oh goodness.
this is a keeper. it's haunting me and i just ate it a few hours ago.
you roll out a thin, almost-shattery-but-still-substantial pizza crust, and shingle it with paper-thin lemon slices and a light slick of olive oil. you bake it long enough so the lemons surrender any traces of bitterness, becoming sharply fragrant, still puckery ghosts of their former selves. once out of the oven, you quickly top it with briny smoked salmon and peaks of crème fraîche, cool and smooth to round out all that salt and acid. it's unreal.
it reminds me of the kind of party hors d'oeuvres that my mother's friends would put out at small gatherings in the late 90's--little toasts with cream cheese, salmon, capers and heavy dousings of lemon juice. slightly dated, a certain element of fuss about them. (don't get me wrong, i'm a total sucker for anything involving lox and a thick dairy product.) the weird part about this is that it's so stupidly easy (but so seemingly frivolous, decadent even) that you'll feel almost embarrassed making it for a solo dinner or for no particular reason. do it anyway.
in fact, the pizza pictured was a personal pizza. my dining companions, sadly, were more rigorous herbivores than i, and did not partake. so this recipe serves one, but is easily scaled up. i will tell you that i made peter reinhart's napoletana pizza dough awhile back, except i swapped in white whole wheat flour. this makes a decent amount of dough and asks you to divide it into six balls, which is brilliant because each ball is conveniently the perfect size for a generous personal pizza. you wrap them each up individually and can either use them right away or stash them in the freezer (i double wrapped each in seran wrap and then stashed them all in a plastic bag in the freezer), defrosting individual portions whenever you suspect a pizza craving might be brewing.
i'm particularly fascinated by the thinly sliced baked lemons idea, because it's phenomenal, and i would love to use it elsewhere. my obvious instinct would be to incorporate them into a savory tart, maybe atop a layer of roasted vegetables and ricotta? but i'd like to see where else they could go.
lemon, salmon and crème fraîche pizza
serves one
inspired by christopher idone for the new york times
at least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone either on the floor of the oven (for gas ovens), or on a rack in the lower third of the oven. i heat my oven to 450°F to make pizza because anything higher than that makes the cornmeal smoke, but you're welcome to go higher if that doesn't bother you--the best pizzas are made with very, very high heat. if you do not have a baking stone, you can use the back of a sheet pan or a pizza pan, but do not preheat the pan.
generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal (i like cornmeal here). make the pizzas one at a time. dip your hands, including the backs of your hands and knuckles, in flour and lift one piece of dough by getting under it with a pastry scraper. very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands, carefully giving it a little stretch with each bounce. if it begins to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue shaping it. once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss. if you have trouble tossing the dough, or if the dough keeps springing back, let it rest for 5 to 20 minutes so the gluten can relax, and try again. you can also resort to using a rolling pin, though this isn't as effective as the toss method.
when the dough is stretched out to your satisfaction (about 9 to 12 inches in diameter for a 6-ounce piece of dough), lay it on the peel or pan, making sure there is enough semolina flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide. layer on lemon slices, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.
slide the topped pizza onto the stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan) and close the door. wait 2 minutes, then take a peek. if it needs to be rotated 180 degrees for even baking, do so. the pizza should take less than 13 minutes to bake.
remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. let it cool for a minute and then top with smoked salmon and crème fraîche. season with salt and pepper to taste (go easy on the salt) and serve immediately.
this is a keeper. it's haunting me and i just ate it a few hours ago.you roll out a thin, almost-shattery-but-still-substantial pizza crust, and shingle it with paper-thin lemon slices and a light slick of olive oil. you bake it long enough so the lemons surrender any traces of bitterness, becoming sharply fragrant, still puckery ghosts of their former selves. once out of the oven, you quickly top it with briny smoked salmon and peaks of crème fraîche, cool and smooth to round out all that salt and acid. it's unreal.
it reminds me of the kind of party hors d'oeuvres that my mother's friends would put out at small gatherings in the late 90's--little toasts with cream cheese, salmon, capers and heavy dousings of lemon juice. slightly dated, a certain element of fuss about them. (don't get me wrong, i'm a total sucker for anything involving lox and a thick dairy product.) the weird part about this is that it's so stupidly easy (but so seemingly frivolous, decadent even) that you'll feel almost embarrassed making it for a solo dinner or for no particular reason. do it anyway.
in fact, the pizza pictured was a personal pizza. my dining companions, sadly, were more rigorous herbivores than i, and did not partake. so this recipe serves one, but is easily scaled up. i will tell you that i made peter reinhart's napoletana pizza dough awhile back, except i swapped in white whole wheat flour. this makes a decent amount of dough and asks you to divide it into six balls, which is brilliant because each ball is conveniently the perfect size for a generous personal pizza. you wrap them each up individually and can either use them right away or stash them in the freezer (i double wrapped each in seran wrap and then stashed them all in a plastic bag in the freezer), defrosting individual portions whenever you suspect a pizza craving might be brewing.
i'm particularly fascinated by the thinly sliced baked lemons idea, because it's phenomenal, and i would love to use it elsewhere. my obvious instinct would be to incorporate them into a savory tart, maybe atop a layer of roasted vegetables and ricotta? but i'd like to see where else they could go.
lemon, salmon and crème fraîche pizza
serves one
inspired by christopher idone for the new york times
- 1/6 (6 oz) peter reinhart's pizza dough recipe, or an approximately fist-sized ball of the dough of your choice
- roughly half of a very large lemon, sliced as thinly as you can (a mandolin is excellent here, but a sharp knife will work fine) (meyer lemon would also be great here if it's available)
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- a few slices of smoked salmon
- approx 3 tbsps crème fraîche
at least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone either on the floor of the oven (for gas ovens), or on a rack in the lower third of the oven. i heat my oven to 450°F to make pizza because anything higher than that makes the cornmeal smoke, but you're welcome to go higher if that doesn't bother you--the best pizzas are made with very, very high heat. if you do not have a baking stone, you can use the back of a sheet pan or a pizza pan, but do not preheat the pan.
generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal (i like cornmeal here). make the pizzas one at a time. dip your hands, including the backs of your hands and knuckles, in flour and lift one piece of dough by getting under it with a pastry scraper. very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands, carefully giving it a little stretch with each bounce. if it begins to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue shaping it. once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss. if you have trouble tossing the dough, or if the dough keeps springing back, let it rest for 5 to 20 minutes so the gluten can relax, and try again. you can also resort to using a rolling pin, though this isn't as effective as the toss method.
when the dough is stretched out to your satisfaction (about 9 to 12 inches in diameter for a 6-ounce piece of dough), lay it on the peel or pan, making sure there is enough semolina flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide. layer on lemon slices, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.
slide the topped pizza onto the stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan) and close the door. wait 2 minutes, then take a peek. if it needs to be rotated 180 degrees for even baking, do so. the pizza should take less than 13 minutes to bake.
remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. let it cool for a minute and then top with smoked salmon and crème fraîche. season with salt and pepper to taste (go easy on the salt) and serve immediately.
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