Mother's Day Pizza with Spinach, Sausage + Leeks
This makes 2 pizzas, one to devour at once, one for leftovers. It’s fine to halve the recipe. And it’s also fine to make 3 times as much dough for the crust, then divide it up raw, drop each chunk of dough onto a floured piece of waxed paper, and freeze it til hard. Next time you want to make pizza, just thaw out a frozen chunk of crust. Future you will thank you for this act of generosity.
Toppings for 2 Spring Pizzas
1/2 pound browned Italian sausage
About 20 leeks, from the woods
About 10 morels if you’re lucky to find them, halved + cleaned
16 ounces fresh mozzarella
grated Parmesan, for topping
Sauce for 2 Pizzas
12 ounces prepared sauce with an added 3 tablespoons of tomato paste, or go ahead and make your own
Crust for 2 Pizzas
4 cups flour, any combination of wheat and white
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon instant dried yeast *
2 cups water
*Can’t find yeast these days? Liberate yourself from commercial yeast and switch over to sourdough starter
Step 1: Start the Crust
This is slow pizza! Do this the night before you plan to eat.
Mix together the crust ingredients in a large pot or a bowl you can cover tightly. Stir the dry ingredients together first, then mix in the water. This will be a pretty wet, shaggy dough. No need to knead it. We’re doing the overnight no-knead method.
Let the dough sit on the counter until morning.
In the morning, generously flour a countertop, dump the dough onto it, and divide it into two halves. Roll or pull the two doughs into the shape of pizzas and transfer them to well-floured cookie sheets. An additional dusting of cornmeal on the baking pan helps prevent sticking.
Brush the crusts with olive oil, then let them rest on the counter for another hour or more.
Step 2: Take a Walk in the woods
On pizza day if not the day before, go take a gorgeous walk and find some forest leeks. Morels are also a worthy prize for good hunters.
Step 3: Toppings
In batches, saute your leeks, spinach, and Italian sausage.
Got young people in the house? It’s extra fun to set the prepped ingredients up in little bowls so they can build their own pizzas.
Chop the fresh mozzarella into chunks. Your entire pizza will not be covered in cheese like a batch of nachos, but we think that’s part of the charm.
Step 4: Baking
Pre-heat your oven to 475 degrees. Bake both pizzas for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crust begins to harden. No toppings yet, just crust alone.
When they’re partly baked, pull the crusts out and add your toppings.
Return the completeley assembled pizzas to the hot oven and bake again til your cheese is melted, about another 10 minutes.