This pizza is inspired from a pizza I judged at the Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash in Ashburn, Georgia on March 24, 2023.
Nicholas Harper from “Peace of Pie on Hartwell” in Fair Play, South Carolina, turned in a Prosciutto-wrapped Asparagus Pizza that tasted amazing.
He came in 3rd place, but I think he should have won. He got dinged for the cornicione being a little bit burnt, but it still had the best flavor, but not all of the judges always agree. His pizza tasted so buttery!
Nicholas made a Neapolitan dough. Mine is a NY-style dough with béchamel sauce, fontina, asiago, diced pancetta, crushed red pepper, and lemon. I decided to leave out the asparagus as it was a little awkward to eat, and I thought it had the least contribution to the buttery, cheesy, lemony flavor explosion that this pizza was.
Instead of thin slices of prosciutto, I used diced pancetta.
I use a NY-style dough recipe, and bake it in a regular home oven. Trust me. It comes out great.
This recipe is for a 14″ pizza, with some measurements also given for a 12″ pizza. See my NY-style Pizza Dough Recipe here, and see my How-To on Forming the Pizza Base here.
As I said, I baked this in a conventional home oven. I have a pizza stone on the bottom rack, and a pizza steel on the top rack. The oven gets preheated to 525º F, and then holds for one hour before baking the pizza. (If your oven will go to 550º, do that, and if you have convection, do that too.)
I went for 7 minutes on the stone on the bottom, and then switched to high broil, and moved the pizza to the steel on the top rack for 1.5 minutes. (Keep an eye on it though. It may need more or less time on broil.)
If you only have a stone, just keep it on the bottom rack the whole time. If you only have a steel, keep it on the top rack, and just switch to broil at the end.
The prep time does not include making and fermenting the dough, which is linked in a separate recipe. You can substitute a store-bought dough if you want, but making your own and fermenting it isn’t hard, and yields phenomenal results.
Creamy Dreamy Buttery Cheesy Pizza
Equipment
- 1 Pizza Peel (Wooden)
- 1 Pizza Stone or Pizza Steel
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- 14 oz Pizza Dough for 14" pie (See dough recipe link in instructions below.) 12 oz for 12" pie) (See dough recipe link in instructions below.)
Béchamel Sauce
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cold, whole milk
- kosher salt
- white pepper
Pizza
- 1 12 oz dough ball (360 grams)
- 1 cup Béchamel Sauce
- 7 oz Fontina shredded
- 2 oz Asiago grated
- 4 oz pancetta diced
- red pepper flakes to taste
- ½ lemon for juice and garnish
Instructions
Béchamel Sauce
- Melt the butter in a small pot over medium-low heat.
- Add the flour and whisk to form a white roux that has a medium consistency.
- Cook the roux for about 1 minute; it should not turn color.
- Slowly temper in the milk, a bit at a time.
- To prevent lumping, thoroughly whisk together the roux and milk with each addition.
- Once all of the milk has been incorporated, gently simmer uncovered for about 10 to 15 minutes to cook out the starch flavor.
- (Lightly season as there's a lot more to come.)
Pizza
- Shape and stretch dough into a 12-inch circle.
- Spread Béchamel sauce, or dollop if too thick.
- Place Fontina, then Asiago
- Drop pancetta
- Sprinkle red pepper flakes
Baking the Pizza
- Bake at 525° F 8-9 minutes for 14", or 7-8 minutes for a 12" pizza.
- Remove from oven and squeeze a little bit of lemon juice while quickly moving your hand around the pizza.
- Garnish with butterflied lemon slice in the middle.
- Slice and serve.
