Asparagus Pizza with Cream Sauce

I’ll just say this: asparagus pizza with a white sauce so intensely flavoured with thyme is pure poetry. I noticed how beautifully the fresh thyme had grown in my garden. Recently, just after winter, I cut away practically all the old sprigs, and barely a month later, there it is. Beautifully green, wonderfully fragrant young thyme.

I also had some green asparagus left, and Ninka asked for pizza. There was nothing for it but to make her a Margherita and myself an outstanding pizza with white sauce (this time I have to be immodest).

Caloric hara-kiri, but in this case impossible not to recommend 😉

Recipe at a glance:

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Baking time: 12 minutes

Baking temperature: 250 degrees Celsius

Serves: 4 people

Calories: a pizza-load of calories

Ingredients for asparagus pizza with white sauce:

• 200 grams Italian pizza flour with yeast (if you don’t have this, just ordinary flour and dried yeast, use the pizza dough recipe here)
• 5 heaped tablespoons 18% cream (I usually use Zott extra creamy)
• 13 green asparagus spears
• 150 grams block mozzarella (the firmer kind)
• 60 grams mozzarella from a ball (half a ball)
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 shallots
• a handful of fresh thyme
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt
• boiled water
• olive oil

Recipe for asparagus pizza with cream sauce:

First I kneaded the pizza dough (when you have flour with yeast, you don’t have to wait long for it to rise; if you don’t, make dough using the traditional recipe). That is: I mixed the flour with a pinch of salt, added olive oil (1.5 tablespoons) and 150 ml of water. First I mixed everything with a spoon, then turned it out of the bowl onto the worktop and quickly kneaded an elastic, non-sticky dough (if it sticks, add a little flour). I set it aside in a bowl covered with a cloth in a warm place.

White pizza sauce

I finely chopped the onion and shallots and fried them in two tablespoons of olive oil. After about 5 minutes, I added two crushed, finely chopped garlic cloves. I cooked them for another 3 – 4 minutes over a low „heat” (setting 4 on a scale of 1 – 10 on my induction hob). Then I added the cream (5 heaped tablespoons) and mixed thoroughly. I seasoned the sauce with a generous amount of pepper (freshly ground black pepper, naturally), a teaspoon of salt and lots of fresh thyme leaves stripped from their stems (really generously). I mixed my white pizza sauce thoroughly again, added two tablespoons of boiled water, stirred once more and took it off the heat.

The remaining ingredients and the pizza

While the sauce was cooking, I thoroughly washed the green asparagus and cut off the woody ends. I left the asparagus in cold water for about 6 minutes (honestly, I don’t know whether it did anything, but I think it did). I cut the mozzarella (both the firm kind and the ball) into small cubes and put it in a small bowl.

Once all the ingredients were prepared — dough, cream sauce, asparagus and cheese — I preheated the oven to 250 degrees Celsius. I rolled the pizza dough into a large rectangle (big enough to cover the whole oven tray) and transferred it to the lightly oiled tray. I spooned the cream sauce onto the dough and spread it thoroughly over the entire pizza (you don’t need an excessive amount; I think the quantities given make just the right amount). Then I covered it thoroughly with mozzarella and finally arranged 13 green asparagus spears evenly on top (that number happened to fit perfectly over the whole pizza). I lightly drizzled it with a tablespoon of olive oil (evenly over the entire pizza), added a little salt and pepper.

I put it in the oven (as mentioned, preheated to 250 degrees Celsius) and baked it for exactly 12 minutes. After that, the pizza is ready. Enjoy!