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Chanterelle, Kale and Emmental Pizza
Woodsy chanterelles, nutty emmental, earthy kale and fragrant thyme combine to make a special pizza of mellow autumn flavours. Creamy dollops of crème fraîche bring everything together – in Italy this is called pizza bianca, meaning one without tomato sauce.
You’ll need to start the dough about 2½ hours before you want to eat. If you can find Italian 00 flour it will give a lighter crisper result but if not, just use regular plain flour (strong white bread flour will make the pizza bases too tough). If you’re using pre-measured sachets of fast-acting dried yeast, don’t use the whole dose – it will give an unpleasantly yeasty flavour. 1 teaspoon is plenty for this amount of dough (if you plan to make lots of bread, try to find fast-acting yeast sold in tubs – it’s much less wasteful).
- 125g chanterelles
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 100g curly kale, washed
- 60g Emmental cheese, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons full-fat crème fraîche
- 25g shaved parmesan
- 4 teaspoons picked fresh thyme leaves
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE DOUGH
- 375g plain flour (preferably Italian 00 flour), plus extra for flouring your surface
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon fast-acting dried yeast
- 1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
- 250ml lukewarm water
Method
- To make the pizza dough, put the flour, yeast, salt and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a bowl. Gradually add the water to give a soft, workable dough – if it is a little sticky, add a little more flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead for 5 minutes until smooth and silky, and shape into a neat ball. Brush the bowl with a little oil and put in the dough. Cover the bowl with cling film or a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1½ to 2 hours.
- About 15 minutes prior to cooking the pizza, preheat the oven to 200˚C and put a large baking sheet into the oven to heat up. Now prepare the toppings. Put a large pan of salted water on to boil. Clean and trim the chanterelles, and tear any larger ones in half. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and cook the onion for around 5 minutes until soft. Add the chanterelles and cook for around three minutes, stirring to coat them with oil. Set aside. Blanch the kale in the boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain and rinse under cold running water to cool. Pat dry and cut out any tough stalks.
- When the dough has doubled in size, turn it out on to a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes. Divide the dough into two, and put one portion back into the bowl and cover it while you make up the first pizza.
- Tear a sheet of baking parchment to the rough size of your baking sheet. Use a rolling pin or your hands to press out the portion of dough on the parchment to an oval roughly 30cm by 25cm.
- Cover the dough with a layer of half the Emmental, then top with the half the kale and half the mushroom mixture. Dot the pizza with ½ teaspoon dollops of half the crème fraîche, scatter with half the parmesan shavings, and drizzle with one tablespoon of oil. Brush the oil over the exposed edges of the dough. Sprinkle the pizza with a little salt and a teaspoon of thyme leaves.
- Take the baking sheet out of the oven and rest it on a board or trivet. Lift the pizza on its baking parchment onto the hot baking sheet and put it quickly into the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and bubbling and the crust lightly browned. While the first pizza cooks, prepare the second pizza in the same way, leaving it ready to put onto the hot baking sheet when the first pizza is done.
- Let the pizzas rest for a couple of minutes before cutting. Serve sprinkled with the remaining thyme leaves and a grinding of pepper.
Credits
Recipe and photos by Otherwise for Wild Food UK
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