Chanterelle and Pesto Pizza

Summer is in full effect. With a bounty of chanterelles the next obvious thing to do was pizza. This pie features fresh chanterelles, basil pesto, shredded mozzarella, and nastrutium flowers. I wanted to keep it limited to simple fresh ingredients and make the mushrooms really shine. The nasturtium flowers add a subtle sweet and peppery kick and I loved the way the mimic the shape and color of the chanterelles.

The crust is naturally leavened using a Ken Forkish (Flour Water Salt Yeast) recipe as the basis of the dough with some slight timing deviations. Wood fired in the Ooni pro in approximately 60 seconds. I made a short video about the forage and pizza making process. (Embedded below)

These were the best chanterelles that I’ve ever found - a large patch of Cantharellus Lateritius in western New Jersey. They were in perfect condition and we came home with a few bags full.

I highly recommend Flour Water Salt Yeast if you’re interested in making bread and pizza dough. There are recipes that use commercial yeasts and wild yeasts and all recipes are flexible and easy to adapt for real-world schedules.