Asparagus Pizza

I'm about two seasons behind, but had to share this Epicurious find that we made a whole bunch during asparagus season.

Start with rolling out your favorite pizza dough (which for me is no longer this one, so I'll have to post my now-favorite sometime). 

Atop your dough of choice: first, brush it with a garlic oil. Wowee. I wonder if we should start doing this on every pizza. Such a tasty flavor base. Then, green onions, or chives if you've got a limitless quantity of them in your garden, followed by mozzarella, slices of cooked potato, and goat cheese. Finally, some sliced asparagus tossed in oil, grated Parmesan, salt, and pepper. It's especially easy to assemble if you have the potato cooked and the asparagus sliced ahead of dinner time. The whole pizza is so flavorful. It's a new springtime favorite here. 

Before cooking

Finished

Why I went to my Epicurious app in the first place and searched for asparagus recipes and then on a whim, "asparagus pizza," was that as of this summer we have perennial asparagus growing steps away from our house! Two years ago, we added two more raised beds and planted asparagus crowns in one of them. We watched them and let them be to do what they would that season and the season after. But this season we harvested for the first time. Here were the thrilling beginnings in May:

And here's what they looked like a little later in the summer. We stopped harvesting them after a few weeks so they can build themselves up for more harvesting in future seasons (I'm told we have decades of asparagus to look forward to, so I can be patient). It was hard to stop breaking off each spear as it became pencil-tall, but they are sort of lovely with their lacy fronds edging the garden, especially now in September when the fronds are densely lush and thick.

Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza

from Epicurious.com

5 oz. potatoes

dough for one pizza

2 T olive oil

1 garlic clove, pressed or minced

4 green onions (or handful of chives), thinly sliced

1 1/2 C (6 oz.) grated mozzarella 

4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

8 oz. asparagus, trimmed, each spear cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 2- to 3-inch pieces

1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese

Put potatoes in small saucepan, cover with water, sprinkle with salt, and boil until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain. Cool. Cut potatoes into thin slices.

Preheat oven to 425. Preheat pizza stone and/or otherwise prepare pizza dough as you prefer. Mix 1 tablespoon olive oil and garlic in a small bowl. Brush garlic oil over dough. Sprinkle 3/4 of green onions/chives over, then mozzarella, then potato slices, then goat cheese. Toss asparagus and other 1 tablespoon oil in a bowl. Scatter asparagus over pizza. Sprinkle with Parmesan, then lightly with salt and generously with pepper.

Bake until crust is browned and asparagus is tender, about 18 minutes. Slice, sprinkle with remaining green onions, and serve.