Roasted Garlic & Mushroom Pizza with Béchamel

Since it seems all we really make are dishes involving pasta and seasoned meat (I mean, this is spaghettiandmeatblog.tumblr.com, so I’m not sure what else you can really expect), every once in awhile it’s probably necessary to prove we can cook real people food. That’s what this post is for. Look at that accent mark. That’s how you know this shit is fancy. 

Roasted Garlic & Mushroom Pizza with Béchamel (adapted from Andrés Barrera)

Ingredients

1 lb mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 head of garlic

2 cloves, taken from head of garlic and smashed

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. flour

1/2 cup Chardonnay

1 cup shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese (low-fat cheese will turn into translucent, hard strings of nasty, so don’t use it)

Stone ground pizza crust (for some rustic flair)

1 tbsp unsalted butter 

Salt, pepper

For Béchamel sauce

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3 tbsp. flour

Preheat the oven to 450°. Peel the outer layers off the garlic and remove 2 cloves. Slice top off width-wise and wrap tightly in foil. Smother in olive oil and roast for 35ish minutes. Aka the easiest thing to ever cook and if you don’t know how to do it just stop reading right now.

Melt the 2 tbsp butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the 3 tbsp flour until it forms a thick paste. Gradually pour in the milk, whisking until smooth. Bring béchamel to a simmer over moderately high heat, whisking constantly until thickened, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook about 10 minutes, whisking often. Season with salt & pepper. This is the pizza sauce.

While you’re making fat paste, saute the smashed garlic and mushrooms in olive oil and the 1 tbsp of butter for 10-20 minutes, until they turn brown and shrink a lot. The thinner you cut them, the more delicious they will be. Toss in 1 tbsp of flour to thicken the liquids. Deglaze the mushroom crusty bits with the white wine, and simmer off the liquid.

Prep the pizza crust by rubbing it lovingly with a very thin layer of olive oil, then spread on a thin coating of the béchamel (we are using the accent on purpose just to be jackasses, since we know you like it). By this point the garlic should be done, so take it out and hack the cloves into garlic mush bits and spread them around the pizza. Top with shredded mozzarella and the sauteed mushrooms. Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on your crunch preference.

SEE? That was a recipe for real people, even though you will probably eat it in front of the TV like we did. And even though you might end up getting drunk and replaying the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time on your N64 tonight, this pizza can be your ticket to feeling a whole lot better about your purpose in life as an adult.