We recently went on a short weekend getaway to Santa Barbara, and on the way home we decided to stop by the Mario Batali pizzeria in Los Angeles called “Mozza.”  We shared a Fried squash blossoms with ricotta pizza which was excellent, but did lack a little bit of oomph. It was bland I guess, but good. We were sitting at the bar, watching the chefs prepare the dough, and learned a new technique to keep the bubbles in the edge. So we thought we would give it a try, and make a similar pizza in style, but with much more taste in it.

Recipe for Prosciutto Pizza

Ingredients

• Pizza dough
• 2 portobello (Agaricus bisporus) mushrooms
• 4-5 slices of prosciutto
• 3-4 tbs fresh pesto
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 1 ball of burrata cheese (Unfortunately not captured on photo’s)

Cooking

1. Prepare the pizza dough. If you bought the dough from your local store, let it sit covered and get to room temperature for at least an hour before making the pizza. Sprinkle the dough-ball with lots of flour to prevent sticking.
2. Heat the oven for about one hour as warm as you can with a pizza stone inside. Between 500-800 degrees is perfect (Our oven goes to 550).
3. Once the dough has risen to about twice its original size (or after an hour), it is time to shape the pizza. Gently press the dough flat along the outside of the dough-ball to form a ring around the ball in the middle. This will become the outside crust. Once you have squeezed a circle you would have a ring of dough about 3/4 inch thick, and a ball of dough in the middle. This ‘locks’ the bubbles inside the ring that were created while rising.
4. Now we start to make the actual pizza. Be careful not to touch the outside ring. Start squeezing the middle dough-ball as flat as you can, then lift it up, and with the back of your hands, gently start stretching the dough out while turning the dough. This will take many rotations, each stretching the inside of the pizza a little. When you are done, you have the central pizza in the middle, and the ring of crust still intact surrounding it. Gently lay the shaped pizza down on either wax-free parchment paper covered in flour, or a large wooden spatula covered in flour. You must be able to scoop the pizza into the oven
5. Spread the pest on the pizza, and make sure to spread it evenly all the way to the edge.
6. Brush olive oil on the outside crust, but be careful not to penetrate the dough.
7. Rinse the portobello mushrooms and dry them. Brush or toss them with olive oil and salt and pepper, then cut then into large generous slices.
8. Tear the prosciutto into long large slivers.
9. Spread the prosciutto and portobello slices around the pizza
10. Place the pizza in the oven on the pizza stone for about 10 minutes, depending on temperature. When it’s golden brown, take it out. That’s more important than how long it was baked for.
11. The pizza now looks like on the photos here.
12. Cut the burrata cheese in slices, and place them around the pizza. We forgot to take pictures of this, so use your imagination.
13. Serve while hot, and enjoy.