Garlicky Mushroom Ricotta Pizza with Wild Arugula + Aged Balsamic
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Sautéed mushrooms are topped with ricotta and Parmesan cheeses and baked into a store-bought pizza crust for an easy, elegant weeknight meal!
Let’s talk pizza. Pizza is such a classic meal. It’s a staple of birthday parties, movie nights, and late-night hang-out sessions.
It also happens to be one of the tastiest, easiest, most customizable meal options for home cooking.
There are different types of at-home pizza-making
There are different “levels” of at-home pizza-making, depending on the amount of time and effort that you want to put into it.
The way I see it, there’s a pizza scale, of sorts:
- Order pizza delivery at home. No need to get out of your pajamas.
- Go out for pizza at a local pizzeria (bonus points for legit brick oven pizza at an Italian pizzeria, which is luckily very easy to do here in New York)
- Buy a frozen pizza and bake it at home.
- Pick up a ready-made pizza crust and top it/heat it up at home.
- Buy pizza dough from the grocery store or a local pizzeria and prepare it at home.
- Make pizza dough from scratch (I like this recipe for Lazy Pizza Dough from Smitten Kitchen) and bake it on a screamin’ hot pizza stone or steel at home (homemade pizza sauce optional, but encouraged)
- Grow your own wheat, harvest it, mill it… OK I’m totally kidding here, though there’s one member of my Supper Club who just might go that far for a recipe if he had the time…
It’s all about options here, folks.
For this particular pizza, I didn’t want to go all out and make my own dough, so I took a middle-of-the-road option – #4 on the good ol’ pizza scale.
But who says we have to stick to the standard tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella, and pepperoni format? Not that it wouldn’t be totally delicious (like on a homemade pizza bagel), but we can do better than that, can’t we?
I had some mushrooms leftover in the fridge, and I thought they would go beautifully sautéed with lots of garlic, a shallot and a little heat from some red pepper flakes.
I picked up a rectangular artisan flatbread from the grocery store to work with for my pizza.
Any shape of crust would work here, but rectangular pizza just looks fun, doesn’t it?
This would be wonderful served as a dinner party starter or main course (which is how we enjoyed it).
The creaminess from the ricotta is absolutely perfect here, and the fresh greens at the end add a nice peppery bite.
Aged balsamic vinegar and a nice extra-virgin olive oil dress this pizza up enough so that you don’t need any sauce.
It’s kind of like a mix between a mushroom pizza and a salad pizza.
Side note: I had never heard of salad pizza before moving to New York. If you find a place that makes a good salad pizza, I highly recommend giving it a try!
This pizza rocked our world! I’m excited to experiment with other fun flavor combos soon. It’s been way too long since I’ve made pizza at home!
My garlicky cilantro naan recipe and my garlicky broccoli rabe are also excellent choices if you’re looking for more recipes with a kick of garlic at your table.
What are your favorite pizza toppings? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!
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Garlicky Mushroom Ricotta Pizza with Wild Arugula + Aged Balsamic
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 Slices of Pizza 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Sautéed mushrooms are topped with ricotta and Parmesan cheeses and baked into a store-bought pizza crust for an easy, elegant weeknight meal!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced (about 1/4 cup)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- 8 ounces sliced mushrooms (I used shiitake and baby bella)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ready-made pizza crust (I used a 7 ounce Stonefire Artisan Flatbread)
- 6 tablespoons part-skim ricotta
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
- 2 tablespoons fresh chives, minced or snipped with scissors
- 1–2 handfuls wild or baby arugula
- 2–3 tablespoons aged balsamic
- 2–3 tablespoons good quality extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F with a pizza stone on the bottom rack if you have one (you want the pizza stone to heat up with the oven).
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot, garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the shallot begins to soften. Add mushrooms and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are well browned, about 7-10 minutes.
- Place pizza crust on top of a pizza peel or wooden cutting board. Top crust with mushroom mixture and spread evenly, leaving a 1-inch border around the outer edges. Dot with ricotta and sprinkle Parmesan and chives over top.
