Recipe of the Week - Brussels Sprout and Ricotta Pizza
Posted on October 29, 2019 | Recipe
Description
Perhaps the biggest vegetable myth of all is that Brussels sprouts are mushy and tasteless. The minute you've tasted a roasted local Sprout - sweetened by the Wisconsin frost and caramelized by your oven, you'll crave them too! A way to kick up this crave-worthiness even more? Pair them with bacon and shallots on a pizza. (Thanks to local food blog Wisconsin from Scratch for even more reasons to love Brussels Sprouts.)
Ingredients
- Pizza Dough, recipe below
- 1 tsp cornmeal
- 3 slices bacon, cut into pieces
- 1 large shallot, thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 cups (loosely packed) brussels sprouts leaves (peeled from about ½ lb brussels sprouts)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- ¾ cup whole milk ricotta cheese
- ¾ cup grated low moisture mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ½ Tbsp red chile flake
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Grease a baking sheet or large pizza pan with cooking spray and sprinkle it with the cornmeal. Place dough in the center of the pan and spread all the way to the edges, spreading dough as thinly as you can without tearing it. Let pizza dough rest while oven heats and you prep the rest of your toppings. (hint - if you’re having trouble spreading the dough all the way to the edges, spread it as far as you can, then let it rest for about 5 minutes. After resting, it will be easier to finish spreading the dough all the way to the edges of the pan).
3. In a pan over medium heat, cook the bacon pieces until crisp. Remove from the pan, and set aside on a paper towel to drain, leaving excess bacon grease in the pan.
4. Add the shallot and garlic to the bacon grease in the pan, and cook over medium heat until soft and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the Brussels sprout leaves, and continue to cook, stirring often, until they are just slightly wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
4. Top pizza dough with the olive oil and spread it so it covers the surface of the dough all the way to the edges. Dot ricotta cheese evenly over the pizza crust, followed by the shredded mozzarella, Brussels sprouts mixture, bacon, and parmesan cheese. Sprinkle chile flakes over the top, then pop into the oven.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until crust is browned, cheese is bubbly and Brussels sprout leaves are crisp. Enjoy immediately!
Pizza Dough
¾ cup warm water
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp honey
2 cups flour (preferably bread flour)
1 tsp salt
1. Dissolve yeast and honey in water, let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Combine the flour and salt and a large bowl. Make a well in the center and add the liquid ingredients, stirring until ingredients are just combined. Let sit for 10-20 minutes. (note: this sitting stage allows the gluten network to start forming through hydration, which will cut down on your overall kneading time by about 50%. If you’d rather not wait, you can start kneading immediately, and you will just end up needing to work the dough for about 6-8 minutes to build up a sufficient gluten network).
3. Knead dough until a smooth cohesive ball forms and dough passes the ‘windowpane test’ (should take about 2-4 minutes if you rested the dough in the previous step, otherwise about 6-8 minutes).
4. Spray a bowl with cooking spray, put dough into bowl, turning to coat both sides of dough with oil. Cover bowl and let sit at room temperature for 60-90 minutes, or until dough has doubled in size.