Jonathan’s Favorite White Broccoli Pizza

Upon tast­ing this, Jonathan informed me that I must never make any other type of pizza again.

Ingre­di­ents (makes 2 pizzas)

Crust:

• 2 1/4 tea­spoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 tea­spoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
• 1 tea­spoon salt
• 2 table­spoons olive oil
• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

White sauce:

• 4 table­spoons olive oil
• 1 small yel­low sweet onion (Vidalia!), diced
• 4 cloves gar­lic, minced
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tea­spoon minced fresh thyme or marjoram
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pizza:

• Corn­meal for dust­ing peel
• 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
• 2 cups moz­zarella cheese
• 1/4 tea­spoon salt
• 1/4 tea­spoon dried or chopped fresh thyme
• 1/8 tea­spoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 cup baby broc­coli flo­rettes (cooked). For sim­plic­ity, I use microwave steam-in-a-bag broccoli.
• 2 table­spoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Direc­tions

Crust:

1. In a large bowl, dis­solve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solu­tion. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
3. Knead in more flour until the dough is not sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until dou­ble, about 1 hour. Punch down, cut in half, and form two tight balls. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before throwing.

White sauce:

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 min­utes or until translu­cent. Add the gar­lic and stir for 1 minute longer. If you must, strain out the onion/garlic. Add the cream, lower the heat and sim­mer for about 5 min­utes, or until the cream reduces.
2. Remove from the heat, stir in the thyme, and sea­son to taste with salt and pep­per. Cool before using.

Pizza:

1. Pre­heat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Stir together the ricotta, salt, thyme, and pep­per. Spread the White Sauce over the 2 crusts, leav­ing bor­ders uncov­ered. Spread the ricotta mix­ture evenly over the White Sauce.
3. Sprin­kle shred­ded moz­zarella over all. Add chopped broc­coli, then remain­ing mozzarella.
4. If you are bak­ing your piz­zas on a pan, lightly oil the pan(s), sprin­kle with corn­meal and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 min­utes; pre­bake for 8 min­utes before top­ping and then com­plete the bake time. If bak­ing on a stone, place top­pings on the dough, and bake immediately.
5. Bake piz­zas in a pre­heated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.