Submitted by xaipete on November 21, 2009 - 10:28am

Chanterelle, Goat Cheese, and Truffle Oil Pizza


Several months ago my husband and I went to ZaZu's, a local, wine-country restaurant, to try one of their wood-fired oven pizzas. This road-house style restaurant which features local, sustainable food is our favorite place to eat out. Unfortunately it's pretty pricey so we only go their for special occasions. We ordered a chanterelle mushroom, Laura Chenel goat cheese, truffle oil pizza garnished with pea shoots that was paired with three half-glasses of local pinots. The whole meal was delicious. Since Friday nights are usually pizza nights here and the chanterelles are currently so abundant and lovely looking, I thought I'd try to re-create that pizza. Unfortunately, my attempt was pretty successful. We're now totally hooked on those pricey chanterelles.

For the crust I used two 6-1/2 oz. balls of Classic French Bread from Peter Reinhart's latest book. Any pizza dough that you like would work just fine.

I think another great base for this pizza would be the quick rustic ciabatta pizza:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12945/ciabatta-pizza

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3621/quick-rustic-ciabatta-pizza-recipe-full-howto-pics

After shaping each pizza, I brushed it with some White Truffle Oil that I purchased from Costco (I think it was about $20 for a bottle). Just in case anyone wants to argue that this product isn't real truffle oil :-) let me just say that whatever it is, it is absolutely delicious!

I sautéed 8 ounces of sliced chanterelles in a little bit of the truffle oil and used half on each pizza.

I topped each with 2 ounces of Laura Chenel Chabis goat cheese.

I baked each pizza on a well-preheated stone (550º) for about 9 minutes. I drizzled each finished pizza with a little more truffle oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt.

Pea shoots would have been a great garnish, but alas I didn't plan far enough in advance to produce them. I served the pizza with a simple salad of watercress and tomatoes from our garden dressed with an herb-shallot vinaigrette.

--Pamela

user icon

Beautiful, Pamela!

Pizza Pie!  Beautifully done and wonderful combination of ingredients.  You have given such a great example why pizza is so popular, delicious and never gets boring. This is California style pizza at it's best...very healthy and delicious.  I loved the video.

Sylvia

user icon

So true: pizza never gets boring!

I love the thumbs up. Thanks, Sylvia. Great picture!

--Pamela

user icon

Yum! That pizza certainly looks delicious!

David

user icon

Magical Combination

The combination of chanterelles, goat cheese, and truffle oil is magical! ZaZu's really gets the credit for the idea. I only copied it.

--Pamela

user icon

Not fair!!

To tease us with such a decadent pie!

Betty

user icon

Hi Pamela

What a great pizza!  I would love to have a piece!

user icon

Pamela, that does it!!!

I'm sending the boys out mushroom picking!  Maybe they can still find some.  Beautiful!

I got one question, how do you squeeze oil out of a truffle?

Mini

user icon

Thanks everyone for all the nice comments

It really is an addictive combination of flavors. I think I saw that Walmart of all places sells White Truffle Oil.

--Pamela

Oh, I'll have to buy

... some chanterelles; never did in this country. Back home in Switzerland for sure though! Your pizza looks absolutely gorgeous.

Mini, I don't think oil is being squeezed out of truffles, it's more that the oil is infused with their flavor, I believe.

Chanterelles on pizza - looks

Chanterelles on pizza - looks great!  I wish that our season wasn't over, especially since we had such a good one this year.  It rained at just the right times and we had chanterelles in the park near our house nearly all summer:

I'll have to save your delicious idea for next year!

Summer

Pizza

This looks great! I always have these ingredients on hand and use goat cheese often on pizza.  But haven't put the three of them together. I will now that you have shown such a beautiful pizza using these ingredients.

 

 

Your description of the pizza

made me so hungry for it  I could just taste it. And the pictures were great, totally cruel. I loved the video. Makes me homesick for something I've never had. It's hard when you get ruined by the best. You just don't want to settle for anything less. 

Mariah

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.