ALASKAN PIZZA
Alaskan pizza features reduced heavy cream, pecorino, hot smoked salmon, fresh dill, full fat low moisture mozzarella and pickled red onion. Alaskan Pizza is traditionally prepared to celebrate meaningful milestones, like Tuesday, or as final preparation for your "before" picture.
Ingredients (makes 3 or 4 13 inch pizzas)
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 bunch Fresh Dill
- 1 large red onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground Kampot white pepper
- 6 ounces smoked salmon
- 4 oz pecorino cheese, grated
- 2 lbs full fat low moisture mozzarella
Dough
- 4.5 cups flour
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 2.25 cups water
Cream sauce:
Pick the dill leaves off the stems and reserve for later, and simmer the stems in the cream, stirring constantly until reduced to desired consistency (about 20%). Or, thicken with a corn starch slurry if you have better things to do than sweat over a small pot while you inevitably scald the cream and have to start over.
A pinch of salt in the cream is all you need, because you're going to add pecorino once the pizza is sauced. I know you're thinking it, but under no circumstances should parmesan be used instead of pecorino on an Alaskan pizza, unless you prefer parmesan or happen to have it on hand.
Pecorino is saltier and sheepier and sharper.
Pickled Red Onion
For Golf's sake, make your own. No, you won't find it at the store. No, the sprouting white or yellow onions in your pantry won't work. Yes, we'll know immediately if you use food coloring or a bit of raw beet for color, you dirty cheat.
Slice a red onion thinly, pack it tight in a glass pint jar with a bay leaf and one clove of crushed garlic. Extra points for fresh oregano here. Those fools that only read ingredient lists are going to miss out, big time.
Boil 1 cup water with 1/2 cup white vinegar and 1 tsp of salt then pour it over the onions and screw on the lid. What do you mean you don't have the lid? No you can't just move it to a different container because you can't find the lid for the jar you selected. Get your life together.
Smoked Salmon
Use hot smoked (kippered) King salmon, because this is Alaskan pizza, and Alaskans are a bit particular when it comes to salmon. Yes, we dress in stained clothes and wear rubber boots in all weather, but try to feed us chum and we won't be chums for long. Silver and sockeye work in a pinch.
Farmed salmon is fine if you hate your family and/or guests. Can you substitute canned pink salmon? Did you just ask me that, Robert? What are we even doing here? Sure. Yes you can. Just spread it in a thin layer on your favorite shirt and bake it in a hot car.
For the rest of you, use hot smoked salmon, preferably wild, preferably King (Chinook). Flake it into a bowl and reserve. Make sure you've picked out all the pin bones, because if your daughter accidentally swallows a tiny salmon bone and it "lodges in her throat" then "migrates to her shoulder" and an ER doc looks at her sideways and prescribes a cup of tea before billing you $600, you'll never forgive yourself.
If your smoked salmon won't flake and it's already sliced thin, you got the wrong kind. That's cold smoked salmon (lox). It will be very salty, so use smaller pieces. It will probably be delicious and you can tell people you did it on purpose.
A word on pizza cheese
Your grocery store will be full of skim milk mozzarella. Don't fall for it. Keep looking until you find whole milk low moisture mozzarella. There is a time for low fat cheese, and that time will be when all the full fat cheese on earth has been consumed.
Pizza Dough
Use your favorite or make this one. Remember to prepare it a day or three in advance, because dough improves dramatically with age.
Assemble!
Crust, sauce, 1/2 of the fresh dill, pecorino, smoked salmon, Mozzarella. Make sure to cover the salmon completely with cheese, as salmon reacts less favorably to high & direct heat than pepperoni or sausage.
Bake in a preheated 400F oven until the crust is crisp and mozzarella is browning in spots. If your pizza cooking confidence is low, use the skillet method as it allows one to perfectly broil the top and finish the crust on the stovetop if necessary. No floppy sad soggy crust or barely melted cheese will haunt your pizza dreams when using the skillet method.
Top with the remaining fresh dill and pickled red onions and a few cranks of extra fine fresh ground white pepper from your pepper cannon, slice and serve. This recipe makes 3-4 13 inch pizzas, depending on how thick you like your crust.
Alaskan Pizza should become a thing, and you can help make it so.
If you make an Alaskan Pizza, post a pic and tag me (@mannkitchen) so I can share it to my stories.
If you put Alaskan Pizza on your menu, post it and tag me! I will be sorely tempted to come try it, and bring you an XL pepper cannon.
-Cleve
