Ever since I stumbled onto premade pizza dough by Epicurean Chefs, I’ve been enjoying anew the joys of homemade pizza. While I do know how to make a pretty mean pizza dough, I have to say the Epicurean Chefs really know their stuff. I’m willing to concede that compared to their dough—which IMO is pretty much perfect—mine is in need of some serious rethinking.
I’ve been buying their frozen dough at a small neighborhood market in Salt Lake City, Liberty Heights Fresh. But a couple Saturdays ago I ran into the chefs themselves at the Farmers Market. So I bought another dough ball just to have on hand.
The same day, I bought a hunk of smoked goat mozzarella from Drake Family Farms, also regulars at the Farmers Market. I knew the smoked cheese and pizza dough were going to have to meet in my kitchen.
I remembered reading a pizza recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone that called for smoked mozzarella. The recipe that follows is pretty much the same, except that I used shiitake mushrooms instead of button mushrooms, because I much prefer the former. I also added some red onions to the sauté.
For the sauce, I thawed some tomatoes that I roasted and froze last fall, puréed them and added a couple tablespoons of tomato paste for body. Of course, you can use whatever pizza sauce you prefer.
The results were fabulous!
Pizza with Shiitakes and Smoked Mozzarella
- 1 pizza crust for 12″-15″ pizza—use your favorite homemade or premade crust
- 1/2-1 cup tomato sauce for pizza
- 6 ounces shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1/2 small red onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
- 2 T olive oil
- 3 ounces smoked mozzarella, coarsely grated
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 2 clove garlic
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
- Dust a pizza pan or baking sheet with cornmeal. Press pizza dough onto the pan and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a skillet and add the mushrooms and onions. Sauté for five minutes, until both are relatively soft, but not soggy.
- Spread a layer of tomato sauce onto the pizza dough. Distribute the mushrooms and onions over the dough, leaving a 1/2″ to 1″ border. Sprinkle the cheese over the mushrooms.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until done.
- While the pizza is baking, chop the garlic and parsley together. After the pizza comes out of the oven, sprinkle the parsley/garlic mixture on top.