White Pizza with Spinach & Garlic

FOR THE DOUGH:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, use dough hook to mix flour, salt and yeast together. Add water, olive oil, and honey, and mix on medium speed until the dough comes together in a ball and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Add more flour/water as necessary – the dough will stick to the bottom but not the sides. It should not be overly wet or shaggy, but not too dry/floury/stiff either.

Allow the mixer to run for 5-7 minutes to knead the dough and develop the gluten (alternatively, knead by hand). After this is complete, form the dough into a ball by pulling edges under. Place into mixer bowl (no need to wash), drizzle with olive oil, and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place for at least an hour, or until doubled in size. Punch down and proceed.

FOR THE PIZZA:
Place a pizza stone on oven rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat oven to 500 degrees F for a good 20 minutes. Sprinkle flour and cornmeal on a pizza peel or a rimless cookie sheet.

In a small skillet, heat the olive oil and garlic together over low heat for 5 minutes or until the garlic is fragrant and beginning to brown (if the garlic burns or gets overly brown, toss it all and start over). Set the completed garlic oil aside in a small bowl, return skillet to heat, and increase heat to medium-high. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper to taste, and saute 3-4 minutes until they begin giving off their water. Add spinach (no need to defrost) and cook another 4-5 minutes or until the veggies have given up most of their liquid. Season again.

Shape the pizza dough into a 14″ to 16″ round, first patting in out on a floured counter using your fingers, then picking it up, laying it over the knuckles of loose fists, and using the dough’s weight to gently (GENTLY!) stretch it further. Use enough flour to prevent sticking, but not so much to completely coat the dough. If you have trouble getting the dough to stretch, let it rest for 5 minutes and try again. Place pizza dough onto prepared cookie sheet.

Pour garlic oil evenly over crust, spreading to within 1/2″ of edges. Sprinkle pecorino romano and half of mozzerella over the oil. Top with vegetable mixture (and cooked chicken if using), then add the remaining mozzerella.

Using a fast, confident, forward-then-back jerking motion, transfer pizza from peel to hot pizza stone and place in oven. Bake 8-12 minutes (checking every minute after 7) or until crust is golden and bubbled and cheese is evenly browned. (Alternately, bake pizza on a thin pizza pan – shape and top the pizza on the pan, don’t worry about tossing it with this method. Baking on a pan takes a few minutes longer to get crust done, and it won’t get as crisp.)

Allow to cool on stone/pan for several minutes before slicing and serving.