Shaved asparagus pizza

Red sauce will always have its place, but I'm discovering how much I love sauceless pizza. Spring veggies with their delicate flavors would be overpowered otherwise.

Here's my take on Smitten Kitchen's Shaved Asparagus Pizza. Per her suggestion, I added red pepper flakes and topped it with egg, but since I also had some leftover roast potatoes, I added those, too. Marvelous.

Shaved Asparagus Pizza

adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

One half-pound of prepared pizza dough (or enough for one pizza size of your choice)

1/2 pound fresh asparagus

Leftover seasoned roasted potatoes, sliced into smaller pieces if large

1 ball fresh mozzarella

1/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Red pepper flakes

Egg

1 scallion, white and light green parts thinly sliced

1. With a pizza stone placed on the lower oven rack, heat the oven to 500+ degrees.

2. Wash the asparagus. Holding onto the base of the spear, use a vegetable peeler to peel long strands. It helps to do this against a cutting board. The peeler blade may get clogged sometimes, but the point is to pile asparagus shavings and bits on the pizza, so don't worry about it as long as you've got thin slices. Toss the peels in a large bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper. Discard the woody ends of the asparagus. 

3. Spread out the pizza dough to your desired thickness using whatever method you like (press into a pan, or roll it out and place on a peel, etc. - I have a whole explanation of my methods here).

4. Top dough with Parmesan, then dot with mozzarella (I like to tear it into small chunks and place them a couple inches apart on the pizza). Scatter the roast potato, then pile on the asparagus. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes (to taste). Slide into the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

5. Around the 5 minute mark, heat up a small frying pan with a little oil. When hot, add an egg and fry, being careful not to let the yolk overcook. Ideally, the egg should still be cooking when you take out the pizza. A poached egg would also be a nice option. Alternatively, you could crack the egg(s) directly on the pizza around the same time and let it cook in the oven. I haven't worked up the nerve to do this.

6. Take out the pizza. The asparagus should be slightly browned/charred around the edges. Top with sliced scallions and fried egg. Break the yolk a little and spread it a bit over the middle of the pizza so each piece gets an eggy bite. Slice and enjoy.