Pizza alla Carbonara

You probably have had pasta alla carbonara. It's pretty classic. But how about the inspiration that it brings to the pizza world? Apparently it has become somewhat of a big thing in the past few years. When the pasta sauce is made, an egg is mixed into the sauce once the fire is turned off and then the spaghetti is immediately tossed into it before serving. When it comes to pizza, eggs are cracked on top instead. I kinda think it makes the pizza more whimsical.

I had my first pizza alla carbonara at La Madia here in Chicago. (And if you do visit that place, make sure you order the mushroom bruschetta too!) It was yummy! And it made me want to try to replicate that at home. Unfortunately restaurant dishes don't always come with their recipes attached. But they do list some ingredients so that's fine with me. So here's my interpretation of La Madia's version, and I hope you like it.

I made the first one using regular wheat dough that a friend brought over for dinner. And then since I've recently gotten into making gluten free food, I wanted to try that. After doing a bit of research, I found a recipe for GF pizza crust on food.com that had great reviews. The following is just a slight modification of that recipe. 

For the crust: use your favorite wheat crust recipe or the following one for the GF version.

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 Tsp flaxseed meal and white rice flour that make up 2/3 cups*

1 Tsp active dry yeast

1/2 cup tapioca starch/flour 

2 Tsp dry milk powder

2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp unflavored gelatin

1 tsp dried herbs that go well with pizza

1 large clove of garlic, chopped

2/3 cup hot tap water (110ºF)

1/2 tsp honey

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp cider vinegar

*The original recipe calls for brown rice/gram/fava bean flour.

METHOD: 

Preheat over to 425ºF.

Using regular beaters in a bowl that can hold all the ingredients, beat on low speed to mix and then on high speed for 3 minutes. The dough should be sticky but not like usual wheat dough, you might need to spoon it onto your pizza pan.

Turn the dough onto a slightly greased pizza pan/flat cookie sheet, generously sprinkle the top with rice flour. Use your hands to press the dough down, make sure it gets as thin as possible with the outside edge being thicker to hold the fillings. It should form a circle of ~6in radius. 

Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven.

TOPPING INGREDIENTS:

6oz mascarpone 

Some freshly shaved pecorino romano

4oz guanciale, 1/2in thick, diced*

1 large leek, white and light green parts sliced

*If you can't find guanciale, substitute with pancetta

METHODS:

In a pan, cook the guanciale to render some fat off, remove the pieces.

Retain ~1tsp of the rendered fat, saute the leeks until they are soft. 

Spread the mascarpone on the GF crust that has been partially baked or your favorite wheat crust, sprinkle generously with the pecorino romano. Spread the cooked leek over the cheese and scatter the guanciale pieces on top.

Slide the pizza onto the hot stone (or keep it in the pizza pan), bake for about 12minutes. Crack 2 organic eggs on top and bake for ~8 more minutes, the egg whites should be cooked but the egg yolks should still be runny. Remove and serve, keeping the pieces with the runny egg yolks for your favorite dinner guests/family members ;)