CAJUN CLAM PIZZA

Adapted from Beth Pearson

You will need a pizza stone and a wooden pizza peel. Beth Pearson uses local quahogs for this recipe. If she’s not going to use them right away, she freezes after they are shucked. If you don’t have fresh clams—or any in your freezer—you can buy chopped frozen clams. But try to find local.

Makes enough for one 12-inch pizza

Dough for one 12-inch round
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces chorizo, crumbled
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ cup minced green pepper
¼ cup minced celery
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
Salt, to taste
8 ounces chopped clams, with liquid
Fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano

Two hours before you plan to make your pizza, remove the dough from the refrigerator.

An hour before, set your oven as high as it will go, 500° or 550° , with the pizza stone on the floor of the oven if gas and on the bottom rack if electric.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.

Stir in crumbled chorizo and cook for 2 minutes. Add onion, garlic, green pepper and celery and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in paprika, cayenne pepper, oregano, thyme and salt to taste.

Add the clams and liquid. Stir, reducing heat to mediumlow. Simmer until the clams are just cooked. Set the topping aside.

Take a ball of dough and flatten it out on a floured surface to a roughly 8-inch round. Drape the round over one closed fist and with the other hand, pull the edges out, rotating the round, until you have a roughly 12-inch circle. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfectly round. Place the dough on a pizza peel. Spread topping on the dough, leaving a one-inch rim. Grate fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano all over.

Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Slide the pizza out using the pizza peel and rest for about a minute on a cooling rack before transferring to a flat surface to slice.