Spicy Marinated Mushroom Pizza

Marinated/lightly pickled mushrooms. Herby, with tangy pops of flavor.

I was strolling through my local Whole Foods market one day and, as I often do, got stuck at the olive bar. Contemplating which olives to get to use on some pizza, or just to enjoy, I was drawn to these lovely marinated mushrooms. I popped one in my mouth when nobody was looking…maybe. They were delicious with a little herbed buttery start with a zingy vinegary finish.

This would be nice on a pizza, I thought.

Fire ’em up a bit to get them ready to finish on the pizza.

When I toss mushrooms that are destined for a pizza into the wood fired oven I’m usually going for that earthy-salty range of flavors. These mushrooms, though, are different. They are marinated — sort of like pickled mushrooms — which seemed like an interesting idea to play with.

This is how it usually happens when I make pizzas. I look for something that sparks an idea and go from there. Pizza is a fantastic food to experiment with because you can try something on a single pizza and it cooks up so fast that you get such immediate results. I love to think about how an ingredient will star in, or support, the overall experience of each pizza and play with those new ingredients. There is literally no limit to what a pizza can be.  What can I say, it’s fun stuff!

Marinated Wood Fired Mushroom Pizza

This is a good start to any pizza and with a little slivered garlic and oregano we have a nice marinara already….yum!

The Mushrooms:

I think these marinated ‘shrooms could have simply been sliced and placed on the pizza as is, and baked. However, I had a fire going and the oven was on it’s way to its cooking temp, so I just thought I’d give them a little time in the oven prior to going on the pizza. I didn’t know if they would soak the pizza with the marinade if I didn’t pre-fire those babies up. So, into the fire they went. I didn’t go nuts — just took the edge off them, and got them good and ready for the pizza.

With some Fontina Cheese to bring out the earthiness that the mushrooms don’t have because of the marinating.

The pizza:

– Any dough/recipe will work, but this was done with some Caputo 00 as a classic Neopolitan Dough. *Recipe Link
– Peter’s Hand Crushed Tomato Sauce w/Bianco DiNapoli Tomatoes *Recipe Link
– Fresh Mozzarella
– Pieces of Fontina
– Wood-Fired Marinated Mushrooms
– Soppressata Salami, thinly sliced
– Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Into the oven!

A little EVOO and it’s good to go.

Soppressata!

Warm and delicious, and I don’t just mean the temperature. This was heart warmingly delicious!

These mushrooms are great! They held their moisture/structure slightly better than if sauteing up some plain, non-marinated mushrooms. They also have a pop of a vinegar brine flavor, which make a nice contrast to the earthy Fontina cheese notes and typical mushroom flavors you’d find on a pizza. The tomato sauce rocks, as always, and the nice, spicy soppressata stands up and says – “Ladies and Gentleman…Right here!”

It’s a very little known fact, almost 100% unknown until now, that Soppressata comes from an obscure Italian legend – – The Legend of Sopprapotentatas, which is a long story about a family who would not stand to be seated in the back row at their village gatherings.  More specifically, it is a legend about their youngest, little Sopprapotentati Soppapotentatas, who was a particularly well-liked boy with a rather unusually tough name to say, who was known for his “salty” little wit with it’s “spicier” edge. It was this spicy edge that made him stand out as a village favorite above all of the other “salty witted boys”.  He eventually married into the Calabrese family and the rest is history.

This is true only because it says so right here on the internet!

Enjoy!