Wild Mushroom, Caramelized Onion and Gorgonzola Pizza
Notes
I had the good fortune to work with a world-renowned mushroom expert. Ben Blidjenstien is from Holland and besides knowing about mushrooms, he is also a true gourmand. If you ask me to list 10 of the top meals I have had in my life, probably 5 were with Ben. One of the things I learned from Ben was there is a world of flavor beyond simple white mushrooms. Historically, Americans know of one type of mushroom. The white button mushroom, or what the French call a Champion, used to be all you could get in the States. Today we have all sorts of options.
This recipe calls for “wild” mushrooms, but I am not suggesting one should go into the local forest to gather them. While my friend Ben could forage up an amazing meal of truly wild mushrooms, my definition of “wild” would include Shitake, Chanterelles, Porcini or Cremini mushrooms. Ben and I were once taking the train from Paris to London and overheard a group of Parisians discussing what is the correct mushroom to serve with chicken. Thirty minutes into the conversation it became clear that consensus was impossible. The point of this story is to challenge you to branch out. There is a world of flavor beyond our white/button mushrooms that work really well on pizza.
Ingredients
- • 2 cups mushrooms (Shitake, Chanterelles, Porcini or Cremini work well)
- • 2 cups onions, sliced
- • 2 teaspoons sugar
- • 3 tablespoons butter
- • ½ cup shallots, sliced
- • 1 ½ cups gorgonzola cheese, grated
- • ½ cup fresh oregano
Instructions
- Slice mushrooms (can be done hours in advance).
- Sauté onion in butter under medium heat adding 2 teaspoons of sugar to help with the caramelization process (can be done hours in advance).
- Lightly sauté shallots in sauté pan (can be done hours in advance).
- After you have taken the half-cooked dough off the grill and brushed on olive oil and garlic to thinly coat the cooked side, add a layer (1 ½ cups) low moisture mozzarella.
- Place mushrooms and caramelized onion across the pizza.
- Add a sprinkling of gorgonzola cheese.
- Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
- After finishing to cook the pizza according to the common process, pull it out of the oven and top with oregano.
- Slice and serve.