2nd
White Pizza with Squash and Tarragon
We liked this so much, we made it twice in one week (and still didn’t make much of a dent in our squash collection). I can’t overstate how integral the tarragon is to this recipe—don’t skip it. Or the shallots. In fact, get ye to some yeast and make this ASAP!
The recipe is modified from the original to omit fresh fennel and brie (the fennel because it’s not fresh at Green Gate right now and the brie because, frankly, it just sounds like a strange concept to me on top of the mozz…)—check out the link to the original below if those are ingredients you’d like to add back in.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 recipe of pizza dough (below) or use your favorite dough recipe, or 2 10-ounce tubes refrigerated pizza dough
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
- 1 1/3 cups (packed) grated mozzarella cheese or 10 oz. sliced fresh mozzarella
- 2 small zucchini or other summer squash, very thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons minced shallot
How to:
Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425°F. Roll dough into four 7- to 9-inch rounds. Transfer rounds to an oiled baking sheet or a pizza stone. Brush 1 tablespoon oil over each round; sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon tarragon. Top with vegetables and mozzarella. Brush rounds with remaining oil. Sprinkle with shallot, salt, and pepper. Bake until cheese is bubbling, about 14 minutes. Cut each into 6 wedges, or just eat the whole dang thing out of hand—it’s that good.
Adapted from Bon Appétit.
Pizza Dough
This dough has a more developed flavor than most because it starts with a sponge you let ferment overnight. It’s a good idea to make a bunch at one time when you have the leisure and freeze it. As a result, please note that this recipe makes TWICE the amount you’ll need for the pizza recipe above.
Ingredients:
Sponge:
- 1 cup lukewarm water (110°F to 115°F)
- 1 envelope active dry yeast, divided
- 1 cup all purpose flour, divided
Dough:
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm (110°F to 115°F) water
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 envelope active dry yeast
- 6 cups (or more) all purpose flour
- Olive oil
- Yellow cornmeal
For sponge:
Place 1 cup lukewarm water in large bowl of heavy-duty mixer. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon yeast (reserve remaining yeast for dough) and 1/4 teaspoon flour over water. Let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture looks spongy, about 4 minutes. Add remaining flour and whisk until smooth; scrape down sides of bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let sponge rest at room temperature in draft-free area overnight (about 12 hours; sponge will look bubbly).
For dough:
Add 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 envelope yeast, and reserved remaining yeast to sponge, then add 6 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, beating with dough hook to blend after each addition. Continue to beat until dough is smooth, comes cleanly away from sides of bowl, and is only slightly sticky to touch, scraping down bowl occasionally, about 5 minutes. If dough is very sticky, beat in more flour, 1/4 cupful at a time. Scrape dough onto floured surface; knead into smooth ball.
Brush inside of large bowl with oil. Add dough; turn to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; chill 6 hours, kneading dough down when doubled (after 2 hours).
About 1.5 hours before baking, dust 2 baking sheets with flour. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead gently; shape into 16-inch log. Cut into 8 equal pieces. Knead each piece into smooth ball. Arrange 4 balls of dough on each sheet. Cover loosely with kitchen towels and let rise until almost doubled, 1 to 1.25 hours. If freezing some of your dough, punch it down and freeze it at this point.
If using pizza stone, place in oven.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees for 45 minutes. Working with 1 dough ball at a time, dust dough with flour. Press into 5-inch round, then gently stretch and roll out to 7- to 9-inch round.
If using a pizza stone, sprinkle pizza peel or rimless baking sheet with cornmeal. If not using pizza stone, sprinkle large baking sheet with cornmeal. Place dough round on cornmeal; brush lightly with oil. Top as desired. Slide pizza onto stone or place pizza on baking sheet into oven.
Bake pizza until sauce is bubbling and crust is crisp and brown, lifting edge of pizza to check underside, about 14 minutes.
Adaped from Epicurious. Photo from Gazy Brothers Farm in Oxford, CT.
