Saturday, October 30, 2010

White Pizza recipe


For all of you who are like me and like a traditional pizza such as pepperoni, try this recipe.  It is nothing like a traditional pizza but kicks major butt!  It is called white pizza because there is no tomato sauce.  Basil pesto acts as the sauce

For those of you in the States I know the recipe is in metric but for smaller quantities it is more difficult to convert.
You can easily find a metric converter on the internet and I would suggest to anyone who does a fair amount of cooking to buy a digital scale that can read in either metric or the American system of measurement.  Once you get used to metric you will never want to go back to the American way of measurement.

White pizza

Yield 4 ea individual pizzas

For the pizza
Ingredients Amount
Pizza dough 4 ea, 150gr each
Sun dried tomatoes, chopped 160gr
Fresh tomatoes, deseeded, chopped 160gr
Goat’s cheese 160gr
Ricotta cheese 160gr
Buffalo mozzarella cheese, chopped 160gr
Basil pesto To coat bottom of crust
Flour For rolling pizza
Cornmeal For dusting
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Parmesan-optional

Basil pesto
Ingredients Amount
Basil leaves, not black 125gr
Pine nuts, toasted 18gr
Grated parmesan 32gr
Fresh garlic, small chopped 25gr
Olive oil 63ml
Black pepper to taste
Salt to taste


Procedure:
-Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend for about 10 seconds until thoroughly blended.

Pizza dough
Ingredients Amount
Flour 500 gr
Instant yeast 7.5 gr
Salt 10 gr
Olive oil 175 ml
Eggs 1 ea.
Water- warm 275 ml

Procedure:
Place all ingredients in a mixer using the dough hook attachment.
Mix on medium speed for about 10 minutes.
Remove and place in an oiled bowl for about 15 minutes.
Take out and then portion into 150gr sizes. You will have some leftover.
After portioning let it rise until double the volume.
The dough can be refrigerated until ready for use.
When ready to make pizza, roll as instructed below.


To make the pizza:
-Preheat oven to 260C/500F
-If you have a pizza stone, place it on the bottom rack of the oven. Allow it to get hot in the oven for at least 30 minutes prior to baking the pizzas.
-Dust a clean, flat surface with flour for rolling the dough
-Roll out the pizza dough until it is approximately 1cm thick.
NOTE: when rolling the dough, do not pull it and always roll outwards from the center
-Sprinkle some cornmeal on a pizza peel and place the rolled out dough on top.
-With a spoon, rub the pesto on the dough evenly leaving approximately a one inch border.
-Evenly sprinkle the tomatoes and 3 cheeses on top
-Bake until crust is golden brown
-Once baked cut into 6 slices and place on serving platter
-If you like, you can garnish the pizza with freshly grated parmesan
-Drizzle just a bit of extra virgin olive oil on the pizza
-Enjoy

I always recommend people know their ovens well.  Know where the hot spots are.  With pizza dough, I suggest you make 1 1/2 times the recipe so you have a little to practice with . Working with different doughs is not the same as simply roasting a piece of chicken.




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