The best pizza ever.
This past weekend I was pretty busy making Ramp pizzas for the market. After catching wind of the smells in the kitchen, I was informed by my girlfriend that we would be having that for tonight’s dinner. I was more than fine with that. But after making a large amount of the same kind of pizza, I needed to amp things up a bit.
Pizza is great because with just a few cheap ingredients you can get a pretty good pie. You can however invest a little more and make something REALLY gourmet. Besides, it’s good to spoil yourself once and a while.
Point in case: Ramp, Asparagus, Fiddlehead Fern and Morel Pizza.
That’s about as much spring as one pizza can handle.
Ramp, Asparagus, Fiddlehead and Morel Pizza
Serves about 12
1 small frozen pizza dough, thawed (or homemade if you have the time) 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 handful ramps, washed and roots removed
1/2 lb asparagus, cut into 1 1/2 pieces
3/4 lb fiddlehead ferns, washed and brown chaff removed
3 oz fresh morel mushrooms or 1 3 oz packaged dried
1 tablespoon butter
3 oz fresh mozzarella ball, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 510 degrees F.
Adjust oven rack to the bottom of the oven. You will want to add your pizza stone about 1/2 before sliding the pizza on to it.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add ramps and cook for 1 minute. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and rinse with cold water. Bring water to a boil again. Add asparagus and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until crisp tender; drain and rinse with cold water. Bring water back to boil and add fiddleheads, cook for 5 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water. If using dried morels: empty dried morels into a small sauce pan and add just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, remove from heat let steep for 5 minutes; drain, dry and roughly chop. Heat butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add mushrooms and a pinch of salt, sauté until soft; reserve. Dry all veggies as much as you possibly can.
Lightly flour work area and work pizza dough out, getting it as thin as possible. Use a rolling pin to help this. Brush lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle mozzarella, asparagus, ramps, fiddleheads, morels and thyme, season with salt and pepper. Slide pizza on to the pizza stone using either a peel or inverted cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, or until edges are puffy and browned. When done, remove from oven and slide on to a wire cooling rack; let cool slightly.
Then…
Get after it!
