Work-night pizza can be made at home

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Sometimes you want a pizza that rises above your standard cheese and tomato affair.

And simply piling on the toppings doesn’t count. I mean a pizza as appropriate for a weeknight meal as for a dinner party.

Setting out to design my own, I decided at the outset this pizza would not use tomato sauce. To keep cooking time short, it also would have a very thin crust. And to keep it elegant (and again speed cooking time), these would be personal-size pizzas.

For the crust, I opted for my favorite flatbread recipe. Don’t be intimidated by making this from scratch. With a food processor, this comes together in about 1 minute. It also can be done by hand, which takes all of 4 or 5 minutes. The dough produces a tender, chewy flatbread perfect for pizza.

For sauce, I wanted punch. Anchovies and garlic mashed in olive oil were perfect, providing savory, salty notes with just a bit of bite. I just mashed everything in a bowl with a fork.

For toppings, I wanted substance without heft. Some chopped chard or kale was a good start. I topped that with thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms.

Finally, a bit of thinly sliced turkey breast. I just bought sliced turkey at the deli.

For the cheese, I went with fontina, still Italian, but ultra-creamy and smooth.

In the end, I had a delicious and rustic pizza with just a bit of the unexpected.

Flatbread pizza with anchovy oil

1cup all-purpose flour

1/2teaspoon salt

1teaspoon olive oil, plus another 3 tablespoons

1/3-1/2 cup warm water

2oil-packed anchovy fillets

2cloves garlic

4cups chopped greens, such as chard or kale

8large shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded, caps thinly sliced

1/4pound thinly sliced turkey breast, cut into thin strips

2cups shredded fontina or other semisoft cheese

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly spray two baking sheets with olive oil cooking spray.

Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. With the food processor running, add 1 teaspoon olive oil, then slowly drizzle in the water until dough forms a tacky, but not wet ball. Process an additional 15 seconds.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll each piece to the size of a large dinner plate. Place two flatbreads on each baking sheet and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup olive oil, garlic and anchovies. Mash with a fork until chunky smooth. Use a pastry brush to coat each flatbread with the oil-anchovy paste.

Top each flatbread with 1 cup of greens and a quarter each of the mushrooms and turkey breast. Finish with 1/2 cup each of cheese. Bake the pizzas for 10 minutes, or until flatbreads are lightly browned at the edges and the cheese is melted.

Makes 4 individual-size pizzas.