Nduja mussels baked in pizza dough
Serves 2-4
Ingredients
For the pizza dough:
250g bread flour
155g ice cold water
¼ tsp. dry instant yeast
6g salt
5g oil
5g honey
For the mussels:
3 Tbls EVOO
50g sliced shallot (1 large peeled shallot)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced (about 20g)
2 sprigs oregano – leaves picked
½ cup white wine
50g nduja
1 (400g) tin crushed tomato
1kg mussels, cleaned and de-bearded
Method:
For the pizza dough:
Add everything to a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix for 10 minutes on medium speed.
Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and let it rest for 30 mins.
After 30 minutes stretch and fold the dough by pulling the dough from the bottom over itself until you’ve done 4 of those all the way around the dough. Cover the bowl again and rest for one hour more, at room temperature.
Tip the dough out onto a clean bench top and divide it in two equal halves. Shape them into balls and place into oiled containers with a tight fitting lid and place them into the fridge for 24-48 hours.
Note: If you are going to make one large dish instead of two seperate portions, keep the dough as one ball and skip the dividing step.
For the mussels:
In a small saucepan heat the olive oil over medium heat and sweat the garlic, shallot and oregano together for about 2-3 minutes. Pour in the white wine and reduce down by a bit more than half. Then add in the nduja and tin of tomato and bring that to a simmer.
Simmer for about 10 minutes to reduce and concentrate the flavours. You probably don’t need to add salt because the nduja is salty and the mussels are too.
Preheat your oven to 250C conventional (230C fan-forced).
Tip your pizza dough out onto a lightly oil sheet of baking paper. Stretch your pizza dough using your fingertips just to flatten it a bit. It will shrink up on the paper, don’t stress too much about it as you can stretch it once you flop it onto the mussels.
If making for 2 people use two (approx 21cm) cast iron pans.
Place your mussels in the pan (around 10-12pcs. should fit nicely). Alternatively, you can also only use one large pan. Pour over half the sauce onto each batch of mussels. Leave one mussel standing up in the centre of the pan so it will gently pierce through the dough when you lay it on top.
Flip the dough onto the mussels and peel away and discard the baking paper. Pull the edges of the dough over the cast iron pan edges and press it into the sides of the pan to seal it shut. Pierce the centre of the dough with that mussel that is standing up to allow a little bit of steam to escape. Repeat with the other pan.
Place the whole pan onto the stove over medium high heat for about a minute just to get some heat into the pan.
Brush the top of the dough with olive oil and bake for 15 minutes in your hot oven.
Remove from the oven, tear into the bread to reveal the cooked, juicy mussels underneath and eat.
I genuinely recommend the products I’ve linked in this recipe, and earn a small commission if you happen to purchase via My Favourite Kitchen Tools page on Amazon
