No Knead Cast Iron Salad Pizza
A combination of Kenji's Foolproof Pan Pizza and Molly Baz's Salad Pizza with some kale chips.
Ingredients
A 10 inch cast iron skillet
Pizza dough
200g all purpose or bread flour 5g salt 2g yeast 138g water 4g olive oil
Toppings
3 cloves of garlic 5 anchovies A couple leaves of kale 6 ounces of fresh mozzarella torn into pieces 1/3 cup ricotta 1/4 cup parmesan
Salad
1 lemon 2 tbsp red wine vinegar 2 tbsp olive oil 2 stalks of celery 2 handfuls of mixed greens: mesclun mix, arugula, baby spinch, whatever.
Instruction
About 12-24 hours before you want to eat (ideally overnight) combine all dough ingredients in a bowl that's a lot bigger than the volume of the dough (around 4x as big). Mix with a wooden spoon until it's all combined, and then cover.
About 2.5 hours before you want to eat check the dough. It will have risen a bunch, so we'll put it in the cast iron to proof. Get your 10 inch cast iron and put 2 tbsp of olive oil in it. Sprinkle flour on a work surface and on top of the dough in the bowl and rub some on your hands. Gently release the dough from the side of the bowl and turn it out onto the work surface.
Tuck the dough underneath itself from a few different sides to form a smooth ball. Gently but quickly pick up the dough and place in the skillet, and turn it over twice in the skillet so that the dough is covered with oil and the smooth side is up. Position it in the center the skillet and press down with a flat palm. Cover skillet top with saran wrap. The dough will rise a bit more to the sides of the pan.
After 2 hours preheat the oven to 500F/260C. The salad pizza is baked with a few ingredients and then topped with a salad. We'll do some prep while the oven preheats for the next 30 minutes:
Garlic Anchovy Oil
First slice or cut up 3 cloves of garlic. In a small saucepan combine the garlic, 2 tbsp of oil, and 5 anchovies. Set this on medium low heat and keep an eye on it: you just want the anchovies to melt a little and the garlic to infuse the oil, not for the garlic to brown. This took me about 6 minutes, but it could be more or less on a different stovetop. If it's even starting to brown take it off heat but leave in the pan.
Prep Toppings
While the olive is barely simmering, prep the following items:
- Kale: tear about 3 kale leaves into bite size pieces. The easiest way to do this is to tear a bit off of the end of the kale, and then tear a few pieces off of each side of the stem. You can discard the stem.
- Celery: thinly slice 2 stalks of celery (on a bias, if you'd like).
- Mixed Greens: wash and dry if necessary.
- Mozzarella: tear fresh mozzarella into a few pieces.
- Parmesan: finely grate about 1/4 cup of parmesan.
Kale Chips
In a small bowl put in the kale, a glug of olive oil, and a pinch of salt. Rub the oil into the kale and let sit in the bowl.
Salad Dressing
Combine juice from 1/2 lemon, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1-2 tbsp parmesan, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Whisk thoroughly. Add in the celery and greens and mix thoroughly.
Assemble and Bake the Pizza
Take the plastic wrap off of the cast iron skillet and gently pull the dough toward the edges of the skillet by reaching under and pulling up. This removes any air bubbles on the bottom and makes sure there's oil under the pizza.
For the toppings, don't leave space for a crust, put all everything right to the edge of the pan. Dump the oil, garlic, and anchovies on top of the pizza and spead it out. Place the torn mozzarella on, and then dollop the 1/3 cups ricotta on the pizza. Place in the oven.
The pizza will bake for about 15 minutes total. After 10 minutes open the oven up and dump all of the kale on top of the pizza. Remove the pizza when the kale has had time to cook for about 5 minutes and is a little crisp.
Finish the Pizza
Move to a stovetop and using a metal spatula check underneath the pizza: it should be a little crisp and golden on the bottom. If it's not, put it on a burner on medium high heat for a few minutes. Check often: this crisps faster than you might think.
When it's done, remove from the cast iron onto a cutting board. Sprinkle all the parmesan you didn't use on top of the pizza. Cut the pizza into fours (I find it easier to cut then top with salad). Remix the salad one last time and put on top of the pizza.