Boscaiola Pizza Recipes

BOSCAIOLA PIZZA

Steps:

• Start with making the pizza dough. Proof the yeast in the 1/8 cup warm water and 1/4 tsp sugar.
• Put flour and 3/4 tsp salt in a bowl. Add water, yeast mixture and 1 tsp olive oil and knead dough to a ball with nice elastic and smooth consistency. cover with damp cloth and leave to rise for 1-1,5 hours until dough has doubled in size.
• In the meantime, start preparing sauce and toppings. For the sauce, chop garlic and shallots very finely. Put approximately 3/4 of the mushrooms in a food processor and process to a puree.
• Slice remaining mushrooms and fry them in 1 tbs of olive oil until browned, set aside.
• Remove meat from sausage casing and fry in a frying pan until browned, working it with a wooden spoon to get nice small chunks of meat. Add fennel seeds the last 2 minutes. Set aside.
• In a frying pan, heat 1/2 tbs butter and 1/2 tbs olive oil on medium-low heat and cook shallots and garlic without browning them, just until the raw aroma dissapears. Add mushroom puree and cook until most of the moisture has evaporized and the mixture starts to darken in color.
• Add the wine, bring to a boil until alcohol has evaporized. Add chopped parsley, sage and vegetable stock and simmer until sauce has thickened. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
• Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
• Roll dough with rolling pin into a circle of about 12 inches and place onto pizza stone or baking tray. Bake the bare crust for 4 minutes. Remove from oven and coat with boscaiola sauce. Top with fried mushrooms, sausage and grated mozzarella. Bake another 6-8 minutes until edges are light brown and cheese has melted. Remove from oven, garnish with fresh parsley, a drizzle of olive oil and serve.

PASTA ALLA BOSCAIOLA

Steps:

• Place a large pot of water on to boil for pasta.
• Place dry mushrooms in stock in a saucepan and bring to low boil to reconstitute. Reduce stock by half, then set aside.
• Heat 1 tablespoon EVOO in a large pan over medium-high heat, add pancetta, guanciale or sausage and render. When pancetta starts to brown, add the fresh mushrooms.
• Strip and finely chop rosemary. Strip and stack sage leaves and very thinly slice. Add shallots, garlic, salt, pepper and herbs to fresh mushrooms, add 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil and stir 2 to 3 minutes. Add white wine and reduce by half. Add tomatoes and passata. Remove porcini mushrooms with slotted spoon from stock and add all but the last few tablespoons of stock (where grit may have settled) to the sauce. Reduce the heat under sauce to low simmer. Chop porcini mushrooms and add them to the sauce. Add heavy cream if using and stir.
• Add pasta and salt to boiling water and cook pasta 1 minute less than package direction. Reserve 3/4 cup pasta water and drain pasta.
• Return pasta to hot pot, add some pasta water, the cheese, a little EVOO or butter and half of the sauce and toss vigorously 1 full minute to combine. Use more of the hot reserved water as necessary to loosen sauce if it becomes too thick. Serve family style or in shallow bowls topped with remaining sauce. Garnish with parsley.