corn and prosciutto pizza recipe – use real butter (2024)

Recipe: corn and prosciutto pizza

Every June when the backcountry snow begins to thin and our minds turn to hiking rather than skiing, I look forward to summer’s arrival. I am ready for it. I love the idea of summer. Summer sounds great to me. By the end of July, I’ve had my fill of summer. I know summer lovers outnumber winter lovers the way extroverts outnumber introverts, but kids… I’ll have my autumn now, thanks. Just the other day it was raining and 59°F outside. Delicious. Even though our summers are pretty short here in the Colorado high country, I would gladly give up a month of summer in exchange for a month of autumn. But that’s not happening in the foreseeable future. So while I wait for autumn’s (hopefully early) arrival, we continue on.

Kaweah had her summer stink going on something fierce, so we decided it was high time for her to get a bath. She hates baths. When we take her outside, she’s happy enough just standing around sniffing the news on the air, lazily wagging her tail. Then she catches sight of THE HOSE. She notices Jeremy carrying THE BOTTLES of shampoo and conditioner and she spies THE TOWELS in the driveway. Kaweah then starts to walk back toward the front door. No matter how you call her, entice her, try to give her a little push, she digs in with all her might and won’t go an inch in the direction of the hose.

We now have a clean puppy who smells like lavender Buddy Wash and the trauma of the bath is forgotten until the next time. Kaweah doesn’t get baths as often as she used to because she doesn’t get filthy going on hikes with us anymore. It breaks my heart every single time we leave her at home, because she knows what it means when we grab our packs and don our trail runners. She used to stand at the baby gate and wag her tail, hopeful to the last second that she too would come with us. Now that she knows the routine, she curls up comfortably in her doggy bed and rests her chin on the bumper, watching us go. This is great incentive for us to hike faster so we can get home to be with our pup.

When it’s warm, I tend to get lazy with the whole cooking thing. The grill sees a lot more action than the stove or oven, and I obsess over local seasonal produce like corn, tomatoes, melons, peaches, and berries (because they are so damn good). The other day, my friend emailed me that she and a friend had a wonderful meal at Pizzeria Locale. Oh yes, I love that place. My favorite pizza to order there is the Mais – corn, prosciutto, garlic chives, and crème fraîche. And suddenly, I had a craving for pizza.

I made a few adjustments to the pizza based on what I had on hand. For one thing, my corn was fresh off the cob. Instead of crème fraîche, I just used softened unsalted butter. And I omitted garlic chives, but perhaps next time I’ll use a garlic butter base instead of plain butter. In any case, I must emphasize that fresh corn on pizza is AWESOME. Do this now while corn is in season and delightfully sweet!

You can tell how much we’ve been making pizza in the last year by my pizza dough tossing skills (I mean skillz). I can toss straight up instead of four feet to my right. They actually spin around a vertical axis (or spin azimuthally) and stretch radially. And I can catch the dough without accidentally folding it back into a ball. One thing to keep in mind as you build your pizza – don’t put too much stuff on it. The more toppings you pile on the more likely your crust will burn and the toppings will not cook through.

Here’s a little bit of advice. Put the corn down first and then add the cheese. We discovered that the kernels get hot, puff up, and go jumping off the pizza in the grill. ZING! One kernel barely missed Jeremy’s eye when he went to get the pizza off the grill. They tend to behave a little better when they are under the cheese. Either way, do watch out for hot flying kernels of corn.

I’m sure this pizza would have been fabulous with garlic chives and crème fraîche, but it’s delightful without them too. The buttery base and creamy mozzarella play again the sweet, crisp bites of corn and the salty prosciutto. The addition of a little heat from the red pepper flakes and the tang of grated parmesan rounds out the pizza perfectly. Definitely make this one while good, sweet corn is still available.

Corn Prosciutto Pizza
[print recipe]
inspired by Pizzeria Locale

flour or cornmeal for the pizza peel
2 half-pound balls olive oil pizza dough (see below) or any pizza dough you prefer
2 tbsps butter, softened
salt and pepper
fresh kernels from 1 cob of corn
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced
6 thin slices prosciutto

olive oil pizza dough
from Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., and Zoë François
3 1/6 cups or 25.3 oz. (725 g) water at 100°F
1 tbsp (10 g) granulated yeast
1 1/2 tbsps (25 g) kosher salt
1/3 cup or 2.5 oz. (70 g) olive oil
7 1/2 cups or 38 oz. (1080 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

Make the dough: In a mixing bowl or the vessel you plan to store your dough, measure that the water is 100°F. Add the yeast and salt to the water. Stir in the olive oil. Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon, Danish dough whisk, or use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer. Make sure all of the flour is incorporated (you may have to use your hands if stirring with a spoon), but don’t knead the dough. It goes quickly if using the mixer. If you didn’t mix your dough in your storage container, transfer the dough to that container. Cover the container with a non-airtight lid and let the dough rise at room temperature for two hours or until the dough flattens on top. Don’t punch the dough down! Refrigerate the dough with the non-airtight lid. It should be good for the next 14-days (it will deflate, but that’s okay). Makes enough dough for eight 1/2-pound balls of dough.

Make the pizzas: Get all of your toppings together first to minimize the amount of time the dough spends on the peel (because it will stick). Preheat your pizza stone in the bottom third of the oven to 550°F. Sprinkle your pizza peel with cornmeal or flour (to prevent sticking). Now sprinkle some flour over the surface of your refrigerated dough. Reach in, grab a handful of the dough, and pull up. Using kitchen shears or a knife, cut off about a half pound of dough (the size of a large orange). Add a little flour to your hands and gently stretch the top of the dough down around to the bottom on all sides. It’s like you’re petting the top of the dough, stroking it down and tucking it under the bottom. Turn 90 degrees and repeat until you have a nice and smooth ball. Flatten the dough on a floured work surface or onto the peel and roll it out to 1/8-inch thickness. Transfer the dough to your peel if it isn’t on there already and roll or shape it to a 12-inch diameter. Add more flour as you work to keep the dough from sticking to the peel. If you are comfortable tossing the dough, then do so.

Spread 1 tablespoon of butter evenly over the dough. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the dough. Sprinkle corn kernels over the pizza dough (if you put the corn on top of the cheese, it tends to pop and fly off the pizza when you bake it). Place slices of mozzarella on the corn, but don’t overdo it. Tear up two to three slices of prosciutto and scatter them over the pizza. Shake the peel to make sure the pizza is not sticking (if it is, gently use a dough scraper or a knife to unstick it and toss a little cornmeal or flour underneath the trouble spot between the dough and the peel. Set the tip of the peel on the far end of the pizza stone and give it a jiggle so that the pizza begins to slide off and the edge is resting on the stone. Pull the peel out from under the pizza at an angle (to encourage the pizza to disengage). Bake for 8-10 minutes, but check for doneness. Take care when you open the door of the grill or the oven – some of the corn kernels are hot and ready to launch (so protect your eyes). Remove from heat and serve. Repeat for the second pizza. Makes two 12-inch pizzas.

more goodness from the use real butter archives

the woodward pizza

barbecue chicken pizza

porcini pizza

the roadrunner (pepperoni and green chile) pizza

August 4th, 2013: 9:56 pm
filed under bread, cheese, dairy, dinner, lunch, meat, recipes, savory, vegetables