By Chef Enrico Alaggia
While making pizza crust out of cauliflower may sound like a stretch, it actually works. Plus, it’s flavorful, delicious, gluten-free and grain-free.
Recipe
Servings: 4Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes Ingredients:
For the base:
2 Large Cauliflowers
2 oz. Parmesan cheese
1/2 tbsp. Ground black pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1 tbsp. Parsley chopped
1 tbsp. Cream cheese
A pinch of Nutmeg
2 Large Eggs
1 tsp. Extra virgin olive oil (to brush)
2 cup Water
For the toppings:
4 oz. Tomato sauce
4 oz. Mozzarella cheese shredded
2 pieces Basil leaves
Optional: parmesan cheese grated
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 400°F/200°C. Clean and chop the cauliflowers roughly and place them in a bowl.
- Grate the cauliflower florets with a food processor until it turns like a fine powder.
- In a pot with 2 cups of water, bring to a boil. Then, add the cauliflower in the pot and cook for 15 minutes.
- After the time has passed, lay a cotton towel (or cheesecloth) onto the inner part of a large bowl and put the cooked cauliflower with all the water inside the bowl on top of the towel. TIP: Please wait for it to cool down to proceed with the other steps.
- Close the side limbs of the towel towards the middle and locking the cauliflower inside the towel start twisting the towel as far as you can get trying to squeeze all the extra water out of the cooked cauliflower. Discard the water. Note: be cautious, if the cauliflower is too hot just let it steep for a few minutes and try again.
- Transfer the content of the towel into a clean bowl and add the parmesan cheese, black pepper, salt, parsley, cream cheese, nutmeg, and the 2 eggs, and mix thoroughly with your hands until perfectly combined.
- Lay a piece of parchment paper onto a 12” round (pizza shape) metal oven pan and brush paper lightly with olive oil. Place HALF the cauliflower mixture (this recipe yields 2 pizzas) onto the paper and press firmly with your hands to create a compact layer of approximately ¼-inch thick.
- Now, cover with aluminum foil and bake the pizza base for 40 minutes at 400°F/200°C. Note: always keep an eye towards the end of the cooking time making sure that the result will be a nice golden color. You can cook more or less time if needed. Also, ideally, if you have a pan of the exact same size, you can stack it on top of the one with the pizza base so that it presses onto it while cooking and will make a more stable and compact result. Just put another piece of parchment paper on top of the pizza base before stacking the second pan onto it.
- Let it rest to room temperature after baking, for 15 minutes at least.
- Raise oven temperature to 500°F/260°C.
- Now, remove whichever cover you have used, along with the parchment paper under and over the pizza base. Note: You will notice the base may stick to the parchment paper, but do not fear it because that is normal. You just need to peel the paper off carefully.
- Brush the crust with olive oil for extra flavor and add tomato sauce on top of the cauliflower pizza base. Now have fun adding the mozzarella.
- Bake for additional 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted and golden brown, and garnish with the basil. Optional: add grated parmesan cheese.
- Rest the pizza a couple of minutes before slicing it. Enjoy!
