Salmon and Goat Cheese on Arugula Pesto Pizza (Pizza Night!)

While I think I'm doing OK on putting farm fresh veggies from my CSA farm share on a pizza, I need to work on my fish-on-pizza skills.  Tonight's pizza was inspired by the leftover 4 ounces of baked salmon filet in the fridge.  Why such a strange amount?  My spouse wanted to eat this dip, and I had a massive piece of salmon and wanted to play with a strange but good maple teriyaki salmon sushi that will appear in a few weeks.
I have been seeing drool-worthy photos of salads on so many of the food blogs I follow, so when I grabbed the bag of arugula pesto cubes out of the freezer I was thinking of Spring, of a dark green peppery arugula salad under my flakes of salmon.  I've seen salads with bacon and bourbon, salads with chickpeas and salmon, and salads with salmon, cucumber, and mushroom. There are a lot of talented food bloggers out there who take amazing photos of salads that are making me drool!

If I were making an arugula salad topped with salmon, creamy goat cheese and cracked pepper would pair very nicely with it.  Red onion would also, but while I had that idea pre-baking frenzy, I didn't write it down.

Often I make up to 3 different pizzas on Friday nights, then post the 'behind the scenes' photos on my FB page, and if I don't write the ideas for each one down before I start cooking, I end up forgetting bits and pieces in the hustle.

So here's a pizza for you to play with--starting with an arugula pesto crust, topped with more arugula pesto, goat cheese and my favorite shredded blend, briefly baked, topped with salmon flakes and then returned to the oven to heat through.  Try it yourself and tell me how you'd tweak it!

Forgot the Quattro Formaggio.  Again.

Ready to bake

Salmon and Goat Cheese on Arugula Pesto Pizza

Arugula Pesto Crust (makes 2 crusts)

1 teaspoon (5 ml) active dry yeast
1/3 cup (80 ml) arugula pesto (see Note)
2 cups (8 ounces, 227 grams) whole wheat flour
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces, 240 grams) unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) Kosher salt

for the topping
1 clove roasted garlic (here's how I put up my garlic crop)
1/3 cup (80 ml) arugula pesto
1 ounce (28 grams) goat cheese
1/2 cup (120 ml) shredded Italian blend cheese
freshly ground pepper
4 ounces (113 grams) baked salmon filet

Please refer to my Pizza Primer post for general pizza-making hints and tips and lots of how-to photo collages.
To make the crust, dissolve the yeast in the water in the bowl of your stand mixer while you're gathering the rest of the ingredients.

I'm loving my kitchen scale (use a Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupon though) for making pizza dough.  I just stick the mixing bowl on the scale, zero it, then add my flours by weight.  No need to fluff, measure, or level.  It even tells me how hot my kitchen is in the summer, or how cold (down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit) the breakfast nook is in the winter.

Add the prepared pesto, flours, and salt.  Using the paddle attachment, mix until combined.  Stop and scrape down the sides if necessary.  Because you're making dough with vegetables, the water content is variable.  If, after a few minutes of mixing, your dough looks too wet, add a tablespoon of flour.  If your dough looks too rough and dry, add a teaspoon or water or olive oil.  I frequently stop my mixer and give the dough a 5 minute rest, then come back and whir it around on medium speed, momentarily, for grins and giggles. And because my bread machine does that in its dough cycle, so the machine may be onto something.  Hmmm, my bread machine is telling me what to do.
Move the dough to an oiled container, and chill for up to 3 days.  You can freeze this too, if you like.  LABEL THE DOUGH THOUGH! Yes, I shouted.  Don't be like me. Take the chilled dough out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you're ready to turn on your oven.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Don't use your kitchen scale to check the temperature, though.  It will melt.  Perhaps an oven thermometer?  On an oiled piece of parchment paper, stretch out the dough (remember you just made 2 pizzas worth of crust, so grab half for this) in the shape that appeals to you today.  Brush with smushed roasted garlic.  Spread with arugula pesto, and top with cheeses and several grinds of pepper.  Bake on the parchment for 5 minutes.  Remove the pizza from the oven, top with flakes of salmon, and return to the bare pizza stone (no parchment) for another 3 minutes.  Cool on a rack a few minutes, then slice and serve.

Note:  When my CSA farm share and my own garden conspire to overwhelm me with arugula, I turn to
Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables for help.  There you will find a wonderful arugula-asiago pesto recipe that forms the basis for this pizza.  Recently I've discovered kale pesto and spinach pesto, so I'm going to be playing when my CSA farm share resumes in less than 2 months!  Yippee!  Of course any prepared pesto will do.

This post is linked up with the Farm Girl Blog Fest at Let This Mind Be In You,  Strange But Good at Sprint 2 The Table, The Clever Chicks Blog Hop at The Chicken Chick, the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up at Gastronomical Sovereignty,  What's Cookin' Wednesday at Buns In My Oven, Taste and Tell Thursday, and What's In The Box at In Her Chucks.