Recipe By Laura Lorenz
Makes: 1-12” pizza
Ingredients
1lb dough ball (store-bought or homemade)
Cornmeal (optional to prevent sticking)
½ cup heavy cream
4 oz cream cheese
½ tbsp tomato paste
¼ tsp Old Bay
1 large garlic clove, peeled
½ tbsp sherry cooking wine
1.5 cups shredded mozzarella *
⅓ cup grated parmesan *
6 oz lump crab meat *
Red pepper flakes
Fresh chives, chopped
Fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Olive oil (optional for brushing the crust)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. I like to use a pizza stone and preheat my stone for a minimum of 45 minutes (you can use a cookie sheet or metal pizza sheet/steel-you won’t need to preheat these as long as a stone). While the stone is preheating, make the pizza sauce (this takes roughly 10 minutes). In a small saucepan add the heavy cream, cream cheese, Old Bay, and the garlic clove (no need to chop it, just give it a good whack with a knife). Over low heat, bring the mixture to a low simmer, until the cream cheese is completely melted and incorporated into the sauce (make sure and whisk continuously, and watch closely so the cream doesn’t burn). After the cream cheese is completely melted, stir in the sherry, remove the garlic clove, and turn off the heat (if the sauce isn’t completely smooth that’s okay; it will come together during the baking process).
Once the stone is preheated, roll the dough out (roughly 12 in diameter). If using cornmeal, sprinkle the stone with cornmeal. Lay the dough on the stone and poke holes in the dough with a fork (this prevents bubbles). Next, lightly brush the edges (the outside 1-1.5”) with a little olive oil (this will help the crust brown). Then spoon the sauce onto the dough and spread the sauce out leaving the edges with the olive oil bare. Next, sprinkle the mozzarella and the parmesan evenly over the sauce. Bake the pizza for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is melty and lightly browned. Pull the pizza out of the oven and top with the crab (make sure the crab is dry, lightly dab it with a paper towel). Then sprinkle on the red pepper flakes, chives, and parsley.
Tips
*Buy the block of mozzarella and shred your own. Pre-shredded cheese has anti-caking agents added to it and a ball of mozzarella (although delicious) would be too wet for this pizza.
*I buy the freshly grated (fine powder) parmesan. This can be found in the refrigerated section of your grocery store by the specialty cheeses.
*I used a high-quality canned crab for this recipe. There is also cooked crab that comes in containers by the seafood section of your grocery store; if using that you may want to add it to the pizza during the last minute of cooking because it is cold. No matter what kind of crab is used make sure to dry it with a paper towel, or the pizza will be soggy (and no one wants soggy pizza). If using raw crab this will affect the cooking times.