Brussels sprouts get such a bad rep because sometimes they can taste a little bitter if not cooked through enough. Well, I'm here to tell you that they make an excellent pizza topping. Pair them with a little pancetta and they are wonderful!
Pizza is not an easy food to make so if you are going to embark on this journey, give yourself time and be prepared to work.
The recipe below makes about 2 pizzas that are a little larger than personal pan size.
Pizza dough recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients for the One Day Pizza Dough:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup + 2-3 tbsp water
- Add all ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a spatula. Just mix until the all the flour gets incorporated into the dough.
- Set in a warm place (around 70-72 degrees fahrenheit) and allow to rise for about 8 hours.
- When it's ready, it should be double the size and really stretchy (be careful, it'll be sticky, too)!
Yep. That's it. For the dough anyway...
About 1 hour before you're going to make your pizza, you should prep your toppings!
Ingredients for Fresh Tomato Sauce:
4 large vine tomatoes
2 pinches of sea salt
- Wash the tomatoes then score the skins- do this by cutting an "X" into the bottom of your tomato, cutting through just the skin. FYI, I cut my tomatoes on the wrong side (womp, womp). You want to cut into the side that wasn't where the stem was.
- Boil a pot of water- enough water that your tomatoes will be completely submerged when they all go into the pot. Once the water is roaring, carefully place the tomatoes into the water and boil them for just a minute or two- you should start to see the skin releasing from the tomatoes.
- Remove the tomatoes and place them in a sieve. Run under cold water and peel the skins off.
- Slice each tomato into quarters. Place them into a bowl and squish them with your hands. The idea here is to remove excess liquid from the tomatoes. After you've squeezed them, drain them and put them into a food processor.
- Add salt then blend until the sauce is smooth and free of large lumps.
Ingredients for Brussels Sprouts:
About 12 - 14 Brussels sprouts
1 clove of garlic, skin removed and diced
1 tbsp olive oil
- Wash your Brussels sprouts, then cut the bottoms off. Remove just the outside layer of leaves and throw them away.
- Slice your sprouts into thin disks. It's okay if some of the leaves fall away. They'll get cooked, too.
- Add the oil into your skillet and heat on medium high. Add in the sprouts and the garlic together.
- Cook until the Brussels sprouts start to brown a little bit. You want them to be soft and fragrant. Remove from the heat and set aside.
TIME FOR ASSEMBLY!
I have a few pointers here.
1) Don't panic. The process of cooking the pizza really only takes a few minutes. It's okay if your pizza isn't the perfect shape. It will still taste good.
2) What's important isn't the shape, it's the thickness. You want your pizza to be thin in the center with a thicker edge for a crust.
3) Be careful. You're going to be dealing with VERY HOT pans here so use oven mitts!
OK so let's get started! My method is WITHOUT a pizza stone. I used a large skillet (one that was completely metal) as my pizza stone. :)
Ingredients:
Pizza Dough
About 1/2 cup all purpose flour, for your hands and surface
1/2 tsp cornmeal
Fresh tomato sauce
8 oz of mozzarella cheese
Sauteed Brussels sprouts
Pancetta about 4-5 large slices, thin
- Move your oven rack to the top rung. Turn your oven onto high broil.
- Flour your hands well. The pizza dough is sticky!. Separate the dough into the pieces and work with one piece at a time. Flour a surface well also and start to pull the dough out into a circular shape. Remember, it's not the shape that matters, but the thickness. You want the center to be pretty thin, but not so thin that it will break when you try to get the pizza off the skillet.
- Heat the skillet on the stove on high for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of cornmeal onto the skillet then put the dough onto the pan and try to shape it quickly.
- You have about a minute or two to get all your toppings on! Start with tomato sauce and spread it op top of the dough with a spoon- use up 1/2 of the sauce. Layer next with the mozzarella cheese, then the Brussels sprouts, and finally 2-3 long slices of pancetta.
- Let the pizza cook on the stove top for about 2-3 minutes. The dough should have a crispy crust on the bottom at this point. It's okay if it burns a little bit. That almost makes it better.
- Put the entire skillet in the oven. The pizza cooks fast!! After about 2 minutes, it should be ready. You can leave it in there for another minute if you want your pancetta extra crispy, but be careful. The broil setting is REALLY HOT. You could end up burning your pizza.
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| Ta-dah! Could have stayed in the oven a little longer, in my opinion. |
- Remove the skillet from the oven carefully and remove the pizza from the skillet with a spatula. Let cool for about 5 minutes, then cut and serve!
This recipe certainly took a lot of time and energy, but the worst thing you can do is rush through it and get all panicked. Take a deep breath. You can do it!
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