Tuscan Kale, Ricotta and Mushroom Pizza
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Slow-rise pizza dough topped with wilted kale greens, mushrooms and ricotta cheese.
I laughed through “The Celery Incident”, a teaser episode from the new season of Portlandia; Steve Buscemi plays a sad sack salesman at Produce Sales Headquarters, taken to task for the sorry state of his account — which happens to be celery — on the vegetable totem pole.
It’s pretty funny. Heirloom tomatoes, kale and brussels sprouts are the hot, sexy IT foods (bacon and corn play some parts, too), while celery struggles for some love.
It did make me wonder if in reality kale has its own marketing board. There’s no question kale (and healthy, green food in general) has gone viral over the past few years. But as far as I know kale ads aren’t taking the place of huge displays of Victoria’s Secret models in Times Square.
I’ve been trying to give celery a second chance in my kitchen. I use it as part of a flavor base – the soffritto – when I start cooking certain soups or sauces, but other than that I find its flavor can be overpowering when used raw or else it goes completely benign and unpleasantly mushy when cooked.
But to get back to kale, the co-star in this pizza recipe: I couldn’t be happier everybody wants some. I kind of hope it’s not just a fad that every restaurant in the land has some version of a kale salad on the menu.
I’m experimenting with a new baking steel I bought a few months ago from Stoughton Steel, a Kickstarter company – my old baking stone was a moving casualty. So far it’s been great. The steel is pretty heavy, not much more than the large stone I had before, but it has a slimmer profile.
The idea is that steel can conduct heat more efficiently than a brick oven surface. It makes a great pie pretty quickly, although even with my oven cranked as high as it will go, 500 degrees, for me it’s nowhere near producing that blistered char of a wood-fired crust. I’m going to try it next in my fireplace to see how that goes.
I made a slow-rise dough from the Brooklyn restaurant Franny’s Simple Seasonal Italian cookbook (heads up – the dough needs at least 24 hours to proof). I haven’t made it over to Brooklyn to sample Franny’s pizza in person yet, but it’s at the top of my list; once the icebergs here in New Jersey finish melting I’ll venture out.
I used Italian “00” flour to make this pizza dough, but all-purpose works just as well. One batch of dough will make 4 approximately 12-inch pizzas, allowing for a little variety in toppings – I made a few basic Margheritas, but this one with creamy ricotta, earthy mushrooms and kale was my fave.
Tuscan Kale, Ricotta and Mushroom Pizza
Ingredients
Yield: 1 12-inch pizza
Dough:
- 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
- 1 ¾ cups (435 ml) cold water
- 4 ½ cups (562.5 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
Pizza:
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt
- ½ red onion, sliced thinly
- 1 small garlic clove, thinly sliced
- 5 ounces (150 g) shiitake mushrooms, sliced
- 5 ounces (150 g) cremini mushrooms, halved
- 1 small bunch Tuscan kale, aka Lacinato or Dinosaur, stemmed and leaves chopped
- ¾ cup (175 g) whole milk ricotta, drained
- Pecorino Romano cheese
Instructions
- Mix the yeast and water in the bowl of a stand mixer until the yeast dissolves.
- Add the flour and salt to the bowl, then use the dough hook to beat until a smooth, elastic dough forms (3 minutes or so). Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic and refrigerate at least 24 hours.
- Divide the dough into 2 pieces and roll into balls. You'll only need 1 ball for this recipe — return the rest of the dough to the refrigerator or make a second pizza.
- Place your baking stone or steel in the oven on middle rack and preheat oven to 500 degrees (250 C) for an hour.
- Put a saute pan over medium heat and coat the bottom with olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and the onion to the pan and cook until softened, 2-3 minutes. Toss in the garlic and mushrooms and cook until the water from the mushrooms evaporates. Remove from the heat and stir in the kale until it wilts. Set aside until ready to bake the pizza.
- Place the ball of dough on a lightly floured counter and pat out to a circle with your hands. Flip the dough over to coat both sides with some flour. Pick up the dough and gently stretch, holding the edges of the dough while rotating it around – gravity will do the work. Fit your knuckles under both sides of the dough and stretch a little more to make a 12-inch round, keeping the edges just a bit thicker.
- Set the dough on a floured baking peel or an upside-down baking sheet. Working quickly, drop the ricotta over the surface of the dough in spoonfuls. Top with kale and then the mushrooms.
- Slide the dough (or gently use a pair of tongs) onto the baking stone or steel and bake until the edges of the dough begin to bubble and turn golden brown, about 8 minutes. Keep your eye on it, as oven temperatures can vary.
- Drizzle the hot pizza with a little extra virgin olive oil and grate some Pecorino over before slicing and serving.
Karen's Notes and Tips
- The pizza dough recipe makes enough dough for 2 12-inch pizzas - just double the amount of mushrooms, kale and ricotta as needed to make more than one pie.
Nutrition
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about creating elevated dinners with everyday ingredients. Find simplified recipes made from scratch and enjoy incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.
Nevermind. Found it lol
Great! Hope you enjoy 🙂
You mentioned 1/2 a red onion…where does that go?
We made your pizza this evening and it was scrump-diddly-umptious! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe. We’ll definitely try other recipes since I am really not the world’s best cook and am always on the lookout for good ideas.
This looks delicious ( and beautiful!) Thanks for the shout-out! -Kristen
It’s my pleasure, Kristen — I’m a fan!
I make a celery and apple salad that’s really good — the key is slicing the celery VERRRRY thinly and the apples too (though not as thinly). And then a simple vinaigrette. It’s a really good fall/winter salad.
That pizza looks yummy btw!
Yes, I can almost taste how good that would be, with the very thin slices of celery. Blue cheese and pears might be good too…mmm
Bookmarked, and this will definitely get featured for BlogHer’s Meatless Monday pick sometime soon!
Fantastic! Thanks, Kalyn.
Gorgeous pizza, Karen! I so wish this was tonight’s dinner :).
Thanks Laura. Me too! It was lunch the other day. Sigh…