Happy new pizza!
A wonderful crust with fennel, mozzarella and fontina
We started the year stumbling upon a great pizza… Peter wanted to try a new dough recipe and invited his buddy Chris over for a taste. As it often happens, Chris brought a garnish to experiment with and we had one of our own (which actually was the extra stuffing that was left over from the ravioli Peter had made earlier). Try them both and decide which one you like best.
The Dough
Is an easy variation of our Neapolitan Pizza Dough and it makes for a crispier pie that holds up nicely to heavier garnishes. The variation is this: Add 1 cup of flour to the recipe, so 5 1/2 cups of flour instead of just 4 1/2 cups.
Fennel, Mozzarella, and Fontina Garnish
We used the dish Chris brought and made this white pizza… loved it!
3 heads of fennel, quartered
1 clove of garlic, sliced thin
1 cup of vermouth or white wine
1/4 stick of butter
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425 F. Put fennel, garlic, vermouth, and butter in a metal pan and place in the oven. Once the butter is melted, take the pan out to baste the fennel, then back in the oven to bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until fennel is tender. Let the dish cool.
Prepare the pizza pie and garnish with some of the baked fennel, sprinkling cut mozzarella and fontina cheeses on top. Slide pizza in the wood fired oven, bake for one and one half minute, rotate, and finish baking.
Slide pizza out of the oven and before serving, add some finely chopped parsley, grated parmesan cheese and optional, a little olive oil.
Potato, Gruyere, and Truffle Butter Garnish
Boil 3 medium potatoes in salted water.
Discard the water and pass the boiled potatoes through a ricer while still hot or mash them well. Add 1 tablespoon of truffle butter and 1/3 cup shredded gruyere cheese to the mashed potatoes and stir until melted.
Prepare the pizza pie and garnish with mozzarella cheese cut into cubes and then add a little bit of this potato mixture. Slide pizza in the wood fired oven that has been pre-heated to 650F bake for about one and a half minute, rotate pizza and finish baking. This is another “white” pizza (without tomato sauce) that we really, really loved. Great as an appetizer.
Buon appetito!
February 11th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
In the potato, Gruyere, and Truffle Butter Garnish – What do you mean by “add a little bit of this potato mixture” to the pizza? In dollops? Spread on the dough? How much of the mixture and his is it put on the pizza? Thank you. I really like your blog. I have a wood burning oven which comes into our house and which we cook with nearly every day.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
How great is it that your house came with a wood fired oven! We too have great fun cooking in our pizza oven…
As for the Gruyere and Truffle Butter Garnish: Spread the mixture in small dollops all over the pizza pie dough (the recipe is enough for two to three 10″ pizzas). The one thing to keep in mind is that the potato mixture is a bit heavy, literally, so it is better to err on less rather than more the first time around to make sure the pizza pie will hold the garnish and not tear. Let me know what you think. So far it is my favorite. Oh, and keep the truffle butter in the freezer, that way it will keep for a while.
April 16th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Oh wow! I usually get pizza delivered but this looks so great. Please keep posting the pics as they make my mouth absolutley water. This is pizza at its best for sure!