This Caramelized Mushroom and Tamarind Pizza is an easy weeknight dinner option. Homemade pizza dough topped with tamarind sauce, caramelized onions, mushrooms, kale, parmesan and fontina cheese, and lots of delicious herbs. Baked until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is perfectly melted. Great for any night of the week!
Happy Sunday! Finally, a pizza recipe on the blog! I’m actually not a big fan of pizza, or at least not normal pizza. My favorite kinds of pizzas are the ones I make myself, because I get to add all the random things I like to eat.
Pizza = Family bonding…
I often talk about making meals with my mom, but my dad is also a pretty good cook (except when he’s making food at 1 am in the morning or while watching football or basketball :D!).
Some of my favorite memories of cooking with my dad are from when we made pizza together. We’d get store bought naan and top it with all our favorites. My dad would put a ton of onions and mushrooms on his pizza, and I’d do the same. We both loved cheese (who doesn’t?!), so we’d pile on as much as we could fit on our pizzas and watch as they baked in the oven. This recipe is a tribute to the pizzas my dad and I used to make, with a few twists.
The pizza dough…
I made my own pizza dough, which is actually way easier than you might think. Just bloom active dry yeast in warm water and some granulated sugar (or use quick yeast). Then slowly incorporate the yeast into a bowl with flour, olive oil, and a touch of honey. Slowly add more flour and knead into a smooth dough. And that’s it! Now, you have homemade pizza dough. Cover the dough and let it double in size.
One trick when making pizza is to use room temperature dough. It makes it easier to roll out the dough, and gives you a crispier pizza crust. This recipe makes more dough than you’ll need for this caramelized mushroom pizza, so just refrigerate the rest of the dough and use it for another pizza during the week.
What is tamarind?…
Tamarind is a tropical fruit that kind of looks like a crusty brown bean pod. It might not be the cutest fruit, but the pulp inside the tamarind pod is sweet, tangy, and delicious. Tamarind is very popular in Indian cuisine, and is also used all across the Caribbean. In Jamaica, we make sweet tamarind balls (this will definitely be on the blog one day!), and in Trinidad, tamarind is often used to make chutneys, which pairs really well with doubles.
I love tamarind sauce, but making it myself is a huge pain, because it’s a time consuming process. So I’m happy to use a quality store bought sauce. The tamarind sauce helps caramelize the onions and mushrooms, taking them to the next level! So good. If you don’t have tamarind sauce, substitute with balsamic vinegar!
For this pizza recipe, I cooked sweet onions, wild mushrooms, and herbs in this sweet and tangy tamarind sauce. But to be honest, the mushrooms are the star here, because this is after all a caramelized mushroom pizza! I used some lovely wild and shitake mushrooms. I kept some of the mushrooms whole, and chopped a few of the bigger ones to make them easier to eat.
Assembling the pizza…
Once you make the pizza dough and saute the onions and mushrooms in tamarind sauce, it’s time to assemble the pizza.
Roll out the dough into a thin circle, about 10in in diameter. Layer on some fontina cheese, which I like because it’s creamy and mild, then top with some tuscan kale. To make the kale even more delicious, massage the kale with olive oil and more of the tamarind sauce, then add some crushed red pepper.
Next, add the caramelized mushrooms and onions, then sprinkle on shaved parmesan cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly.
I promise my dad and I were not making pizzas with wild mushrooms or fontina cheese, but I’ve gotten a little fancier 😀 This is the grown up pizza you never knew you needed, with a little Caribbean twist that makes it oh so good. This will be a fan favorite for sure!
Share this recipe…
If you make this recipe, be sure to let me know by rating it and leaving a comment below. I would love to hear from you. And don’t forget to tag #sweetandsorrel on Instagram!
Caramelized Mushroom and Tamarind Pizza
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp honey optional
- 3 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
Pizza
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cup water or white wine
- coarse salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp + 1 tsp tamarind sauce
- 2 cups wild mushrooms
- 1/4 cup freshly chopped rosemary, sage, and thyme
- 1 cup tuscan kale, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1 cup shredded fontina cheese
- 1/2 cup shaved parmesan cheese
- olive oil
Instructions
Dough
- Pour 1 packet of active dry yeast and granulated sugar into a bowl with warm water. Stir gently and let rest for about 5 minutes, until mixture gets foamy. You can also use rapid rise yeast.
- In bowl of a stand mixer with hook attachment, add 2 cups of flour olive oil, and honey. Turn mixer on low and slowly pour in yeast mixture. Knead until yeast is fully incorporated. Dough should be sticky and wet. Slowly add in remaining flour until dough is smooth and not dry. You may not need the full cup, just watch the dough.
- Place dough in greased mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough sit at room temperature for 1 hour, or until dough doubles in size. Dough will make about 3 pizzas.
Pizza
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease a large baking sheet with olive oil.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook 2-3 minutes, until translucent. Add water or white wine, salt and pepper, and cook another 5 minutes. Add 2 tbsp of tamarind sauce, wild mushrooms and herbs. Cook another minute, or until liquid has evaporated and onions are caramelized. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, add chopped kale and 1 tsp of tamarind sauce. Drizzle bit of olive oil and red pepper, then massage kale. Set aside.
- Roll out 1/3rd of the room temperature pizza dough into a thin circle. Transfer dough to the oiled baking sheet. Drizzle some olive oil over the dough, then top with fontina cheese, kale, and caramelized mushrooms and onions. Sprinkle shaved parmesan cheese on top.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Did You Make This Recipe?
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2 Comments
This was lovely and I enjoyed the tamarind twist on the pizza. However, there is a somewhat crucial typo for the yeast. You want 1 1/4 oz packet or 2 1/4 tsp of yeast. Certainly not 2 1/4 oz of yeast!
Thank you Teresa! I am glad you enjoyed the recipe and will update the typo!