Yield:
6
To Make:
Preheat oven to 550F.
Prepare oven by removing lower racks and placing 2-3 upside down baking sheets on the oven floor. Your prepared pizza will be placed directly on the baking sheet.
Pizza Base:
- In a food processor, blend ricotta, garlic, salt and pepper. If you don't have a food processor, you can just mix with a spoon, the base will be more chunky rather than creamy, but equally delicious.
- If the base does not seem easily spreadable, drizzle in some olive oil while food processor is running until desired consistency has been reached.
Prep Dough:
- Roll your pizza doughs to about 10" or the size of a large dinner plate.
- Cover a pizza stone or an upside down baking sheet with a layer of semolina or cornmeal and place pizza dough on the prepared surface.
Top Pizza:
- Liberally smear the pizza dough with the ricotta base.
- Sprinkle with diced preserved lemon.
- Cover the ricotta with a layer of smoked mozzarella.
- In a seperate bowl, toss kale strips with a little bit of lemon juice, olive oil, and salt to taste.
- Place kale strips on the pizza.
- Sprinkle pizza with a layer of freshly grated or crumbled Parmesan cheese.
- Last but not least, dust the top of the pizza with smoked paprika, red chile flakes and kosher salt. If you want to get really fancy, skip the kosher salt and wait until the pizza comes out of the oven and finish off with a crunch flake salt like Maldon or Fleur de Sel.
Bake Pizza:
- Bake pizza in preheated, prepared 550F oven until the crust is crispy and golden, the cheese is bubbly and the kale is roasty...about 6-10 minutes depending on your oven.
- You may need to rotate the pizza around the 6 minute mark if your oven does not heat evenly.
- In the last minute or two, crank the oven to Broil to get a really delicious, blistery roast on the top of the pizza.
Note: You can substitute freshly grated lemon zest for the preserved lemon. However, if you find yourself with loads of lemons during citrus season, making a batch of preserved lemons is quick and easy and their flavor provides a lot of depth to many dishes.
Think kale on pizza sounds weird? Let this recipe prove you wrong! I came up with this for Pizza Night at the Doe Bay Cafe a few years back, and it became a regularly requested feature. If you're scared of kale, this is a great way to ease your way in to enjoying the delicious winter green. It's rich cheese base is topped with roasted kale and balanced with zingy lemon for a real palate pleaser!
I usually plan to eat half a pizza as a serving, but once I start chowing down, that plan often goes out the window. Use your best judgement on how hungry you and your guests are when planning how many pizzas to prepare.
Ingredients:
10" pizza dough - 3
Fresh ricotta cheese - 12 oz.
Garlic, minced - 6 cloves
Tuscan kale, stalks removed, cut into ribbons - 9 leaves
Preserved lemon, minced - 6 tsp.
Lemon juice, fresh - 1 tsp. (or as needed)
Olive oil - to taste
Smoked mozzarella cheese, shredded - 24 oz.
Parmesan cheese, grated - 12 oz.
Semolina or Cornmeal - as needed
Kosher salt - to taste
Smoked paprika - to taste
Red chile flakes - to taste