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This Leek, Bacon and Mushroom Pizza is just the spring pizza you were looking for! Melty cheese with a savory and umami topping, pizza night perfection!
For a person that used to hate mushrooms I sure have been using an awful lot of them lately. From my Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Pasta and Skillet Chicken and White Wine Mushrooms to last year’s spring pizza, Asparagus and Morel Pizza with Garlic Confit, what can I say? I guess I sort of like mushrooms. Weird.
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I have found that dry sauteing mushrooms is the key to turning a mushroom hater into a mushroom lover. The main problem I have always had with mushrooms is their weird texture. Dry sauteing them removes most of their moisture, so they have a meatier texture instead of the spongy texture they sometimes have. It is an extra step, but so worth it!
Of course, the mushrooms aren’t really the star of this pizza – the leeks are! Leeks have a wonderful mild onion flavor, and they are made to be paired with bacon and mushrooms. Earthy, salty, savory flavors all meld together under melty cheese. It’s a sophisticated and grown up pizza to enjoy in the winter and early spring.
I talked about my preferred method of making pizza at home in my other pizza post, and if you follow me on instagram you got a little sneak peek into how I make pizza at home when I was making this Leek, Bacon and Mushroom Pizza. But in case you missed it – I really think the BEST way to make pizza at home is with a pizza stone!
To get the best pizza at home, place your oven rack in the top position and put the pizza stone on top – THIS is the one I use (affiliate links). You will also need a pizza peel to get the pizza on and off the hot stone. You will want your oven to be SUPER HOT – the hottest it will get. Mine goes to 550 degrees. When the oven and the stone are nice and hot, you just quickly slide the pizza on to the stone. It only takes about 8 minutes to bake. The crust will be nice and crisp and the toppings perfectly melty!
How do you like to make pizza at home?
Leek, Bacon and Mushroom Pizza
Ingredients
- 16 ounces Pizza Dough enough for one 12 inch pizza (store bought or make your own)
- 2 leeks dark green parts removed, cut lengthwise and into half moons
- 4 ounces shiitake mushrooms sliced
- 4 ounces crimini mushrooms sliced
- 4 slices thick cut bacon diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- salt
- pepper
- cornmeal for pizza peel
Instructions
- Place oven rack in the very top position of the oven and place pizza stone on it. Heat oven to 550°F.
- If refrigerated, set pizza dough on the counter for at least half an hour.
- Add the sliced mushrooms to a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Sauté for 5-10 minutes, until mushrooms have released their moisture and pan is dry. Remove from pan.
- Add the bacon pieces and allow to render fat and start to become crisp. Remove bacon from pan and leave fat.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter to pan and allow to melt. Add the leeks and season lightly with salt and pepper (remember the bacon is salty, so you don't need much). Sauté for several minutes, until starting to soften. Add the mushrooms back to the pan and continue to cook with the leeks, until starting to turn golden. Add the bacon and the garlic to the pan and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds to one minute. Taste mixture and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Remove from heat.
- Spread cornmeal on to pizza peel. Use your hands to work the pizza dough ball into a disc, when it gets to be 6-8 inches across, place on the pizza peel and continue to spread into a 12 inch disc. If the dough starts to spring back and gets to difficult to work with, let it sit for 10-15 minutes and it should relax. When pizza dough has been shaped into a 12 inch flat disc, give the pizza peel a shake to make sure the dough is not sticking to it.
- Use a pastry brush to brush one tablespoon of olive oil all over the crust. Spread the half of shredded cheese all over the dough, leaving about an inch of space all around the outside edge of the crust. Cover with the bacon leek and mushroom mixture. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.
- Give the pizza peel another shake to make sure the dough is not sticking in any places.
- Now comes the tricky part! Transferring the pizza from the peel to the hot pizza stone. This is why you want to make sure your dough isn't sticking to the peel. Open the oven and pull the rack out about halfway so that you have easier access to the hot stone. Quickly, carefully and deliberately, shake the pizza from the peel onto the hot stone, then close the oven. It helps to have two people involved, and for the second person to have a spatula or other heat proof utensil to help guide the pizza onto the stone it needed.
- Cook for 8-10 minutes, until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly. Carefully transfer pizza back to pizza peel to remove from oven (again, the second person standing nearby with a spatula is helpful for this).
- Allow to sit for a few minutes before slicing and serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I don’t see cheese mentioned in the ingredient list. Am i missing something?
Hi Nora – sorry about that! I have updated the recipe 🙂
yah,,,, This pizza looks totally perfect! I cannot wait to try it, just need to find a good GF pizza dough ASAP
Hi Sayino – Yay, I hope you find the perfect GF dough!
Pizza night at our house! This was a great “grown up” pizza. We had fun making it and we enjoyed eating it! Thanks Meghan
This pizza looks totally perfect! I cannot wait to try it, just need to find a good GF pizza dough ASAP!
super dark and caramelized mushrooms are 3940x better than the cottony, pale ones! my dad grills his pizza; it makes a super crispy (but not too crunchy) crust, and adds a bit of smokiness that would be tasty with the bacon (:
After moving away from NYC I don’t eat pizza nearly enough! Mainly, because the quality outside of manhattan (in my biased opinion) isn’t quite the same, but now I make more pizza at home as a result. I’ll add this recipe to my files for next time!
This is the perfect combination of flavors, Meghan! We often have pizza on saturday nights and this one is a must try!!