White Pizza With Fermented Dough, Topped with Peppadew Peppers and Caramelized Onions

This is an amazingly easy pizza recipe that’s light and delicious.  This is a white pizza, meaning that there is no tomato sauce, only cheese and toppings.  The caramelized onions add sweetness and the peppadew peppers add a hit of acidity which cuts through the richness of the cheese.  A few chives tossed on at the end gives the pizza a light freshness.

I fermented the dough for this recipe – it’s easier than it sounds, and it greatly increases the lightness and quality of the final crust.  It takes a few days, but most of that is just sitting in the fridge. This is a great dough to make on a Sunday then easily toss together your pizza on, say, Wednesday.  If you don’t want to go through the hassle of fermenting, simply let the dough rest for 30 minutes after step 5, then roll it out and top it as you normally would.

Serves 2

Fermented Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 2 cups of bread flour
• 1 tsp rapid rise or instant yeast (about half a packet)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 cup of warm water
• Olive oil

Instructions

1. Combine everything except the olive oil and water in a stand mixer or food processor and run.
2. Add water a bit at a time until the dough comes together into a ball (you may need a little more).
3. When the dough forms a ball, knead it on the counter for a couple minutes until it gets a smooth texture.
4. Brush a bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl and cover.  Leave it sit for about an hour.
5. Punch the dough down. If you are making two small pizzas, separate into two balls, if you are just making one larger one, leave it in one ball.
6. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough sit on your counter for 24 hours.
7. Place the pizza dough in the fridge for a minimum of two days, up to five.
8. When ready to cook, set the dough on the counter for an hour to get to room temperature. Roll it out into the desired shape and top.

The Pizza

Ingredients

• Pizza dough (as above, or store bought)
• 3-4 Peppadew peppers, sliced thin (available at most salad bars)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Onion
• 1/4 cup shredded Fontina cheese
• 1 Tbsp sherry vinegar (preferably Pedro Ximenez)
• 2-3 Roma tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• Fresh chives, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees with the pizza stone on the second-to-top shelf
2. Thinly slice the onion crosswise into rings
3. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
4. Add onion, and after the onion starts to brown a little bit, turn the heat to low.
5. Cook onion, stirring often, until it becomes a deep brown.
6. Add Sherry vinegar to the onion. Toss it around and take it off the heat.
7. Roll out the dough into one large or two medium sized pizzas
8. Sprinkle Fontina cheese on the base of the pizza
9. Top with sliced peppers, tomatoes, and caramelized onions
10. Place pizza on the preheated stone and bake for 8-10 minutes, checking periodically.
11. Let cool for a few minutes, sprinkle with chives, the cut into quarters and serve.