Shel Zolkewich, Guest Pizza Storyteller shares her recipe & story
Sweet Prosciutto Pizza on Homemade Dough
Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (125 mL)
1 1/2 – 2 cup all-purpose flour (375-500 mL)
2 Tbsp wheat germ (30mL)
1/4 tsp salt (1 mL)
1 package (7g) quick rising instant yeast (1 )
1 cup hot water (250 mL)
1 Tbsp canola oil (15 mL)
Directions for Pizza Dough:
In a large bowl, mix whole-wheat flour, 1 cup all purpose flour, wheat germ, salt and yeast. Stir in hot water and canola oil. Gradually stir in enough of remaining all-purpose flour to make a soft dough.
Knead on lightly-floured surface until smooth and elastic. Shape dough into ball. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes before rolling out.
Pizza Toppings
Ingredients:
½ cup cranberry orange sauce (I use the PC brand)
½ cup feta, crumbled
3 generous handfuls arugula
4 slices prosciutto, chopped into ½ inch squares
1/3 cup parmesan
Cornmeal for preventing the pizza from sticking to the stone
Directions for Pizza Assembly:
Light the charcoal in your grill (or preheat your gas grill). Place your pizza stone inside (never place a cold stone inside a hot grill). You’ll want to reach about 500F.
Once the dough is ready, make a pizza shell. You can make it as thick or thin as you want. I tend to leave the shell on the thicker side so it holds the topping a little better. I build my pizza on a thin bamboo cutting board dusted with cornmeal; it slides off easily. Slather on the cranberry orange sauce and top with crumbled feta.
Dust your pizza stone with cornmeal. Slide your pizza onto the stone. Close the lid. If your grill is around 500F, it will only take four or five minutes for the pizza to cook. At the three minute mark, open the lid, spread the arugula on the pizza while it’s on the grill. Top with prosciutto and parmesan. Close the lid and give your pizza another minute or two.
Remove, let it rest for 30 seconds, slice and enjoy!
The Great Pizza Story – Enter the contest
You won’t want to miss your chance to win pizza making lessons for you and 5 friends with Chef Mary Jane Feeke. Chef will either come to your home or you can visit her shop for your private lessons. Be the envy of your friends and enter today!
Simply visit The Great Pizza Dough Contest Page, fill in your info and submit. You can even share the contest info with your friends for additional entries.
The Story Behind The Pizza – Adventures in Pizza Land
Some people stick to pepperoni and mushroom their entire lives. Sure I like a good classic, but I also believe every pizza is a chance for discovery, exploration and maybe even finding a fabulous new favourite.
It’s sort of the same way I feel every time I fire up my Big Green Egg. By way of explanation, this smoker/cooker/grill is a thick-walled ceramic vessel—shaped exactly like an egg—that uses charcoal exclusively as its heat source. I’ve coveted one forever. And only after a won a food writing award (that came with a nice cheque attached) could I convince myself to shell out the dough for this unit. You can purchase a large Big Green Egg for about $1,600. To put that in perspective, my kitchen is home to a $155 stove that came from a second-hand store.
Yes, it’s excessive. But it’s also a creative outlet for me (at least that’s my excuse). When I put my love of pizza and my love for my Egg together, wonderful, adventurous things usually happen. Sometimes they’re even delicious!
The recipe above was inspired by a flatbread I had a Winnipeg restaurant. Sadly, they’ve taken it off the menu. So I made a few changes and came up with a version of my own. The most unexpected delight of this pizza is that it brings sweetness into the mix by way of the cranberry orange sauce. It makes for a perfect appetizer.
The pizza dough is the unsung hero here. The addition of wheat germ and whole wheat flour gives it just enough crunch when cooked on that super hot pizza stone. Plus it allows you to sneak a few healthy ingredients into the dough when no one is looking.
Like all recipes, keep in mind that you can have some fun by switching up the ingredients. If you can’t find cranberry orange sauce, use marmalade. Or better yet, use that high bush cranberry jelly you made in the fall. No prosciutto? Use salami or dice up some garlic sausage. I like to splash some hot sauce on my slices too. This recipe delivers sweet, salty, crunchy and spicy. What could be better?
Eat Well…Shel Zolkewich
#madeinmanitoba
Shel writes about the outdoors, travel and food when she’s not playing outside, on the road or eating at www.shelzolkewich.com. Her recent adventures have included a trip to the tundra to serve as cook at a caribou hunting camp and making a long overdue journey to Ukraine with her dad Merv.
An avid angler and hunter and writes the hunting column in the Winnipeg Free Press (Winnipeg, Canada).
She’s written for Up! Magazine, Going Places, Canadian Gardening, Travel Manitoba, Outdoor Canada, Western Living, The National Post, West Magazine, Winnipeg Free Press, The Globe & Mail, EnRoute and various Websites.
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