We haven’t made a pizza on this blog in a dog’s age. Too hot to turn on the oven, you say? Not in Seattle. It’s 63 degrees outside at the moment. Once it gets up to 70 I’ll try to work up my nerve to start making pizzas on the grill instead–any tips for me in advance?
But first, this. A mushroom and olive pizza has a special place in my heart. Growing up, my dad (and sometimes my mom as well, but mostly my dad on nights when my mom was elsewhere) would take us kids out to a local pizza parlor. Red pleather, arcade games, a window where you could watch the guys toss dough and pile on toppings. We always got a mushroom and olive pizza and a pitcher of ice-cold root beer. It was, in the parlance of the day, so awesome.
This isn’t your ’80s pizza-parlor mushroom and olive pizza–not because that pizza wasn’t righteous, but because I am a creature of habit and make my homemade pizza with a thin crust. And because I buy kalamata olives in bulk instead of canned black olives. And because I usually saute my mushrooms before adding them to pizza. But you could totally serve this pizza with an ice-cold root beer. That would still be rad.
Mushroom and Olive Pizza: Preheat oven (and pizza stone, if you have one) to the hottest setting. Stretch out a pizza crust until it’s nice and thin and place on parchment paper. Top with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and torn kalamata olives. Bake until crust is crisp, about 5 minutes at 550 in my oven.
Emmy Cooks 
Great post and excellent timing, as I’ll be trying out my new aluminum pizza ‘stone’ for the first time tonight!
Completely agree on thin crust and sauteing mushrooms first.
Have you ever tried using (uncooked) passata seasoned with some olive oil, salt and sugar instead of using tomato sauce? Helps to keep the crust crunchy but soft.
I use a super-thick tomato sauce to keep the crust from getting soggy but I like the alternative idea of using of lighter sauce like you suggest. I’ll try that for summer pizzas! I’m also going to try your new baking method, which I’m posting here for others to check out! http://stefangourmet.com/2012/06/27/real-pizza-in-a-domestic-oven-using-an-aluminum-plate/
Thanks, would love to hear how it turns out!
That looks beautiful! We have a topping combo too in my family. Sausage and mushrooms. Because my brothers refuse to eat anything green and mushrooms are the only “vegetable” that we can all agree on, even though it’s a fungus.
In my vegetarian days, it was broccoli, Kalamata olives and fresh garlic.
Now it’s pepperoni and jalapeños.
Man. Your photo is making me salivate! That is really thin crust :-)
I am fond of jalapenos on pizza myself, and I had a pizza with sweet corn this week that was pretty great. I see a spicy summer corn pizza in my near future!
I was just about to say that a spicy summer corn pizza sounds like a good idea!
I agree with you about a thin crust. I have never thought to to use parchment paper…next time.
I’d prefer to make my pizza on cornmeal and slide it onto the stone, which seems less wasteful, but the parchment is more foolproof if I pile the toppings on too thick or stretch the dough too thin!
I think I need to write an “Ode to Mushrooms” post. Mushrooms on pizza is even better :)
I look forward to your ode to mushrooms–they deserve it! :)
That pizza is totally rad!
Thanks, Somer–you’re totally rad yourself. ;-)
I love mushroom pizza of any kind. Can’t wait to try this combo. We put olives and mushrooms on our pizza, but have never put them together on the same one. Yum.
We prefer thin crust here too. Lately we’ve been skipping the red sauce on our mushroom pizzas and drizzling the ubiquitous truffle oil over the top of the baked pie.
Truffle oil on mushroom pizza, sounds like you’re doing it right!
The possibilities are endless. But this one looks really good!
I’m scrolling, I’m scrolling, I’m scrolling, bam…. my mouth is watering, it’s watering, it’s watering. Great pic Emmy.
For the best grilling of pizzas I’ve found that getting the grill super hot is critical, then get it really clean, then rub the grates with a little olive oil, and then cook one side of the dough just as it is before you add toppings. That gives it at bit more stability. So good!
Thanks for the tips–I’ll report on the results!
Looks so good Emmy! Perfect with root beer and even better in all this cool weather! :)
It’s funny, because I don’t drink soda, but the one that occasionally sounds good to me (with pizza, of course!) is root beer. Childhood memories are a strong influence!
Mush & olive pizza is my all time favorite, and I have a special place in my heart for 80s pizza parlors! Those brown-clear-textured plastic cups full of iced soda with Rick Springfield on the juke box… awesome to the max!
Plus, it’s also in the 60s here in Berkeley, so all in all, I love this post. Thanks!
Those are EXACTLY the cups we were drinking root beer from, of course. :) And I had forgotten about the jukebox–I think this was one of those places where you could control it from every booth!