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Recipes – № 57

Spring Tarte Flambée

A pizza for all your green alliums

This is a springtime version of the Alsatian classic tarte flambée. It features just about any early season green allium you can think of: spring onions, green garlic, leeks, scallions and even ramps if you like. It is lighter and more complex than the French original but no less addictive.

There is no need to take the assortment of alliums too literally and you should work with what looks good at the market or in your garden. Also note that when my recipe specifies a small/young/pre-bulb stem of some allium, the intent is to be clear about the quantiy (given that stem sizes vary so much), but you could easily substitute with an equivalent amount of large, bulbeous stems instead.

I make my own pizza dough according to Roberta's / Sam Sifton's recipe in the New York Times. You could also buy readymade dough at the store or cajole your favorite neighborhood pizzeria into ceding some to you.

Makes 4 pizzas

Pizza dough ingredients (double Roberta's recipe):

306g "00" flour

306g all purpose flour, more for handling

400g lukewarm water

4g active dry yeast

8g olive oil

16g fine sea salt

Toppings:

1-2 small leeks (5 cups sliced, loosely packed)

4 small stems young (pre-bulb) green garlic (1.5 cups sliced, loosely packed)

4 small, young (pre-bulb) spring onions (2 cups sliced, loosely packed)

8 young ramps (optional, 1 to 1/5 cups sliced, loosely packed)

4 small scallions

2 tsp roughly chopped marjoram leaves

2 tsp roughly chopped oregano leaves

2 tsp roughly chopped thyme leaves

5 oz sour cream or crème fraîche

4 thin bacon slices

fine sea salt

Olive oil

2 tsp roughly chopped parsley to finish

Equipment:

Digital scale

Baking stone and a pizza peel (ideally)

 

Prepare the dough using the quantities above and following the steps in Roberta's recipe. While the dough rests, prepare the other ingredients:

  1.  Trim, wash and finely slice crosswise the leeks, green garlic, spring onions and ramps if using (but not the scallions).
  2.  Trim, wash and slice the scallions in half lengthwise, then into 2-inch long pieces.
  3.  Slice the bacon crosswise into 1/3-inch strips.
  4.  Chop the herbs (separately).
 
Place the baking stone (if using) in the oven and pre-heat to 500F or the highest temperature setting available. Wait for the baking stone to reach the oven's temperature. It takes about an hour for mine. Shape the dough balls into rounds as in the helpful video in Roberta's recipe. I find a 10-11 inch round a little more workable than 12 inches.
 
Leaving a 1-inch edge, top each round with:
  1.  A quarter each of the leeks, green garlic, spring onions, ramps (if using) and finally the scallions,
  2.  7-8 teaspoon-sized dollops of sour cream,
  3.  A quarter of the bacon
  4.  ½ tsp each of chopped marjoram, oregano and thyme
  5.  A few sprinkles of olive oil and salt
 
Bake the pizza until the edge is golden brown, 5-10 minutes in most home ovens. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
 
 
I'm indebted to Steven Satterfield for the idea of topping pizza with spring alliums and herbs. His excellent book Root to Leaf has a delicious recipe for a mozzarella-based spring onion pizza. 

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