- Transfer pizza to the preheated pizza stone (or a baking sheet, if you’re using that instead) and bake for 5-6 minutes (8-9 minutes without the pizza stone).
- Remove pizza from oven and transfer to a cutting board. Scatter wild arugula over top and drizzle with aged balsamic and olive oil. Cut into slices and enjoy!
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 294
- Sugar: 5.4 g
- Sodium: 550.1 mg
- Fat: 13.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 36.1 g
- Fiber: 2.3 g
- Protein: 9.8 g
- Cholesterol: 6 mg
Keywords: mushroom, ricotta, pizza, weeknight dinner
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Ashley
Ashley Covelli is a food photographer, recipe developer, and culinary instructor based in Ossining, New York. She loves helping people become enthusiastic and adventurous in the kitchen so that they can build skills and confidence to cook for themselves and their loved ones. She can almost always be found with at least 3 different beverages within arm's reach.
25 Comments
Faith (An Edible Mosaic)
I love garlic and ricotta together and the addition of a drizzle of balsamic is perfect here! You’re right, this would be lovely as a starter for a dinner party!
Joy Love Food
I love arugula on pizza, this sounds like a delicious combination with the ricotta and garlicky mushrooms, yum!
Laura T
I would order pizza all the time if they looked like this! Alas only in Italy (and your house). So what time should you expect me? 🙂
Gwen
Absolutely my kind of pizza!!
KristenB
I love pizza of all kinds. Your salad version looks amazing. I could dive right into the mushrooms and ricotta.
Lisa Goldfinger
This is my kind of pizza! I’m a big fan of arugula and balsamic and ricotta and mushrooms – actually love every single ingredient in this!
Sarah
I looooove flatbread pizzas with salad on top! But for some reason I never ever think to make them at home. This sounds delicious- I need this!
BigFlavorsFromATinyKitchen
They’re such a simple weeknight option!
Homemade & Yummy
This is my kind of finger food. Pour me a glass of red wine….and let me devour this all by myself!!
BigFlavorsFromATinyKitchen
This would be extra delicious with a glass (or 3) of wine! Cheers!!
Carrie
What a great weeknight option but for me I am going to make this for my luncheon with old high school friends! Thanks for helping me knock their socks off with an easy and classy looking dish!
BigFlavorsFromATinyKitchen
Oh how fun! Let me know how it goes over – I hope everyone loves it as much as we do 🙂
Ben M
This looks like some freaking spectacular pizza and the photos are beautiful!
BigFlavorsFromATinyKitchen
Thanks so much, Ben! Have a stellar weekend 🙂
BigFlavorsFromATinyKitchen
It really adds a nice, peppery finish. Enjoy!
FoodieGirlChicago
This looks like a super tasty option for lunch or an easy weeknight dinner! I love the photos too!
karyl henry
Oh man, this pizza looks fabulous! I’ve never thought to use ricotta on pizza, but it sounds divine. I love aged balsamic vinegar on everything…it adds such a wonderful depth of flavor
Shadi Hasanzade
This is my all time favorite combo for pizza. The creamy cheese and the delicious mushroom make the best combo!
Lynn @ theroadtohoney
Who doesn’t love a good slice of pizza? it really is the food that I tend to crave the most. Unfortunately, the hubby is participating on a nutrition challenge so I have been (and will continue to be) deprived of pizza for some time. So. . . I can only look lovingly at this delicious pizza. . .and I absolutely adore that balsamic drizzle.
Lois. O
I have actually never tried pizza without sauce before. This might just be the perfect chance for me to do so, especially since it is garlicky mushroom… I mean, who can say no to that
Holliday Johnson
This is a go to recipe for me especially for company. Tonight, I am trying it with gluten free pizza dough for a guest that can’t have gluten! I am going to share this one!
Ashley
Ooh! Let me know what your guests thought of it – I hope it was a hit!
Michael I
This is too funny. I was Googling for creative veggie pizza ideas and this recipe came up. This looks amazing, I can’t wait to try it. I’m going to modify it and make my own dough.
I think I know who you’re talking about (#7 on the pizza scale). And yes, he’s been tempted but you’re right, there’s not enough time in a day.