Lacón pizza with turnip greens

How to prepare a Galician pizza . What do you think of today’s recipe? It is a fusion recipe that combines the best of Galician cuisine with the famous Italian pizza dough .

A dish that I offered to friends a few months ago at home and disappeared in just a few minutes. This pizza is not the classic with the usual.

Improvise with what you have in the fridge, I had some of the leftovers from a shoulder with turnip tops prepared by my mother and cheese from Arzúa-Ulloa.  The combination quickly came to mind and I assure you that the result is delicious. A recipe of 100% use.

For those who have not heard of the famous  Lacón con grelos  know that it is a meat dish typical of Galician cuisine. The authentic lacón is the pig’s front arm or leg. Especially its cured meat, which is usually a little salty. Essential part for a good Galician stew and it is in many Galician recipes.

Turnip greens are the tender stems that will support the turnip flower and appear on the plant just before flowering. The first product it gives is nabiza, which are the leaves of the first branches, the most tender are cooked in the Galician broth . The base of this lacón with turnip tops is a pizza dough a little different from the one I usually make at home normally.

The texture of the dough is impressive and if you add queixo de Arzúa-Ulloa on top of it instead of mozzarella, the result is the most Galician pizza you can find. I hope you like the recipe.

Preparation of bread and potato dough

1. Normally for pizza I usually use the classic Italian pizza dough , this is a variation of a French chef where he adds potato to the bread dough. Substitute several ingredients, it is very good, but it is sweeter than normal, I leave it to your choice, whichever you want.
2. For this dough we have to peel the potatoes and cook in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain them and crush them with a fork until they are lumpy. We do not want a cream, but it is easy to mix when it comes to kneading. We reserve.
3. In a large bowl we introduce part of the wheat flour. We leave about 2 tablespoons of flour separate to fatten the dough.
4. With a spoon we make a hole in the center of the bowl, pour the yeast dissolved in the warm milk and the mashed potato.
5. We stir with a wooden spoon from the center outwards and gradually mix with the flour.
6. We add extra virgin olive oil, sugar and salt (it is important that the salt and yeast do not come into direct contact to avoid problems in the fermentation process). We continue removing what begins to be the dough, for now it will be a sticky but firm mixture.

Kneading the pizza dough and resting

1. We prepare the area where we are going to knead, for example the kitchen counter is perfect.
2. We fill the area of ​​the counter with flour, remove the dough from the bowl and begin to work the dough with your hands. It is very important to refine the dough to make it more elastic and rise better.
3. To refine it, you have to roll out the dough like a churro and twist it spirally several times. At the end we put together and knead again for about ten minutes. This is the trick that makes dough amazing.
4. After those 10 minutes, we can manipulate the dough more quickly, it will remain elastic and homogeneous.
5. The correct flour measurement is “until the flour sticks to your hands”, but it should not be abused either.
6. We are turning the dough into a ball. We take the previous bowl and flour it. We introduce the dumpling into it. We cover the bowl with a cotton cloth for about 45 minutes-1 hour.
7. To know the time that the dough should be left to rise, use the following trick: if you press it with a finger and the dough returns to its original position it will be ready to prepare.

Preparation of lacón pizza with turnip greens

1. We preheat our oven to 250º C.
2. Sprinkle the countertop with flour. We roll out the dough so that it is thin enough so that when we bake it, it will be crisp and we spread it on the oven tray.
3. We add the homemade fried tomato sauce with a spoon, we must spread the entire surface leaving the edges without tomato, with a brush or with the same spoon, with circular movements.
4. Sprinkle with the chopped oregano and put this base in the oven on baking paper on the stone, thus avoiding staining it but at the same time we will have that crisp of professional pizzas.

Pizza Baking and Final Presentation

1. We leave it only 2-3 minutes at 180º C, just enough to fix the tomato to the base.
2. We cut the Arzúa-Ulloa cheese into pieces of approximately 1 cm, this Galician cheese has a smooth, thin and yellow rind, it is very easy to cut because it is very creamy.
3. For those who have not tried it, it is very pleasant in the mouth. With a smooth butter flavor with a slight salty taste. An incredible cheese to melt and ideal for pizzas.
4. We remove the base. We add the pieces of cheese distributed throughout the base so that when the cover is distributed throughout all the holes in the base.
5. We cut the lacón into small pieces and drain the turnip greens well. Tried to have too little water left so as not to spoil the pizza when baking.
6. We distribute the pork shoulder and turnip greens on the pizza and bake at 230º C for about 9 minutes. Until you see that it is golden brown and the dough is crispy. Remove from the oven and add a splash of olive oil to make it juicier.

And we already have a great pizza, the total Galician pizza. You will see when you cut a piece, the cheese so creamy and all the flavor of the best lacón con grelos.

A great pizza almost perfect, logically for me, you just have to try it and you will tell me.