Ina Garten’s Brussels Sprouts Carbonara Pizza

Well folks, it’s been a long time of not posting content on here! More on where I’ve been here. I am hoping I am officially back to posting regularly because I’ve missed writing, trying new recipes (like this Brussels sprouts pizza!), and sharing things with y’all!

Cooking has always been one of my favorite hobbies and is very peaceful to me. I have been realizing how much I’ve missed it recently. We’ve been really living off meals from family and friends and DoorDash in the past month, but this week we started to find a rhythm. I’ve really been feeling like I am able to get some things done during nap time (including writing this post!) and I wanted to try out a new recipe this week that might be more time consuming.

I went through my collection of cookbooks and decided to try and go through Ina Garten’s Modern Comfort Food cookbook and try out her recipes and let y’all know what I think of each of them! Think Julie & Julia but more like Sara Ann & Ina 😉

This first recipe really caught my eye because we love to have pizza Fridays at our house. Lately it’s been ordering Pizza Hut, but in the past, I’ve loved to make my cast iron pizza recipe!

We normally stick with basics like red sauce base, pepperoni, sausage, peppers, etc. when we make pizza. But we LOVE Brussels sprouts and I LOVE a white sauce base on pizza!

This recipe is definitely a more time consuming pizza recipe but highly worth it in my opinion!

Equipment/Tips

When trying to thinly slice the Brussels, I highly recommend using a food processor with the slicing attachment! It made it so easy to clean and trim the Brussels and then just feed them through the food processor. This is the food processor I have and while I don’t need it too often, it really saves my butt and I love it when I need it!

Ina’s recipe uses regular parchment paper but I always use a silicone baking sheet when things call parchment paper in baking, since it’s reusable, and it always works perfectly! And it worked great for this recipe too!

While the recipe is in her cookbook, I also found that it was on Food Network’s website, so I have linked it if you want to read the original. I just included my notes and cut the recipe in half so that it makes 2 pizzas (or 1 big one!) since that was how I made it.

The Verdict

This pizza was SO good. I think it would be good if you added some crushed red pepper flakes on top too. The richness of the carbonara sauce complements the earthiness of the charred Brussels perfectly, and the saltiness of the pancetta really rounds it out. Garrett (who normally doesn’t like pizzas with a white sauce base) really enjoyed it too! I’ll definitely be adding it into our pizza Friday rotation when I have some more time on my hands to be able to devote to this recipe!

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Ina Garten's Brussels Sprouts Carbonara Pizza

Keyword pizza

Author Ina Garten

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 egg yolk
• kosher salt and fresh black pepper to taste
• olive oil extra virgin
• 4 oz pancetta diced
• 1 16 oz store-bought fresh pizza dough
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese
• 8 oz Brussels sprouts thinly sliced through a food processor (or using mandoline slicer)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450

2. For the béchamel sauce base, pour the milk into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk the flour into the butter and cook for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Whisk in the hot milk, switch to a wooden spoon and simmer, stirring constantly, for 2 to 5 minutes, until thick enough to leave a trail when you run your finger down the back of a spoon. Cook for one more minute. Off the heat, stir in the ricotta, egg yolks, salt and pepper to taste; set aside.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium pan, add the pancetta and cook over medium heat for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until half-cooked. Transfer the pancetta to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside.

4. Flip over a sheet pan and cover with a piece of parchment paper (or with silicone baking sheet). Split the dough in half and then roll and stretch the pizza dough into 2- 9- or 10-inch circle on the parchment paper. Leaving a 1-inch border, spread 1/2 cup of the béchamel on each pizza and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan, 2 tablespoons of the Pecorino and half of the pancetta. In a medium bowl, toss the Brussels sprouts with about 3 tablespoons olive oil. Sprinkle the two pizzas evenly with the Brussels sprouts. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned, including the bottom. Cut each pizza into wedges and serve hot.

Recipe Notes

To slice the Brussels sprouts, trim them and process through the feed tube of a food processor fitted with the slicing disk.

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