Are you as disappointed as me when you order pizza for home delivery? It never tastes as good as when you get it fresh from the oven. It’s my mission to get you to try making your own at home.
What you will need to make pizza at home:
- I have a little pizza oven that I can put on my BBQ. But I have also made pizza successfully in my regular oven. I would suggest getting a baking steel or pizza stone to bake the pizza on. I prefer the durability and performance of the baking steel, but have had good results with both.
- A pizza peel. A wooden handle and stainless steel body is a good option.
Roast your veggie toppings before adding to the pizza:
I decided to make a “white” pizza, meaning no tomato sauce. Wild mushrooms, spicy Italian sausage and cheese are a great flavour combination. I like to roast the mushrooms in the oven before topping the pizza. Mushrooms have a very high water content, and if you put them onto the pizza raw, they will release all their juices and make the pizza soggy. I used a mix of cremini (brown button mushrooms) and oyster mushrooms. Olive oil, salt, pepper and a bit of fresh thyme go onto the mushrooms before a 15 minute roast in a hot oven.
A dough discussion:
For the dough, you can certainly purchase ready made pizza dough. But if you want something truly spectacular, try Jim Lahey’s no knead pizza dough (recipe below). You need to plan a day ahead if you want to make the dough, but it’s worth it.
I don’t use a rolling pin on pizza dough to shape it. I start with a ball of dough and gently press it into a round or oval shape. Then I use gravity and hold the dough like a steering wheel, turning it so it stretches. You can see the technique in the video.
Difference between fresh mozzarella and regular (low moisture) mozzarella:
Because more cheese is never a bad idea, I decided to make this a stuffed crust pizza using fresh pearl mozzarella balls. If you can’t find the little balls, just dice up some regular fresh mozzarella into 1/4 inch pieces. Make sure press firmly as you seal in the cheese as you go around the rim of the crust.
Just a note on the difference between fresh mozzarella and regular mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is sold in small plastic containers or bags filled with water or whey. It is quite perishable and should be used within a few days.
Regular, also called “low moisture” mozzarella is sold in a block or ball, tightly wrapped without any liquid. it has a firmer texture and is more rubbery than fresh mozzarella. It is ideal to be used as a pizza topping or in lasagna.
I opted to use Fontina cheese on top of this pizza. Fontina has a nutty flavour profile that pairs well with the roasted mushrooms. I also added some ricotta for creaminess. To keep my pizza vegetarian, I used a plant based spicy Italian sausage, that I browned before adding to the pizza.
Wild Mushroom and Sausage Stuffed Crust Pizza
Equipment
- pizza stone or baking steel
Ingredients
- 900 grams pizza dough homemade or store bought
- 3 Tablespoons cornmeal for dusting parchment paper
For roasted mushrooms
- 250 grams mushrooms I used a mix of cremini and oyster
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme leaves stripped from stems
Pizza toppings
- 100 grams spicy Italian sausage meat or plant based, casing removed
- 225 grams fresh pearl mozzarella or regular fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
- 150 grams ricotta cheese
- 75 grams fontina cheese shredded
- 75 grams low moisture mozzarella cheese shredded
- 10 grams Parmesan cheese grated
For finishing pizza
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Slice cremini mushrooms into 1/4 inch thick slices. Tear oyster mushrooms in half. Place mushrooms on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and thyme leaves. Mix mushrooms with your clean hands until they are coated in oil and seasonings. Roast for 12-15 minutes until browned and a little bit crispy around the edges.
- Preheat your pizza oven if you have one or, set a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500°F, allowing at least 45 minutes for the stone to heat.
- Flour your work surface and scrape the dough out of the bowl. Divide it into 3 equal parts and shape them. For each pizza, start with the right side of the dough and pull it toward the center; then do the same with the left, then the top, then the bottom. (The order doesn’t actually matter; what you want is four folds.) Shape each portion into a round and turn seam side down. Mold the dough into a neat circular mound. The mounds should not be sticky; if they are, dust with more flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for a few minutes.
- Heat medium sized skillet over medium high heat. Add sausage and crumble with potato masher or wooden spoon. Continue cooking until sausage is browned and fully cooked.
- Shape the pizzas, one at a time. On a lightly floured surface, pressing down with floured fingertips, shape the dough into a small, flat disk. Work from the center and push the dough outward, spreading your fingers as you make the disc larger. Keep the rim a bit thicker. Pick up the dough and move your hands along the edges, allowing gravity to pull the dough into a 12-inch circle. This method has been nicknamed, “Driving the Bus”.
- Lay a sheet of parchment paper, slightly larger than the pizza, on the counter and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Place dough on parchment paper. Pull rim of dough to flatten it a bit more. Arrange 1/3 of fresh mozzarella around the edges of the crust, leaving a 3/4-inch space. Fold the edges of the dough over the cheese, pinching down to seal.
- Top pizza with 1/3 of ricotta, fontina and low moisture mozzarella. Scatter sausage over cheese. Top with 1/3 of mushrooms. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with flaky salt.
- Transfer pizza, still on parchment paper, to a pizza peel. Slide onto the pizza stone and bake for 3 minutes. Using the pizza peel, slide pizza out and, carefully, using tongs, pull the parchment paper out and discard. The parchment paper is just used to make sliding the pizza into the oven easier. If you leave it in for too long, it will burn. Now that the bottom of the pizza is partially cooked, it will slide easily back onto the stone. Continue baking until cheese is melted with some browned spots and crust is golden brown and puffed, 11 to 13 minutes more if you are using your oven. If you have a BBQ pizza oven, it will cook quicker, maybe 5-6 minutes in total.
- Remove from oven. Repeat with remaining 2 pizzas. It is best to shape and top them just before baking.
Notes
Nutrition
Jim Lahey’s No Knead Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 500 grams all-purpose or 00 flour
- 1 gram active dry yeast
- 16 grams Diamond Crystal Kosher salt or 8 grams Mortons Kosher salt
- 350 grams water room temperature
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, thoroughly blend the flour, yeast, and salt.Add the water and, with a wooden spoon, a Danish whisk, or your hands, mix thoroughly.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and allow it to rise at room temperature (about 72°F) for 18 hours or until it has more than doubled. It will take longer in a chilly room and less time in a very warm one.