Pastrami Pizza on Rye

Shockingly when I bought the pastrami for our pastrami sandwiches on rye I bought way too much pastrami.  For some reason I thought that each of us needed a quarter pound of pastrami on our sandwiches.  Considering that we each eat quarter pound hamburgers I thought this made total sense.  It did not.  I had a lot of pastrami leftover.

I have to give CA full credit for thinking up this pizza.  He's the one who said, out of the blue, that we should use it to make pastrami pizza.

Most of the recipes I found for pastrami pizza just put pastrami on top of regular pizza.  That's boring.

I wanted the pizza to be more reminiscent of a pastrami sandwich which, of course, has rye bread.  Therefore, rye crust was necessary to make this a true pastrami pizza.

I learned my lesson from the rye bread I made a few days ago and put a few caraway seeds in the dough.  I wanted to make sure it had that real rye flavor.

This recipe makes a pretty big pizza - the dough covered an entire cookie sheet and I definitely could have rolled it out a little bit thinner.

I wanted to keep the pizza pretty simple so that the flavor of the crust and the pastrami were the stars.  So, I used a really simple marinara sauce that I made. (Jarred sauce is totally acceptable here - just keep it a fairly neutral flavor)

1 T Olive Oil
1/4 cup chopped Onion
3 cloves Garlic, minced
28 oz can Whole Tomatoes, crushed
6 oz. Tomato Paste
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1 tsp Sugar

Cook the onion in the oil until soft (about 4 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook one more minute.  Add all the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 20 minutes. (You'll only need 1/2 of this for the pizza).

In addition to the marinara, this gets topped with pastrami (obviously), fresh mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.  That's it.

This pizza was pretty great.  The crust was nice and crispy and had a great, distinctive rye flavor.  The toppings were perfect - just enough pastrami flavor and not too many other distractions.

CA liked it too and has been eating it for lunch.  He says it heats up well in the microwave too.

I definitely think we'll make this again.  This time, I'll buy the extra pastrami on purpose.

Pastrami Pizza on Rye
crust adapted from Burp! Recipes
 
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup lukewarm Water
4 1/2 tsp Yeast
2 cups Rye Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup Bread Flour
1 T vital Wheat Gluten
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Demerara or Brown Sugar
3 T Olive Oil, plus more for the bowl
1 T Caraway Seeds

1 cup Marinara or Pizza Sauce
8 oz fresh Mozzarella, sliced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 lb Pastrami

Instructions
Add the water to a small bowl and sprinkle it with the yeast.  Allow that to sit for five minutes, until bubbly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the flours, wheat gluten, salt and sugar.  Add the yeast mixture and 3 T of olive oil.  Mix with the dough hook on low speed for 9 minutes.  Add the caraway seed and mix on low speed for 1 more minute.

Oil a deep bowl and add the dough to it.  Cover loosely and let it rise for 1 hour.

Preheat the grill or the oven to 400 degrees.  Roll or press out the dough into your desired shape (I did a rectangle the size of a cookie sheet).  Grill for 2-3 minutes on each side or bake for 20 minutes until the dough is set.

Spread the sauce on top of the dough.  Top with the pastrami and cheeses.  Bake at 375 degrees or grill over indirect heat for another 20 minutes until the cheese is melted and the top is slightly brown.

Enjoy!
Julie