After a few weeks delinquent, 16P is returning for the home stretch. I hope these last few pizzas will live up to the standards I have set for myself - even though I am not finished, I have already come so far, and the experience has been priceless.
This pie is inspired by the funghi e tartufo pizza I tried last week at my favorite local bakery, but the seed was planted when my parents brought home a jar of funghi e tartufo paste from their travels in Italy. I have included this ingredient in the recipe, but as it is a specialty item, it is totally optional and the pizza definitely does not suffer without it.
I invented my own white sauce recipe, kept it simple as could be, and by all accounts it turned out very well. I didn't want to limit myself to a template, so I modified the standard funghi e tartufo pizza with white eggplant. Once cooked, you can't tell the skin was ever white, so purple can be substituted. The flavor does add another dimension, but stick to just white sauce and oyster mushrooms if you prefer.
After this week I will be trying a new approach to crust, so it may be the last week I reference the standard recipe I wrote up some weeks ago. While I like the dense texture of my personal dough recipe, it isn't as light and crispy as it could be. Look for a new take on dough starting next week, but for now, on to the recipe.
Crust:
Recipe available
here, or use whichever crust you prefer!
Toppings:
1 stick butter
2 cloves garlic
1½ cup light cream
16 oz parmesan
2 medium white eggplants
8 oz oyster mushrooms
1 tsp dried thyme or tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tbsp Funghi e tartufo paste [optional]
Prepare your pizza dough first. As the dough nears the end of its rising stage, cook the eggplant and mushrooms. Cut the eggplant into rounds, about 1/4 inch thick, and sprinkle them with salt to draw out the moisture. Once the rounds have begun to sweat, begin sautéing them in a saucepan with generous olive oil as needed. Cooking times vary depending on the thickness of the cut, but should be around 5-10 minutes. Flip the rounds a few times to brown on all sides. They are finished when tender - check with a fork.
Prep the mushrooms the same way, but add a little dried thyme or tarragon [or both]. They can be rough chopped into large or small pieces, there's no science to it. The mushrooms will only need a few minutes to cook, but be sure to stir them around a lot to heat evenly. If you're unsure, I would take them off the heat after five minutes.
Prepare the sauce last, ideally after you have rolled and shaped the dough. Heat the butter and garlic in a wide saucepan over medium heat, until butter melts and the garlic is fragrant. Pour in the cream. Begin adding the parmesan, a bit at a time, stirring in to combine and melt. Continue adding the cheese, maintaining a low heat, until smooth.
When the sauce is finished, assemble the pizzas.
Spread the sauce over the prepared crusts. Arrange the eggplant rounds and mushrooms over the pizzas, and if you have it, lay a few generous dollops of funghi e tartufo paste over any bare spots. Spread thinly, I was able to get a little bit on every piece of eggplant.
Bake briefly, just long enough for the toppings to coalesce and reheat if they have had a chance to cool. Since the crust is already mostly baked through, this only took me about 5-6 minutes. If you do not pre-bake the crust, aim for 15-20 minutes, depending on how well done you like everything. This is subjective; I baked these pizzas briefly because I had already prepared the toppings as I like them, and did not want them to break down further in extreme heat.
The recipe makes two 14-inch pizzas, which refrigerate well. Enjoy!
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