Pizza Redux: From Crust to Filling

By Katie Barreira

A few weeks back, we stretched pizza dough and ever since, that beautiful, but lonely crust has vexed me like a hanging chad. So here’s a hearty pizza topper the will fill up winter bellies and empty crusts, along with the best technique for baking crisp crust at home if you don’t have a pizza stone.

Super Baa-d Pizza
I love the rich, mildly gamey flavor of lamb meat. Pair it with a smooth and tangy sheep’s milk cheese and you’ve got a double delicious pizza.

Serves 4
1 pound pizza dough, thawed if frozen
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 medium shallot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper
1 pound ground lamb
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 can (14 ounces) chopped tomatoes
¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup shredded Pecorino Toscano (or other young sheep’s milk cheese)
2 cups baby arugula
1 cup halved black grapes

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees F with an inverted baking sheet placed on the middle rack. Stretch pizza dough on second baking sheet and brush with 1 teaspoon oil. Place the sheet pan with the pizza dough directly on top of the preheated inverted sheet pan; bake for 5 minutes, then remove pizza pan from oven.
2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, garlic, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the lamb, oregano and red pepper flakes and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until lamb is browned, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the par-baked crust with the cheeses, then spoon lamb mixture evenly over top and bake in the same fashion on the inverted sheet pan until the crust is deep golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Toss the arugula and grapes with the remaining 1 teaspoon oil, scatter over the pizza and serve immediately.

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