms; cook and stir 4 – 5 minutes until they begin to glisten. Remove from heat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.
- Shape dough into circle, then transfer to peel or a baking sheet dusted with flour.
- Top each pizza with ½ cup cheese, one-fourth of the sauteed mushrooms (aoubt ½ cup), and 6 – 8 cloves of caramelized garlic.
- Transfer pizza to preheated baking stone (if using), one at a time, and bake in oven 5 – 7 miutes, until toppings are bubbling, cheese is turning golden,, and edges of the pizza are golden brown. Rotate halfway through for even baking. Remove to cooling rack, and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
- Just before serving, drizzle with 1 tsp herb oil and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
- Repeat with remaining pizzas.
References
- Better Homes and Gardens Magazine February 2012 issue; recipe by Peter Reinhart
