Whole Wheat Asparagus Pizza with Mozzarella and Pesto

This easy homemade asparagus pizza is one of our favorites. Everyone loves the green asparagus fried in olive oil and cut into big pieces. First, it is tasty and healthy. Second, asparagus baked under browned mozzarella looks very pretty and whets the appetite. You can buy the pesto — decent little jars of it are sold and work very well for pizza. Or, if you have all the ingredients (or most of them), it is easy to make yourself.

How to make whole wheat pizza dough

1. Mix the dough. Sift 1 cup of whole wheat flour (120 g) and 1 cup of regular soft flour (130 g), the kind used in almost all baking, into a bowl. Add instant dry yeast or brewer’s yeast, in the amount given on the package. Add 1 tsp of sugar (5 g) and a pinch of fine salt and stir everything with a fork. Pour in 180 ml of slightly warm water mixed with 2 tbsp of olive oil and knead a smooth dough.

2. Let the dough rise twice. Put it in a warm place under plastic wrap for 1 hour. Then knead it down and leave it for another hour.

3. Grease the baking pan with a little vegetable oil and spread the yeast dough over it.

   

Preparing the asparagus topping

4. Fry the asparagus. Wash it and pat it dry with a paper towel. Also trim off the tough ends, the very bottom. Heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat and fry the asparagus without a lid, turning often, until browned spots start to appear.

   

5. Cool the spears to room temperature and cut them. To decorate the pizza, it is recommended to cut off the tips and set them aside, then cut the remaining stalks into small pieces.

How to assemble the pizza

6. Spread 3 tbsp of pesto over the dough that is already in the pan. Cover the middle well, stopping about 3-4 cm from the edge so the rim stays visible. Sprinkle with a small pinch of dried oregano. It adds a special flavor and a subtle aroma, since asparagus itself is fairly neutral in taste. Arrange the pieces of fried asparagus over the sauce.

   

7. Grate the mozzarella on the coarse side of a grater and sprinkle it generously over the whole surface of the pizza, leaving the rim. For the topping we use low-moisture mozzarella. It works very well and bakes beautifully. Cut a ripe but not overripe tomato into thin rounds with a very sharp knife, as thin as possible. Lay the tomato over the cheese and press it down lightly with your palms. Arrange the remaining asparagus tips over the cheese too. The topping is now ready.

   

How to bake the pizza

8. Bake the pizza in an oven preheated to 180°C. It needs to be well heated. This kind of pizza on this dough usually bakes in 20-25 mins. While baking, it is worth turning the pizza from time to time so it bakes evenly, since ovens rarely heat perfectly. Go by the doneness of the dough and the browning of the mozzarella. Simply lift the edge of the dough with a knife. If the underside has turned light brown, it is done. By then the mozzarella usually starts to darken.

   

Serving

9. Take the finished pizza out of the oven, move it to a serving board and let it cool a little. Then cut it into 6-8 pieces and decorate with fresh basil leaves. Serve the pizza while it is still warm.

   A wonderfully tasty pizza on a crisp crust, with a golden edge and browned cheese. Surprisingly, even with other strongly flavored ingredients, the asparagus in the topping comes through very strongly. The texture of the whole wheat dough gives a base that does not warp, yet does not turn into a dried-out “chip”.

   

   If you like, try experimenting with the dough. There are many options: yeast-free, made with baking powder or fermented dairy products, or yeast dough prepared the “cold” way. I know many people for whom pizza means lots and lots of meat. Do not add cold cuts to the topping. Instead, lay thinly sliced prosciutto on the finished pizza.