Pizza for 4

Late summer/early Fall is peak season for tomatoes and basil-perfect fodder for homemade pizza.It's also time for wild mushrooms such as chanterelles, corals, lion's manes and boletes to start poking out, also great pizza fixin's. No access to wild mushrooms? Don't give it a second thought. Use what you have--that is precisely the point.

Ingredients:
Pizza Crust
2 tsp dry active yeast
2 tsp honey
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 1/2 C all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 1/4 C warm water

Wild Mushroom Pizza Toppings:
1 pound wild mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (if you can't find wild mushrooms, feel free to use what you have)
1/4 lb. Manchego cheese, torn into chunks
2 tsp Aleppo pepper--1 tsp per pizza (No Aleppo pepper? Substitute cayenne and decrease amount by half)
1 fresh sage leaf
1 tsp truffle salt
1/2 large onion, diced
2 T unsalted butter
2 T Extra virgin olive oil

Tomato Capicola Pizza Toppings:
1 lg. tomato, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/4 lb fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch slices
6 pieces Capicola, cut into paper-thin slices (No capicola? Just substitute pepperoni or salami)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 C fresh basil, torn or shredded for topping

2 T extra virgin olive oil and corn meal each, for prepping baking sheets
4 T extra virgin olive oil--1 T per pizza
2 T extra virgin olive oil for bowl for dough proofing

About 3 hours before you want to eat, add yeast and honey to 1/4 C warm water to make a sponge. Stir and cover with a towel. Leave for 15 minutes until foamy. 

Mix flours and salt in a large bowl. 

Create a well in the center. Add remaining warm water to the sponge. Pour into the well in the flour. Stir with a fork to combine roughly. Rub a little oil on your hands and knead the dough into a pliable ball of dough. This should take about 5 minutes. Coat a large bowl with olive oil. Place the dough into the bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place into the oven until the dough is at least doubled. This should take around 3 hours.

While the dough is rising, prepare toppings for the mushroom pizza. Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add the butter until melted. Add the onions and stir often until they are amber colored. 

Remove to a bowl. Mince the fresh sage. Return the pan to the stove. Heat the olive oil. Add the mushrooms and sage. 

Season with truffle salt. Cook, stirring periodically until all liquid has cooked out. This will take around 15 minutes. Cook until slightly browned. Remove to a bowl. Next, prepare toppings for the tomato capicola pizza. Slice tomatoes and set aside. Prep basil and cheeses. 

When the dough is ready, remove the bowl of dough from the oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Punch down the dough and recover with the plastic while you prep the baking sheets. Oil each sheet and sprinkle with corn meal (this helps the dough not to stick.) Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Press each piece into a round as thin as you can make it. Coat each crust with oil. 

For the two mushroom pizzas, add the mushrooms first, followed by the onions, and pepper. Top with the Manchego. For the two remaining pizzas, add the cheese, tomato slices and capicola. Sprinkle the garlic over the top. 

Bake the pizzas for 8 minutes. Switch the heat to broil. Broil for 2 minutes and remove from the oven. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before cutting. Top the tomato pizzas with the fresh basil. Enjoy!