White Broccoli Pizza
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen for the pizza, dough from Cookie & Kate
Pizza is probably my favorite food, which I realize is cheating because it comes in so many varieties. But I stand by my statement anyways. I finished this pizza off with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, partially because I love balsamic vinegar but also because I would ordinarily have tomatoes on this type of pizza and I left them out because I’m afraid of flavorless winter tomatoes. The vinegar was so good though, I think it’s going to be a regular addition. The dough recipe I use makes two medium-ish pizzas, so you can similarly divide whatever dough you are using to make two pizza or just plan to use all of the toppings at once.
Pizza Dough
1 packet instant yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
344 grams of flour, or 2 and 3/4 cup (any type is probably fine, I normally use whole wheat but for this pizza I accidentally used all-purpose and the dough was still great)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 500F, with a pizza stone if you have one.
Heat 1 cup of water to very hot, 110F if you have the technology to accomplish that. Otherwise, just make it hot enough that you wouldn’t really want to put your finger in it.
Stir in the honey, olive oil, and yeast. Let it puff up for about 5 minutes.
In a food processor, pulse together the flour, cheese, and salt. Slowly stream in the water and yeast mixture while the food processor is running and keep it going until a fairly cohesive dough ball forms. If you don’t have a food processor, I think you could do this by hand OK.
Pull the dough out of the food processor and give it a few kneads to make sure it’s all one happy dough ball. Cut your dough ball in half and leave aside for now.
If you’re not using this dough recipe, make sure to preheat the oven for whatever temperature you need.
White Sauce
2 tablespoons butter (I always use vegan butter)
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup milk (I use oat milk, which worked great, and I think most types of milk would probably be fine. Almond may result in a thinner sauce.)
Salt & pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped or crushed according to your preference
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in the flour and whisk until everything is blended and smooth.
Add the milk in very small quantities, stirring after each addition until everything is smooth before adding the next little bit.
Add the garlic, salt, and pepper and give it another good stir.
Continue cooking and stirring until it becomes think enough to coat your stirring utensil. This literally took about 1 minute for me.
Set aside to sort of cool.
Broccoli
3/4 to 1 pound broccoli
Half a lemon
Crushed red pepper (if you like spice)
Salt
Chop the broccoli into slightly smaller than bite-sized pieces and throw it in a bowl.
Zest the lemon over the broccoli, and then squeeze the lemon over the broccoli. Trust me, you do not want to mess with the order of these operations.
Sprinkle some red pepper and salt, and give the broccoli a stir to coat all of the pieces.
Very briefly set aside.
Assembly
4 oz of (ideally fresh) mozzarella
2 oz of ricotta
Balsamic vinegar (for after the pizza bakes)
Roughly chop or tear your mozzarella if needed.
Roll the dough (1 ball, or whatever quantity is relevant to the dough you’re using) out as thin as you can.
Spread the sauce onto the dough, and then top with broccoli, mozzarella, and ricotta, using half of everything if you’re making two pizzas.
Bake for about 10 minutes, if you followed this dough recipe and oven temperature. Otherwise, follow your dough instructions for the bake.
Put the pizza onto a cutting board to cool for a few minutes before drizzling the vinegar, slicing, and stuffing it into your face. Enjoy!
Leave a comment if you have any questions, or if you want to tell me about an interesting variation you made!