Ranch and Dill Pickle Pizza
For this meal, we were discussing what to go with when I had a distant happy memory of pickles on pizza. Now, it certainly wasn’t an original idea or anything. Again, it was memory, since I had actually seen one of my former clients, Bill McCarty, on television explaining this delicious thought of Philly Dilly Pickle Pizza. Click here for that.
If you want to go and try it out for yourself, just go hit up the restaurant – Barra Rossa in Philadelphia, PA. Otherwise, my wife and I dug around on the web and found this recipe to play out for my meal challenge. Just like with all the recipes done, simply click on the above title for the link of what was borrowed (adapted?). As always, I’ll lay out what we followed as well as any of the changes that were made along the way.
Meal prep music was provided by Spotify with Vampire Weekend – yeah, a repeat offender. We really like them.
And, of course, there was beverage to warm things up.
The Line-up (Ingredients)
1 (14- to 16-ounce) ball pizza dough
2/3 to 3/4 cup ranch dressing
2 small garlic cloves very thinly sliced
1 cup freshly shredded low-moisture mozzarella (about 4 ounces)
1 cup very thinly sliced dill pickles
dried dill for finishing
hot sauce for finishing (optional, but duh! – We added it!)
Game Plan (Instructions)
1) Preheat the oven to 500°F (if using a baking sheet) or as high as it will go (if using a baking stone/steel; place the stone/steel in the oven before you start preheating).
2) Stretch or roll out your dough to a 12-inch circle, then transfer it to an oiled baking sheet or a lightly floured pizza peel (if using a baking stone/steel).
3) Spread the ranch dressing evenly over the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges. Scatter on the sliced garlic and mozzarella, then arrange the pickles on top in an even layer.
4) Transfer the pizza to the oven and bake until the crust is golden and the cheese has browned in spots—8 to 10 minutes on the baking sheet, 6 to 8 minutes on the baking stone/steel.
5) Remove the pizza from the oven, then sprinkle with some dried dill. Slice and serve. We used Frank’s RedHot – Original Hot Sauce, too!
my beer saying “hi” in the back there)
We were definitely happy with the outcome of this meal. I was also fortunate enough to have a couple slices for the road the following day – it’s good cold, too! If we were to make it again, I’m not sure if there would be any real future changes to make. There could certainly be some other options: different pickles, try with pizza sauce, or even mix in some banana hot peppers. Bottom line though, pickles and pizza together are a win!