Crab on pizza? Absolutely! Two years ago I found myself wanting an Ooni pizza oven to continue my culinary skills, and embark on a pizza journey, one of my favorite foods. And along the way, after a long day of catching and cleaning crabs, it dawned on me: let’s put crab on a pizza. Dungeness crab has a sweet and salty taste, paired with a light dough, olive oil, garlic, mozzarella, and green onions, a masterpiece is created. If you have leftover fresh crab from that recent crabbing trip, give this fresh and sweet recipe a try.Ingredients:21.44oz (607g) Flour12.8oz (364g) Cold Water4 tsp (18g) salt20g fresh yeast (or 9.2g active dried yeast packet)1/8 Cup Olive Oil10 Garlic Gloves (Diced)Dungeness crab1 Chopped Green Onion1 Buffalo MozarellaCornmealRecipe:Start with making the dough. I have an Ooni Pizza oven and use their pizza dough recipe.Place two-thirds of the water in a large bowl. In a saucepan or microwave, bring the other third of water to boil, then add it to the cold water in the bowl. This creates the correct temperature for activating yeast. Whisk the salt and yeast into the warm water.If you mix dough by hand: Place the flour in a large bowl and pour the yeast mixture into it. Stir with a wooden spoon until a dough starts to form. Continue mixing by hand until the pizza dough comes together in a ball. Turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead with both hands for about 10 minutes, until it is firm and stretchy. Return the dough to the bowl. Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until doubled in size.If you use a mixer: Fit the mixer with the dough hook and place the flour in the mixer bowl. Turn the machine on at a low speed and gradually add the yeast mixture to the flour. Once combined, leave the dough to keep mixing to at the same speed for 5-10 minutes, or until the dough is firm and stretchy. Cover the dough with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until doubled in size. When the dough has roughly doubled in size, divide it into 3 or 4 equal pieces, depending on what size you want your pizzas to be (either 12 inches or 16 inches wide). Place each piece of dough in a separate bowl or tray, cover with cling film and leave to rise for another 30 – 60 minutes, or until doubled in size.Kneading and stretching the dough: Our top tip is always to start with a perfectly rounded ball of pizza dough as this helps to keep the shape of the pizza base circular during the stretching process. Place the ball on a lightly floured surface, flour your hands and use your fingertips to press the dough into a small, flat disc. Working from the center, push the dough outwards while spreading your fingers, making the disc slightly bigger. Pick up the pizza dough and gently pinch it all around the edge, allowing gravity to pull it downwards into a circle. Neapolitan-style pizza bases are very thin, so you should be able to see through the base when you hold it up to the light. Take care when doing this – you don’t want it to tear.Once the pizza dough is fully stretched, spread and form the dough, sprinkle some cornmeal on the pizza paddle, then layer the dough on the paddle.Before making the pizza, prep your base and ingredients. For the olive oil and garlic spread, put the oil and chopped garlic in a small pan, heat over low for 5 minutes (you want to impart the flavor; do not brown the garlic). Turn off the burner and take off the heat to cool for a few minutes. Next take out the buffalo mozzarella, squeeze off all the liquid. Slice the mozzarella. For the crab, pre-cook and clean your crab.Spread the olive oil and garlic base on the dough in a thin layer. Next add the Dungeness crab, spread it out evenly. Next add your slides of buffalo mozzarella to cover all the crab. You are ready for the pizza to hit the oven: slide into the pizza oven.Cook the pizza for a couple of minutes, rotating the pizza around to crisp up the dough and avoid burn or super dark spots. Pull the pizza off the stone and slide onto a plate. Let the pizza rest for a few minutes, garnish with green onion slides, drizzle some chili sauce, cut a slide, and enjoy your Dungeness crab pizza!
