white pizza with garlic scape pesto
Homemade pizzas are never as perfect as the stuff you get at all the well-known pizza places here in New York (I recently spent 15 minutes describing Di Fara pizza to someone… there was a lot of chest-clutching on my part), but hot damn are they fun to make! You can make them whatever size you want, pile on a bunch of vegetables, and make ridiculous/inappropriate-in-restaurant designs and shapes with the toppings. Hell, you can even make your own cheese. Here’s a run-down of this latest pizza of mine.
The dough:
I finally gave no-knead dough a shot because lazy-made baked goods? Yes please. This is my new favorite way to make pizza dough because all you have to do is mix 4 ingredients in a bowl, then let it hang out for at least half a day.
The pesto:
Garlic scapes are the curly stems that shoot out of garlic bulbs in the early summer. They are trimmed off so that the garlic can devote all of its energy to the underground bulb. Scapes are less pungent than regular garlic cloves, and you can eat them raw or lightly cooked. I combined them with toasted pine nuts and olive oil in the food processor to make a bright green pesto. Perfect for tossing with pasta or vegetables, mixing into salad dressings and marinades, or spreading on sandwiches or pizza dough.
The cheese:
I spread big dots of homemade ricotta (more on that later) all over the dough, along with pieces of mozzarella. Shaved Parmigiano Reggiano (or some other aged, hard cheese) would’ve also been a good finishing touch.
I’ve gotten into the habit of cooking pizzas on an upside-down baking sheet that has been sitting in my oven while it preheats on the highest temperature setting. The crusts get a little more crusty this way. Since I don’t have a pizza peel, I assemble the pizzas on a piece of parchment paper, then slide it onto the hot baking sheet. The better way, according to people who are far more experienced than I am (read ‘em here and here), is to put the dough directly on an overturned pan under the broiler.
For more basic homemade pizza tips, check out the New York Times’ short slide show.
