New Haven-Style Clam and Lemon Pizza.
Clam and Lemon Pizza doesn’t claim to duplicate the legendary Frank Pepe’s clam pie, but finely diced seeded lemon makes up very nicely for the lack of fresh clams from Long Island Sound. Use preserved lemons if you got ‘em, Meyers if in season, but generic fresh lemons will work just fine. Note: all proportions are approximate so feel free to improvise. Makes 2 approx. 13 inch pies.
Ingredients:
2/3 recipe Covid Pizza Dough
½ c good olive oil
1 c Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
½ c garlic, peeled and chopped fine
1 t dried oregano
1 lemon or more, skin on, finely chopped with seeds removed
½ can (3 oz) Cora Baby Clams or equivalent, drained
These are the clams we used for our clam and lemon pizza. They’re packed in brine, not clam juice, but the clams themselves have a good taste.
Method: divide the pizza dough and shape per this recipe. I make 13 inch pies because that is the size that fits my peel and my stone. Roll out into rounds and top with half of each ingredient above: olive oil first, then the cheese, then sprinkle garlic, oregano, lemon bits and clams so everything is evenly covered.
Meanwhile, heat your pizza stone or an inverted half sheet pan as hot as you can get it in your oven. After consultation with BlueStar’s Tom Thiebault, I find that I can heat a stone on the middle rack to 700 degrees by cranking the oven as high as it will go then adding a few minutes under the broiler at the end. I then turn the oven back to 550 and turn on convection.
Transfer the pizza to the oven using a peel that has been coated with semolina; slide it under the pizza then offload to your heated stone or inverted half sheet pan. If you are not yet comfortable with this step, just build the pizza on the inverted half sheet pan and transfer to the oven without preheating. You will not get a super crisp bottom but the top will be just fine.
Cook 2-5 minutes, turning front to back with a pair of kitchen tongs halfway through, until the top is bubbly and the bottom of the crust is somewhat browned vs pasty white. Slice, serve and enjoy.
We’re finally getting some nice bubbles making pizza in our BlueStar.
Looks good!
Thanks Jon! Bottom is still a little pale but I’m getting there!
Drooling on my keyboard!!!!
Thanks!
This is inspiring me to try this this weekend, since I have all the ingredients at hand. Looks and sounds fantastic. Thanks for the complete directions on how to cook.
Do it! I’ve made this pie twice with consistent results now, so feel like the ingredients and method are solid. Feel free to add more of every topping if you like!
We need to sort out this bottom crust issue. How did you bake it?
Stone on the middle rack of the oven, preheated to 550 degrees then superheated with a 10 minute blast from the 1800 degree broiler. Stone was 700 degrees when the pie went in. Went back to 550 degree heat to cook the first pie with convection, rotating half way through. Total cooking time about 4-5 minutes. That’s the one with the bottom posted above. I got lazy and did not reheat the stone for the second pizza so the stone was at 590 degrees when that pie went in.
I am attaching a smaller save of the bottom shot so you can see more; WordPress comments apparently only post full size pictures.
Have you tried moving the stone down? I get an even top and bottom @550F in 7-8 minutes without the broiler.
I have tried it on the bottom rack and the bottom was too light for me. But that was with the broiler boost to increase temperature in the oven. Maybe I’ll try 550 for a longer time but I’m hoping more to crack the code of bubbling crust from a super-hot commercial oven.
I’m thinking I can get my Weber Summit gas grill up more than 550 if turned all the way up on all 4 burners and let it preheat….have you thought about trying it on a grill?
I’ve done grilled pizzas in the past and have no problem with them. Right now obsessed with getting an excellent pie from this BlueStar oven I spent a few $$ on.