Oktoberfest pizza

 

Pizza Lucé teamed with Kramarczuck’s for a special Oktoberfest style pizza. We happened across it on one of those nights where you start out thinking you’re actually going to get to go out for a walk after work like you planned, but then someone encountered a problem just after you should be done for the day. So then the mental bargaining begins, and you pass through the denial stages where you think maybe a short walk and stop at the pizza place down the hill since it’s getting late. And then you’re three hours into trying to help someone and you ask if it’s OK to order pizza. But otherwise we probably wouldn’t have got to sample this one. Which of course we then tried to reverse engineer because it was only offered during their Oktoberfest celebration.

The Krautwürst
Inspiration: Pizza Lucé
Note: For quick pickled onions, you could follow the instructions in this recipe, or try the recipe below.

Ingredients
Pizza crust (either prebaked like a Boboli or dough for one pie)
½ tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons coarse grainy mustard
¾ cup grated muenster cheese
⅓ cup well-drained sauerkraut
¼ pound smoked knackwurst, sliced ¼-inch thick (1 link)
2 ounces bratwurst, sliced ¼-inch thick (1 link)
½ grated mozzarella
2 tablespoons pickled red onions (see recipe)
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. If using a pizza stone, place in oven while preheating.

Place a prebaked crust on a pizza pan, or form pizza dough into a round on a peel sprinkled with cornmeal. Combine olive oil, garlic powder and mustard. Spread over crust/dough. Top with muenster cheese, followed by sauerkraut, sausages and then topped with mozzarella. Place pan in oven or slide pizza onto baking stone. Bake for 12 minutes for a prebaked crust (or 15-20 minutes for an unbaked crust) or until pizza is golden. Remove from heat and served topped with pickled red onions and parsley.

Rating: Again, not really an approximation of the original pizza. Again, not really caring, because this one works for me. Both of them taste mostly of Kramarczuck’s smoked knackwurst and pickled onions, and both are plenty tasty if you like something that tastes kind of a like a really good sausage roll in pizza form. And boy, is Kramarczuck's crammed on a Saturday mid-morning these days. Glad to see they're busy, but vowing to get going earlier in the morning next time.

Quick-pickled red onions
From “Picture Perfect Parties” by Annette Joseph

Ingredients
1½ cups red wine vinegar
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 5 whole cloves
1 large red onion, cut into ¼-thick slices

Method
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine vinegar, sugar, salt and cloves. Simmer for 2 minutes. Add onion and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let onion cool. Transfer to a jar for longer term storage in the refrigerator.

Feel free to mix up the spice to your liking. Fennel, caraway or celery seed would be viable alternatives. 

This was the inspiration pizza.

Here's where we landed. This one mixes bockwurst and knackwurst.