Recipe: Cracker-Crust Pizza with Prosciutto, Shallots & Blue Cheese
The secret to thin-and-crispy cracker-crust pizza is stretching store-bought dough cold, straight from the refrigerator. Starting with The Silicone Kitchen rolling pin and finishing by hand utilizing the pin as an anchor gets the dough almost paper-thin without tearing.
The silicone rolling pin makes the process easier: it rolls directly in the pan, sticks less than wood or marble, and is the right size for maneuvering the sheet pan.
The crust is topped with a garlic butter base and a layer of Parmesan, blue cheese, and shallots before baking. Then the hot cheese pizza is topped with cold prosciutto, flat-leaf parsley, fennel fronds, and fresh cherry tomatoes before serving, resulting in a deliciously diverse contrast of textures and temperatures in every bite.
When the hot melted cheese and buttery cracker crust collides with those hits of bright fresh herbs, cold prosciutto and juicy cherry tomatoes, the result is a flavor explosion that will knock you off your feet.
The Silicone Kitchen Tools Used
The Silicone Kitchen French Tapered Rolling Pin
The Silicone Kitchen Silicone Cutting Board
The Silicone Kitchen Silicone Baking Cups
Special Equipment Used
16-inch non-stick perforated pizza pan
Basting/pastry brush
Ingredients
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 (16-ounce) package prepared pizza dough, preferably Trader Joe’s
3 tablespoons salted butter, preferably Kerry Gold
3 to 4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 small shallot (about 2-ounces) thinly sliced
½ cup (4-ounces) grated Parmesan
½ cup (4-ounces) crumbled blue cheese
3-ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
12-15 (1-inch long) fennel fronds
12-15 flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 475°F. Dust a 16-inch perforated pizza pan with cornmeal, some of which will fall through the holes in the pan. Set the cold dough ball in the middle of the pan. Using The Silicone Kitchen rolling pin, begin to roll out the dough from the center of the ball outwards.
Once the dough is flattened to about ½-inch thick start turning the pan a quarter turn after two to four rolls. Rotating the pan will help even out the shape of the dough into a circle.
Continue to roll and turn until the dough is as round and as flat as you can get it with The Silicone Kitchen rolling pin, about 1/4th-inch to 1/8th-inch thick.
Using The Silicone Kitchen rolling pin as an anchor, gently lift one edge of the dough with your hands and stretch and pull it over the side of the pan as shown.
Rotate the pan to the opposite side and stretch again. Rotate ¼ turn and continue to lift, pull and turn the dough from the middle of the pan up and over the sides until the pan is covered with an even lay of very thin dough. This may take a bit of practice so don’t be sad if you don’t get the dough pulled evenly across the pan without any holes on the first try.
Using kitchen scissors, cut off the extra dough, leaving about ¼ to ½ inch hanging over the sides of the pan. Roll the scraps into a ball and save for another pizza. Fold the hanging dough back over and inside the lip of the pizza pan to create the “cornicione” (pronounced cornee-CHO-nay), which is the thicker edge around the outside of the pizza.
Microwave the butter, garlic and red pepper flakes (if using), in The Silicone Kitchen baking cup at 50% power for 30 seconds, or until the butter is melted.
Using a basting/pastry brush, cover the surface of the dough with the garlic mixture. Pour any remaining herbs and butter onto the crust to utilize every drop, then continue brushing over the dough until the butter and herbs are evenly distributed.
Sprinkle the oregano, then the Parmesan cheese over the surface of the pizza. Then arrange the sliced shallots and blue cheese crumbles evenly on top.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or the edges of the pizza are well browned, the cheese and butter mixture is bubbling dramatically, and the pizza slides easily off of the pizza pan and onto a cutting board. If the pizza sticks to the pan, return it to the oven and cook for 2-4 minutes longer. Most ovens don’t cook evenly so the pizza may be very brown along some of the edges as shown.
After the pizza stops bubbling, arrange the prosciutto, fennel, Italian parsley and sliced cherry tomatoes over the surface. Slice and serve immediately.
Jackie Alpers is an internationally recognized professional food photographer, and the author of four cookbooks. Visit her website at https://www.jackiealpers.com and follow her at https://www.sonorancorner.jackiealpers.com for more recipes from her home in the Sonoran Desert.