Egg, Ham, and Spinach Pizza

So guess what I did a few days ago? Made more balls of pizza dough!! This time I used the whole wheat dough recipe from 101 Cookbooks and I added a couple tablespoons of chopped rosemary to the mix. I mostly made the dough because I knew I was going to be making this pizza. I'm really glad I made it because it's really, really, really delicious. It's an Ellie Krieger recipe and it definitely doesn't taste like you are eating lighter. Some of the spinach got a little crispy and it reminded me of the spinach chips I recently saw on Andrea's Cooking Books (I haven't actually tried the recipe yet, but they look so good!). I only cracked one egg onto this for two reasons, one I was just making it to have right away and didn't feel like having more than one egg and secondly, the one egg I cracked was a semi-fail! Oh yeah, it looks good in the picture, but you don't see my baking sheet with egg white dripping down it. I think next time I will do the eggs either in the center or cook them separately and place them on the pizza. The dough was really good too. Kind of like a crisp cracker which is exactly how I like my pizza dough. I loved the herbs in it too.


So now I need your help! I have five more balls of rosemary pizza dough. What other combinations would you like to see?


Egg, Ham and Spinach Pizza
(Slightly adapted from Ellie Krieger)

Serves 4

1 unbaked, whole wheat pizza crust (recipe below)
4 cups baby spinach leaves
Olive oil for drizzling
Kosher salt (optional)
3 slices prosciutto, roughly torn
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 eggs (if making for four people)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place the pizza dough on the back of a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Scatter spinach all over crust. Drizzle with oil and lightly sprinkle with salt if desired (a little will go a long way since the prosciutto and Parmesan are already salty). Evenly distribute prosciutto, Parmesan and garlic on top of spinach. Crack eggs onto pizza, roughly positioning 1 yolk on each pizza quarter. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until spinach is wilted and egg whites are just fully cooked. Cut into 4 large slices.

White Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
(From 101 Cookbooks)

4 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold
2 tablespoons rosemary, chopped (optional, but recommended!)
Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer. By hand stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed. Add the herbs if using. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl (to me it looks like a tornado). Add a touch of water or flour to reach the desired effect. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky.

Transfer the dough to a floured counter top. Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces and mold each into a ball. Rub each ball with olive oil and slip into plastic sandwich bags. Refrigerator overnight.

When you are ready to make pizza, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before making the pizza. Keep them covered so they don't dry out.

At the same time place a baking stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you do not have a baking stone, you can use the back of a sheet pan, but do not preheat the pan.

Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal and get ready to shape your pizza dough. Uncover or unwrap the dough balls and dust them with flour. Working one at a time, gently press a dough round into a disk wide enough that you can bring it up onto your knuckles to thin out - you should be able to pull each round out to 12-inches or so. If the dough is being fussy and keeps springing back, let it rest for another 15-20 minutes. Place the pulled-out dough on the prepared sheet pan, and jerk the pan to make sure the dough will move around on the cornmeal ball-bearings (you don't want it to stick to the pan).

Top with a few toppings of your choice.