Pizza Margherita
Sam Sifton, Carlo Mirarchi, Brandon Hoy, Chris Parachini, Katherine Wheelock
3205 ratings with an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars
3,205
15 minutes, plus 1 hour to heat oven
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Clean the mussels. Inspect each one carefully and discard any that have opened (if some are partly opened, tap them with your finger, and if they close back up they are O.K.) or have cracked shells. Place in a large bowl, fill the bowl with cold water and rinse several times, swishing the mussels around in the water, pouring out the water and refilling. Clean the shells, if necessary, with a brush or the end of one of the mussels, and pull out the beards – the hairy attachments emerging from the shells. Do not do this until just before cooking, or the mussels will die and spoil.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, preferably with a pizza stone in it. Roll out the pizza dough and place on a peel or on a lightly oiled pan.
Bring 1 cup water or white wine to a boil in a large saucepan, pot or lidded skillet, and add the mussels. Cover and steam until they open, 3 to 4 minutes, stirring the mussels after the first 2 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the mussels to a bowl and discard the water or wine from the pan. When the mussels are cool enough to handle, remove them from their shells and toss with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1 of the garlic cloves, a pinch of red pepper flakes and half of the parsley.
Stir the remaining garlic into the tomatoes and season to taste with salt and pepper. Brush the pizza dough, but not the rim, with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Spread the tomato sauce on the pizza and sprinkle with chili flakes and oregano or marjoram. Place in the hot oven and bake 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and arrange the mussels over the pizza. Pour on any marinade and return to the oven. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the crust is brown and crispy on the edges. Remove from the heat, sprinkle with the remaining parsley and the Parmesan, and serve.
Just made this for a pizza party (6 kinds of pizza) and this was the unanimous favorite. The parmesan pairs really well with the mussels. It tastes like the sea. It might seem like a pain dealing with the mussels, but it was pretty easy.
Disclaimer: because this was a party and everything was being cooked assembly-line style, I made some modifications. The dough was standard Caputo 00 pizza flour, the oven was at 550, and the pizza only cooked 8 minutes.
Only need 1/2 pound of mussels for one pizza. Also used slice rsausage, butternut squash (already roasted) with a pesto/tomato sauce. Excellent!
In providence it would have a different option aka clams
Mussels are fun to cook and fun to eat. Dinner on the patio felt luxurious tonight.
This might be my new favorite pizza recipe! Took some shortcuts: used a frozen pizza dough from a local bakery and frozen mussel meat from Wixter Market. Pouring the excess marinade on the pizza makes it. Some people said something was missing—I disagree. Be generous with the cheese and maybe add a squeeze of lemon.
With fresh parsley it is akin to a marguerita pizza and elegant. We cooked the mussels separately and added them as soon as the pizza came out of the oven, then sprinkled more parmesean. Also we used probably 2x parmesean.
Looking at the notes indicating this was missing “something”, I added sliced hot cherry peppers (jarred) and fresh mozzarella. The peppers add a little bit of a kick and pair well with the mussels. Will absolutely make again.
I made the pizza without adding extras but purchased a bag of precooked, frozen mussels. It was ok, no problem using the mussels or other ingredients but it seems something is missing from the pizza, perhaps another topping would make a good addition.
Only need 1/2 pound of mussels for one pizza. Also used slice rsausage, butternut squash (already roasted) with a pesto/tomato sauce. Excellent!
Just made this for a pizza party (6 kinds of pizza) and this was the unanimous favorite. The parmesan pairs really well with the mussels. It tastes like the sea. It might seem like a pain dealing with the mussels, but it was pretty easy.
Disclaimer: because this was a party and everything was being cooked assembly-line style, I made some modifications. The dough was standard Caputo 00 pizza flour, the oven was at 550, and the pizza only cooked 8 minutes.
what were the other 5 pizzas?
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