Arugula, Goat Cheese & Walnut Pizza

[kirra]

Arugula, Goat Cheese & Walnut Pizza

The cast-iron pan cooks just as evenly as a pizza stone, and it beats the stone in speed. But the pan produces a crisper, darker crust than a stone, one that's slightly flatter than one made on a stone, with less lift at the edge of the crust. (Not surprisingly, while it makes fantastic pizza crusts, it doesn't work for baking bread because it cooks too quickly and burns.)

You can use your pizza pan to precook toppings. Toast the walnuts for arugula goat cheese pizza, or roast the radicchio for a sausage, radicchio and burrata pizza. Since the pan's already hot, it's simple and faster; you also don't have to use (or wash) any additional kitchen gear.

The instructions say you can bake pizza on the stove top, baking the crust on both sides first like a flat bread and then adding toppings - but pizzas baked in a hot oven (450 degrees works best) are far superior. On the stove, the crusts can deflate and even burn, and the toppings never seem to cook uniformly.

Pizza is not all the pan does. In the oven, it roasts vegetables in a flash; the preheated and pre-seasoned surface needs less oil than a baking sheet would. You can toast nuts and spices on it, roast root vegetables, fennel or tomatoes, or even use it to sear steaks or fish.

On the stove top, the pan makes flatbreads, pancakes and sandwiches. It makes crepes too, though my old crepe pan makes better ones on its shopworn metal surface. The Batali pan makes rougher, crisper crepes than I generally like. But what the crepes lack in texture, they make up for in sheer size: You can make giant ones, like those you get on the streets of Paris.

Mario Batali, Lodgepole and La Creuset all have versions of the cast iron pizza pan. Grab one and get to cooking.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shelled walnuts
1/2 recipe pizza dough
1 tablespoon roasted walnut oil, divided
2 cups arugula
4 ounces goat cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Balsamic vinegar for finishing

Basic Cast Iron Pizza Dough, recipe this section, under Pizza Doughs

Preparation:

Place a cast-iron pizza pan on the middle rack of the oven and heat to 450 degrees. Scatter the walnuts over the hot pan and toast until browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure they don't burn. Carefully take the hot pan from the oven, remove the toasted nuts, and return the pan to the oven. Break apart the walnuts if they're large.

Brush the prepared pizza dough with 1 teaspoon walnut oil. Spread the arugula over the dough, then crumble the goat cheese over the top. Sprinkle the walnuts over the pizza, drizzle with the remaining walnut oil and grind black pepper over the top.

Slide the parchment paper with the pizza onto an inverted cookie sheet or peel, then transfer both parchment and pizza onto the hot pan in the oven. Cook until golden and crisp, 12 to 16 minutes, rotating the pizza once during baking. Remove the pizza from the oven by pulling out the parchment paper and sliding it back onto the cookie sheet, or remove the hot pizza pan and place on a trivet. Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar, slice and serve immediately. Servings: 6