One of my favorite Neapolitan style pizzas is from Pizza Brutta in Madison, WI.  I was trying to recreate it from memory.  I came up with a delicious pizza but after I looked at the description on their website it turns out we were missing mushroom paste or puree – something I’ve never used before.  Of course there is a recipe on the internet for the paste so next time I’ll give that a try!  Also, they used Fontina cheese and I used a mix of Gruyere and Smoked provolone.

Here’s how it went down:

Pizza Dough – enough for two 12″ rounds.  (I use Mark Bittman’s pizza dough recipe which can be found here).                           

2 pizza stones if you have them or pizza pans or cookie sheets

2 T. Olive Oil

1 1/2 cups sliced onions

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz. cremini mushooms, sliced – I had some shiitakes in the mix

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. aleppo pepper, or red pepper flakes, or black pepper

8 oz. shredded white cheese – I used a mix of Gruyere and smoked provolone

cornmeal for sprinkling on the stone or baking sheet

Preheat oven and pizza stones in a 500 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil on medium low for about 5 minutes until somewhat translucent.  Mix in the mushrooms, salt and pepper, and cover for another 5 minutes or more so they are partially cooked.   

Roll or pat half of the dough into a 12-inch circle or whatever fits your pan, and carefully transfer it to the hot pizza stone sprinkled with a little cornmeal. We leave the second stone in the oven until the first pizza is baked so the stone doesn’t cool off too much.  Sprinkle with half of the shredded cheese (4 oz), getting within about 1/2″ of the edge.  Smear on half the onion mushroom mix, and bake for about 11 minutes.  While the first pizza is cooling off enough to eat we make the second pizza and repeat the process.

If you don’t have pizza stones you will have to adjust the baking time.  It will probably take another 2-4 minutes so do keep an eye on the pizza.

Let us know if you try this recipe with or without the mushroom paste and how it turns out.  Enjoy!