 |
| The Pizza Bianca before... |
Well, friends, it’s been a while! We had a wonderfully busy
week with my friend Emily, who came all the way from Vermont to visit! Thursday
was Emily’s birthday, and because she crashed all hopes of celebrating a
“Emily’s One-Cake-A-Day-Birthday-Week” by insisting that she needed a sugar
detox, we happily settled for “Emily’s One-Gelato-A-Day-Birthday-Week.” The
highlights were the usual: Vanille und Marille, our own Berlin version of
Gelato, and the ever faithful and best gelato in Berlin, Caffè e Gelato in the Potsdamer
Platz Arkaden. Our discovery of the week: Sole Mio – a combination of lemon and
basil. Simply divine! We went back… several times.
For Emily’s birthday picnic, we splurged and made a pizza bianca. Our friend Anne chose the
recipe from a book by a famous Swedish TV cook (at least it says so on the
cover!) that had been collecting dust on my shelf, Leila Lindholm. I don’t
think the recipe would have stood out to me at all – it does not contain a
single vegetable and basically only consists of dairy, which I try to avoid
because of my lactose free roommate. But it was totally worth it! Instead of an
all-white flour pizza crust, I substituted half the amount with whole-wheat
flour, which contrasted very nicely with the flavors of the different cheeses.
Instead of a tomato sauce, the recipe calls for a ricotta base. The sweetness
of the whey cheese wonderfully completes the crisp goodness of the Parmesan
cheese. I think the mozzarella just adds a little more richness while bringing
out the flavor of the Parmesan. Topped with heaps of garlic and a splash of
fresh oregano and toasted pine nuts, it is irrestible right out of the oven. As
your teeth find their way through the delightfully salty, garlicy, parmesan
crust which slightly burns your palate, the tasty pain is soothed by the creamy
sweetness of the ricotta, and wiped away by the fresh yeast crust. The three of
us devoured the three large loaves in just a couple of hours… and this was
after we had all had two scoops of Sole Mio!
 |
| .... and after... ready for the picnic! |
Here is the recipe, loosely following Leila’s recipe from
her book One More Slice.
Pizza Bianca
Makes 3 large pizzas
For the whole-wheat pizza dough:
15g instant yeast (3 tsp)
300ml luke warm water (1 ¼ cups)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil
200g white flour (1 2/3 cups)
100-200g whole-wheat flour (1- 1 ½ cups)
For the topping:
250g ricotta cheese (1 cup)
70g Parmesan (½ cup)
250g mozzarella cheese (1 cup)
50g pine nuts
6 cloves of garlic
fresh rosemary or dried oregano
olive oil
coarse sea salt
fresh black pepper
Making the pizza dough:
1. Whisk the yeast into the water, add a pinch of
sugar, and let sit for five minutes until foamy. Start with about 2/3 of the
suggested amount of water – you can always add more later if the dough is too
dry.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together.
3. Add the yeast mixture to the dry ingredients, and
mix well. Add more water or flour as needed, and knead the dough with your
hands or a dough hook until it comes off easily, at least about five minutes.
(Knead in the same direction for the gluten structures to develop – since we
added whole-wheat flour, you may want to knead a little longer, as it contains
less gluten than all-purpose flour).
4. Ta da! Let rise while you prepare the pizza. If
you are in a rush, let it rise in the oven, preheated to 50º C/120º F – not
hotter or you will kill the yeast!)
Making the pizza:
1. Preheat oven to 250ºC/480º F.
2. Toast the pine nuts in a pan (no extra oil,
medium heat – watch at all times, they burn very quickly!)
3. Divide the pizza dough into three pieces, roll
out thinly and spread ricotta on the pizzas. Top with Parmesan and toasted pine
nuts.
4. Crush the garlic, chop the rosemary and spread
on the pizza, adding a bit of olive oil, coarse sea salt and fresh black
pepper.
5. Bake for 5-10 minutes.
Buon appetito!!
pS: Happy belated birthday to Leila Lindholm as well, who, according to wikipedia, was born on June 21!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen