Amy Scattergood's Sausage, Radicchio and Burrata Pizza

Phew. There now, that's a lot better. A relatively cool 71 degrees brushing against my skin this morning, marking a 27-point drop in temperature from yesterday afternoon. Why, it's enough to make you drag out the pizza stone and heat up the oven, isn't it?

On a day so hot that you could fry an egg on the sidewalk or at least on the roof of a black car parked in the sun, it felt pretty silly to be posting about pizza. In heat like that, I like to eat cool slices of kohlrabi, fresh from the fridge, or chilled cherries, the dark, juicy orbs cooling me down from the inside out. A salad will do, and maybe a puddle of cold plain yogurt, but pizza? That requires an oven? And preheating? And then eating the food while it's still piping hot? Good lord, my brow requires a delicate mop just thinking about it.

But that was yesterday. And today's a whole new day. The kind of day that can stand a little bit of action in the kitchen. And after four days of cold meals, maybe you're ready for something warm for dinner again. I know I am. Last Friday, the day before the heat descended, I dragged out the pizza stone from its closet and heaved it into the oven. We were having our upstairs friends over for dinner and I'd been gripped with the urge to make pizza. You can't turn your back on that kind of urge, can you?

I had Amy Scattergood's recipe for pizza dough at the ready, a recipe that has you make the dough and then let it proof overnight in the fridge, ensuring flavor and structure. Being lazy and last-minute and happy to cut corners, I made the dough the same day as dinner, so my dough's fridge time was just a few hours. And still the pizza was quite delicious! Well, you know, as delicious as pizza made in a regular gas oven as opposed to a wood-burning oven that gets all the way up to 900 degrees is going to be.

Though I adore a good pizza made in a wood-burning oven, I am definitely not the kind of person who tries to replicate that quality at home. I'm fine with the fact that some things must be eaten in a restaurant to be really, really good. Like pizza with blistered crusts and airy holes. Or perfectly crisp French fries. You know? Pizza at home has different charms. You have complete control over what goes on it and it's quite a lot cheaper. Two good reasons right there to make this a regular occurrence in our kitchen.

Amy's pizza toppings are unorthodox for someone who only eats pizza topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and a few judicious basil leaves (I make an exception for the occasional scattering of mushrooms because Ben is so cute), but one in particular is totally delectable. Roasted radicchio and browned sausage are evenly distributed over the dough, while fennel seeds add a pop of flavor and milky mozzarella (or if you're lucky enough to get your hands on burrata) tops it all off. What's best about it this pizza is that it's not groaning with toppings. Everything's distributed perfectly and the crust-to-topping ratio is just right.

The second pizza, arugula - from our first CSA haul of the year -  with walnuts and goat cheese was less to my liking. Too timid, or perhaps I just don't like goat cheese on pizza. I also admit I entirely forgot the vinegar. Maybe that's what it needed to shine. No matter, I'm so smitten with the sausage and radicchio that I'll be making it again and again.

Tell me, readers, what's your favorite homemade pizza like? What are the toppings that you love so much you'll even make pizza in the dog days of summer?

Basic Pizza Dough
Makes 2 pizzas, about 10 inches in diameter

1 cup warm water
1 packet (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
Generous pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon best-quality olive oil
About 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1. In a large bowl, combine water, yeast and sugar, and set aside for 5 minutes, until it begins to foam. (If it doesn't, discard and start over with new yeast.) Stir in the olive oil and 1 cup of flour and mix until incorporated. Then add the salt and the second cup of flour, stirring with a spoon or spatula.

2. Turn out the dough onto a floured board or, if your bowl is large and shallow enough, just knead it in the bowl. Knead the dough, incorporating the rest of the flour as needed, until it's smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

3. Put the dough into a clean, well-oiled bowl, turning to lightly coat the top of the dough with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight.

4. The next day, about 1 1/2 hours before you want your pizza, take the dough out of the refrigerator, punch it down and divide it into two balls. Lightly coat the dough with olive oil, cover with plastic and let it rest on the counter for an hour.

5. After an hour, using your fingers, spread each ball of dough into a 10-inch disc on a piece of parchment paper. The edges should be 1/2 inch thick, and the centers should be about 1/4 inch thick. Assemble your pizzas.

Sausage, Radicchio and Mozzarella Pizza

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/3 pound mild Italian sausage, removed from casing
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 head radicchio
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 recipe pizza dough
Freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces fresh burrata or fresh mozzarella, sliced

1. Place a cast-iron pizza pan or pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and heat to 350 degrees.

2. In a sauté pan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Sauté sausage and fennel seeds, breaking apart the sausage as it cooks. Cook until browned, about 8 to 10 minutes. Set aside.

3. Trim the radicchio and cut it into 3/4-inch slices. Toss in a bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Mound the radicchio on the pizza pan in the oven and roast, stirring and turning with a spatula, until it just begins to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Take the pan out, remove the radicchio and set it aside and return the pan to the oven. Turn the oven up to 450 degrees.

4. Brush the prepared pizza dough with the remaining olive oil. Spread the sausage, then the radicchio, evenly over the pizza. Grind a little black pepper over the top.

5. Slide the parchment paper with the pizza onto an inverted cookie sheet, then transfer both parchment and pizza to the hot pizza pan or stone. Cook until golden and crispy, about 12 to 16 minutes, rotating once halfway through (use the parchment to do so). One minute before the pizza is done, add the burrata to the pizza in the oven, so that it gets just melted. If using mozzarella, add about 5 minutes before the pizza is done.

6. Remove the pizza from the oven either by pulling out the parchment paper and sliding the pizza back onto the cookie sheet or by taking out the hot pizza pan and placing it on a trivet. Slice and serve hot.

Arugula, Goat Cheese and Walnut Pizza

1/2 cup shelled walnuts
1/2 recipe pizza dough
1 tablespoon roasted walnut oil, divided
2 cups arugula
4 ounces goat cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Balsamic vinegar for finishing

1. Place a cast-iron pizza pan on the middle rack of the oven and heat to 450 degrees. Scatter the walnuts over the hot pan and toast until browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure they don't burn. Carefully take the hot pan from the oven, remove the toasted nuts and return the pan to the oven. Break apart the walnuts if they're large.

2. Brush the prepared pizza dough with 1 teaspoon walnut oil. Spread the arugula over the dough, then crumble the goat cheese over the top. Sprinkle the walnuts over the pizza, drizzle with the remaining walnut oil and grind black pepper over the top.

3. Slide the parchment paper with the pizza onto an inverted cookie sheet or peel, then transfer both parchment and pizza onto the hot pan in the oven. Cook until golden and crisp, 12 to 16 minutes, rotating once during baking. Remove the pizza from the oven by pulling out the parchment paper and sliding it back onto the cookie sheet, or remove the hot pizza pan and place on a trivet. Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar, slice and serve immediately.

Comments

[liz]

You're making me hungry... My favorite pizza is probably topped with homemade barbecue sauce, bacon, and red peppers with mozzarella and a bit of chopped cilantro, which I made last night, despite the heat, because we were out of bread and had to bake anyway. This combo's even better made on the grill (outside!).

[EB]

Oh I'm so glad you copped to only chilling the dough for a few hours. I never have the forethought to do things far enough in advance. I'm glad it worked out. This looks really, really delicious.

[Victoria]

Oh, Luisa, you seem to really be on a roll these days. These pizzas look yum. I think Marcella has you put the moz on first and then the tomatoes, right? I wonder how these would be cooked on a Weber Kettle? I might give that a try.

[Christine]

The pizza looks fantastic...I'll still hold off until it's a little bit cooler though. I think the high by me on Monday is supposed to only be 82, so maybe then...

