Blue Cheese Pizza Recipe

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 15 mins

Total: 35 mins

Servings: 4 servings

This pizza is inspired by a favorite snack: toasted sourdough with funky blue cheese and homemade kumquat marmalade. If you’ve never tried it, do yourself a favor. It’s almost delicious enough to justify making kumquat marmalade from scratch, which is equally incredible in both flavor and laboriousness. If you can find kumquat marmalade at the store, try it on this pizza; if not, orange is perfectly fine.

The idea here is to balance the full range of flavors: sweet, bitter, salty, sour, and umami. The radicchio comes in to support the bitter note of the marmalade while also countering its sweetness. The turkey fennel sausage complements the savory blue cheese while standing up to its natural funk. And the bright citrus sourness breaks through the salt and fat in a pleasant and surprising way.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces ground dark meat turkey

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed

• 1 splash white wine

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 5 ounces pizza dough, chilled and rested

• 3 ounces fontina, shredded

• 2 ounces radicchio leaves, roughly chopped

• 1 1/2 ounces Cambozola blue cheese, thickly sliced

• 1 1/2 ounces Castello blue cheese, crumbled

• 1 tablespoon kumquat, or orange marmalade

Steps to Make It

1. Gather the ingredients.

2. Preheat oven to highest possible temperature. Preheat baking stone or cast-iron pan.

3. In a medium bowl, add turkey, garlic, fennel seed, wine, salt, and fresh ground pepper and mix well. Heat olive oil in a small sauté pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add turkey sausage and brown well, breaking into little pieces in pan. Remove from heat.

4. On a lightly floured surface, stretch or roll pizza dough into a thin disk about 12 inches in diameter and place it on a prepared peel or sheet of parchment paper. Top with fontina, three-quarters radicchio, and cooked turkey sausage.

5. Slide or place pizza onto stone or pan. If you like, use parchment underneath for easy transfer. Bake until crust has expanded and turned golden brown, about 5 to 10 minutes depending on temperature of oven.

6. Take out pizza. Top with blue cheeses and remaining radicchio and return to oven just long enough to melt blue cheeses, about 1 minute. Remove to a cutting board. Place small dollops of orange marmalade strategically here and there near the chunks of blue cheese. Slice and serve.

Tip

• Instead of a baking sheet or a stone, try cooking the pizza in a large, preheated cast-iron skillet. The heavy iron and the high edges give the crust an airier spring and deeper caramelization.