FridayNightSlice: Pancetta, Swiss Chard, Mushroom

Been awhile since we’ve had a slice, hasn’t it? The good news is, I’m bringing pizza and beer. You can thank Andris and his beer crust experiments on the Baking Steel Facebook page last weekend.  A day later, I had a batch of dough with Silver City Red Ale doing its thing in the fridge, just waiting to become a FridayNightSlice.  The first beer dough pie was a simple pepperoni and mushroom. But for you, I’m fancying it up a little. This week’s FridayNightSlice features that beer dough with pancetta, swiss chard and criminis.

Kenji’s New York-Style dough is our house go-to. Replacing the water with beer 1:1 really does make a difference in flavor. With the red ale, it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what that extra flavor is — it’s a little more yeasty, I suppose. We’ll have to do some further experimenting with lighter beers, though I think you probably want to start with a beer that’s got some upfront flavor, otherwise there’s no point.

This combo would also make a great breakfast pizza on Sunday morning. Put an egg on it.

Side note – have you checked out the Steller app yet? It’s a photo essay/storytelling app for the iPhone that I’ve been obsessed with over the last couple of months. Click through the version above for a slightly different telling of this week’s FridayNightSlice. Enjoy.

UPDATED 11/9 to include the link to Kenji’s New York Style dough.

Print Recipe

Pancetta, Swiss Chard & Mushroom Pizza

Serves: 1 8" pizza

Cooking Time: 1 hour 9 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pizza dough ball from a batch of Kenji's New York-style dough (link above)
• ~ 1 T. olive oil
• 5 thin slices pancetta
• 2 crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• ~ 2 cups swiss chard leaves, sliced into 1 inch ribbons
• 1/2 c. shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese
• Flour for prepping your board

Instructions

1

Preheat Baking Steel for ~ 1 hour at 500F. Turn up to 525F when ready to bake.

2

In a medium bowl, toss the chard with the garlic cloves and set aside.

3

Flour your board and pat the dough into roughly an 8 inch round, careful not to flatten the edges. Transfer the dough to a pizza peel.

4

Brush the dough with olive oil.

5

Top with swiss chard, then add in order: mushrooms, cheese and pancetta.

6

Bake for 7-9 minutes until the cheese is lightly browned and the pancetta is cooked. It will still be fairly light in color.

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