Also, jealous because your CSA is cheaper than mine! Although I will say that with mine you get a local meat (or more veggies for the vegetarians) plus a cheese, plus your choice of a dozen eggs/yogurt/butter/or milk...so I guess it all evens out. Hmph.

[Lisa]

Hi Luisa! Both of these sound incredible--lovely photos, too. I've never heard of using parchment on a pizza stone, but it sounds like an interesting technique. Although I like sprinkling cornmeal on my stone before laying the dough on it. Makes for a nice crunchy crust.

[deb]

Lady, you're reading my mind this week... I'm all about pizza, as well, and will hopefully have a tips post coming tomorrow. I cannot WAIT to make this one. I love a nontraditional pizza.

[Phoebe]

Do you have Jamie's Italy? I can't remember the exact combo, but there's a pizza in there that includes tomato sauce, proscuitto, artichoke hearts, mozzarella, and a whole egg cracked straight on top (we usually add it a minute or two after it goes in the oven so that the yolk is still nice and runny), finished off with a little drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. It is my favorite pizza ever.

[Erinn]

What's not to love about pizza?
And Amy Scattergoods of the Times comes up with some great recipes (I'd love her for that name alone.)
I'm going to have to disagree with you about goat cheese on pizza though. I made pizza a couple weeks back with goat cheese, roasted tomatoes and basil and it was Heavenly, but that sausage and raddichio combo sounds terrific as well.

[Debbie]

I make the dough recipe from Suzanne Dunaway's "No knead to knead", which is out of print. We like to top our homemade pizza with Buffalo or whole milk mozzerella, fresh basil, imported Italian pepperoni (sliced very thin) and kalamato olives. We also like to use prosuttio?(spelling)instead of pepperoni and cover with micro arugula after removing from the oven.

[Debbie]

I forgot to mention that I always let the dough stay in the fridge overnight and set it out for at least 3 hours to room temp before baking the next day. We also use a very light dollop of tomato sauce, in addition to the other ingredients. By lite, not more than 4 TBL.

[Kristin]

That's so funny--Zaidee (in town briefly) and I made pizzas on Saturday night when it was even hotter! It was the first time I had made pizza from scratch, and I was surprised at how easy it was. We made a wheat dough from a health book so it probably wasn't as tasty as your pizza, but still good.

As for toppings, I'm with you on the basics. Though some marinated olives add a nice touch. I have also grown to enjoy fresh arugula on top. Oh, and sausage is always nice.

[Mercedes]

My favorite is roast eggplant, capers, and just the thinest sprinkling of parmesan cheese. (roast eggplants whole, scoop out flesh and mash with a tabelspoon of tomato paste). Spread eggplant pulp over dough, sprinkle with capers and cheese and bake.

I also love making pissaladieres with a pizza dough base (ie, a little thicker than the traditional ones you get in Provence).

[Jeena]

This looks very tasty indeed.

[Drew]

I'd say grilled aubergines, pesto and feta cheese. Spinach and gorgonzola cheese will also do. What I cannot grasp is the whole bolognese on pizza thing we seem to have going on in the northern part of Europe. One thing it's not is simple.

[Erin @ The Skinny Gourmet]

The sausage pizza does sound divine. We make homemade pizza fairly often at our house. I like a good whole wheat crust. My favorite toppings are a bit unconventional (but not unheard of): a bulb of roasted garlic spread on the dough as a base, topped with a combination of fresh mozz, blue cheese, figs and prosciutto. MMM. Just writing about it makes me want to make some up this weekend.

[ann]

Funny! I've been on a pizza kick too, but I've been using it as a stand in for bread. I've been using the recipe from the Bread Bible, which I like allowing to proof overnight, and then I'm just reaching out to my fire escape and grabbing some thyme or sage or basil, scattering it over the dough with a little salt and olive oil and baking as an accompaniment to fish and salads and pastas. My favorite real pizza topping is fresh mozzarella and perfect tomatoes. I'm a traditionalist. But I bet some of your homemade ricotta would be amazing on one of those pies!

