Recipe: Thanksgiving Day Pizza

For the last five or six years I've been making something special with the leftovers from our Thanksgiving meals... I call it Thanksgiving Day Pizza. Basically, I  make a pan pizza dough recipe and instead of using my tomato pizza sauce, mozzarella and other Italian toppings, I use just about all the fixings from our Turkey Day dinner. I make this as a large pan pizza where I do a second rise of the dough in an olive oil coated round rimmed pan. The second rise in the pan helps make the crust thicker to help support the heavy toppings.

In place of a pizza sauce, I spread our home-made turkey gravy (and this time, gravy means the brown stuff, not Sunday Gravy) on top of the dough. The rest is easy... place dollops of my cheese potato casserole, stuffing and cranberries on top of the gravy, then spread shredded fontina cheese all across the top. The sliced bits of turkey get spread over the top of the cheese, along with a drizzle of olive oil. Sprinkle some of your favorite spice on top and bake. (I used dried oregano).  In my oven on top  of a pizza steel, I baked this pizza for 22 minutes at 425F.

Ingredients for a robust, basic, deep dish pizza dough

Yeast mixture: (mix together until foamy, about 10 minutes)
1-3/4 cups water at 115F
1 heaping tablespoon dry active yeast
1 tablespoon honey

3 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt

• Start with one cup of bread four in a stand mixer with a dough hook. Add sugar and salt to the dry flour and mix briefly.
• Add the proofed (foamy) yeast mixture to the flour and mix on low speed, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed until well blended.
• Add the 1 cup of wheat flour and continue to mix and scrape down.
• Add one cup of bread flour and mix.
• Continue to mix while adding flour little by little until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and climb your dough hook. Stop the mixer and scrape the hook and sides of the bowl down. Mix briefly and check the texture. The dough should form a moist ball, but not be too wet. If there is still too much moisture, add flour little by little until you form a ball that can be removed easily from the bowl.
• Turn out onto a floured work surface, dust-flour the top of the dough ball and knead for several minutes by hand, using a heel (of your hand) to push the dough away from you, then fold back toward you, quarter turn, then repeat.
  
• The dough should form a smooth ball that springs back when poked gently with your thumb. It should NOT be too dry or firm. Don't let it get this way or your dough will be tough.
  
• Place into an oiled bowl to rise for 1 hour at room temperature. This is a good time to preheat the oven to 425F. I really recommend using either a pizza stone or pizza steel in the center rack of your oven--place the stone or steel in the oven to preheat. Metal pans are placed on the stone when baking.
  
• Punch down the dough gently, turn out onto a well floured surface and form into a round a bit smaller than your 14" round, 1" high rimmed pan. (I used a silver one, but you can use a dark pan--just reduce baking time to adjust for quicker browning.)
  
• Place your dough round into your oiled pan and complete the shaping to fill the pan, while also forming a thicker crust around the edges.
  
• Top with turkey gravy, then cheese (fontina or smoked Gruyere works well for this), then your toppings and pieces of turkey.
  
• Bake for 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees or until the bottom of the crust is browned and crusty. If you prefer the toppings more well done, finish with another 3 minutes with your oven turned to broil (watch carefully so you don't burn it!)

I'd recommend having either a Beaujolais Nouveau, a Stella Artois beer or some sparkling apple cider with this pizza.

Our home made turkey gravy as the sauce

Fontina, Stuffing, Cheese Potatoes, Cranberry, Turkey, in that order

Well worth waiting once a year for this... each bite offers flavors of the entire Thanksgiving Dinner!

--Jerry Finzi

If you have some Thanksgiving leftovers, try this pizza and leave a COMMENT to tell us how it came out. Ciao!

Copyright, 2015 Jerry Finzi - All Rights Reserved