[Mia]

For me, pizza is the perfect summer meal (as long as the AC is on in the apartment!). I recently made a deliciously simple whole-wheat version topped with caramelized onions, spinach, and smoked mozzarella, and boy was it good. Something about the smoky-sweet combo that I just love.

[Luisa]

Lisa - the original recipe actually has you use a cast-iron pizza pan instead of a stone. But I find the parchment indispensible, especially because I don't have a peel.

Deb - can't wait to read your tips!

Phoebe - I do have it, and I think I know which recipe you're talking about. I had forgotten about that egg, so thanks for the reminder. I'll have to check it out soon!

Mercedes - that sounds fantastic, I love the idea of the roasted eggplant spread out over the pizza base.

Drew - bolognese on pizza! I have not yet heard of that one...

[dancing kitchen]

I love a homemade parmesean white sauce with a layer of spinich and carmelized onions and a sprinkling of bacon.
It's usually on a whole wheat crust...to even things out a bit.
It's so good!

[Jeff]

Kudos for making your own dough

[Adrienne]

Between you and Deb, I could not resist! I made pizza start to finish for the first (and second) times this weekend. I used a no knead dough recipe in the morning and had pizza on Saturday AND Sunday nights. I'm hesitant to say I'll never order it again, but I cannot believe how easy it was! I adapted your goat cheese pizza by adding some dried cranberries the second time around, and I've got to say, the vinegar really makes a difference.

[Mary]

Great post! The arugala & walnut pizza looks tasty. I love pizza enough to make it in the heinous, dripping heat of DC in the summer. I usually add mushrooms (saute them first to get the water out), thinly sliced red onion, olives and anything else I have on hand. I like to put lightly dressed arugala on after the pizza comes out. I, too, was intrigued by the parchment paper possibility as a way to get the darn pizza on the stone, but didn't have great results. I've returned to just a baking sheet. I actually just wrote recently about my travails with the pizza stone, which we now call "the divorce stone" in my house :). Two people + tiny kitchen + 500 degree oven= trouble!

http://saltygirlcooks.blogspot.com/2008/06/margherita-pizza.html

[tracy]

Love homemade pizza. Your crust loves really nice, and great toppings. Think I am going to grill one this weekend.

[Sarah]

More pizza! I came here through smitten kitchen. I grilled pizza this weekend with friends and topping choices were caramelized onions, zucchini, sauteed mushrooms, goat cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, and basil.
I chose the onions, zucchini, and goat cheese with a bit of basil. Oh, heaven.

[Megan]

Luisa, it looks like you have found a wonderful CSA but do they deliver in Manhattan?

[Luisa]

Megan - The farm delivers the produce to a drop-off point (in my case, a church in Forest Hills, or in the case of the West Village CSA, which I used to belong to, the YMCA on 14th Street) and you collect it there. If you're looking for CSAs in Manhattan, check out Just Food's directory and click around to find one in your neighborhood. I've been singing the praises of CSAs for years, I think they are wonderful.

http://www.justfood.org/csa/

[Sophia from Kitchen Caravan]

Gosh- just the word "Burrata" makes me drool. This looks insanely delicious!

[We Are Never Full]

this really does look fabulous radicchio is one of my faves on a pizza, but i've seen another food blog post where someone melted burrata and i asked the same question - why?? i just don't understand the point because the most fabulous and gratifying element of burrata is the milky center and the creaminess you taste with it all together. it's an amazing flavor - i'm actually salivating now thinking about it!!

your crust looks perfect, btw!

[Luisa]

WANF - well, as I did with this pizza, you can substitute mozzarella for the burrata.

[love, tastespotting]

would love to see this on tastespotting (esp the second pic)...if you don't mind, i'd love to submit it (unless you have an account and would like to submit?)

[yehudit rostowicz]

Hi'
How do i subscribe to your wonderful blog?
yehudit