Shaved Asparagus Pizza with Roasted Garlic Oil

Our plans were a bit thrown off last week when our landlords decided they would update our furnace, duct work, and water heater with only 15 hours notice. The dogs can't be in the house when workmen are here, so we had to go out of town very quickly. Home is just about the only place you can go on such short notice, so that's where we went.

While we were at home, I made a pizza crust for my dad. It looked so good, I decided I needed to make pizza when we got home.

Notes: I tried a different method for making pizza crust this time that I learned from Smitten Kitchen: pizza crust in the fridge. It worked great, with a big caveat: make sure you let it sit out on the counter for at least an hour before you deflate it and bake it. Mine didn't come to room temperature before I baked it and it did not get as crispy as I like it. Otherwise, it's a nice method. You can make the crust in the morning before you go to work, put it in the fridge, and it's ready when you get home.

Shaving asparagus is a bit difficult. It works a little easier if you lay the asparagus on the cutting board and run your peeler over it. It'll break and some pieces will be thicker than others, but no worries.

I tweaked this recipe from Smitten Kitchen only slightly.

Ingredients
1/2 bunch of asparagus spears
1 large or 2 small balls of fresh mozzarella
Roasted garlic oil (recipe follows)
1 homemade pizza crust (recipe here)
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Directions:

If you're using the fridge pizza dough method, in the morning, make the pizza crust as normal. After you put the dough in the oiled bowl, instead of placing it on the counter, put it in the fridge for about 8 hours. When you're ready to bake, let the bowl sit out on the counter for an hour before you deflate it and roll it out.

When you're ready to bake, heat the over to 475. Arrange the racks in the oven with one at the top and one at the bottom.

While you're waiting for the dough to rest, shave the asparagus by laying the spears on a cutting board and "peeling" them like you would a carrot or potato. Put the shaved pieces in a bowl, season them with salt and pepper, drizzle them with olive oil and toss. Set aside.

Dice the mozzarella into small cubes. Roll out the pizza dough and brush it with roasted garlic oil. Spread the cheese out and then spread the asparagus on top. Bake for 8-10 minutes on top rack and them transfer to the bottom rack and bake 8-10 more minutes until crispy and bubbly. Slice up and enjoy!

Roasted garlic oil:
1 head garlic
1/4 cup olive oil plus more for drizzling
salt
pepper

Heat oven to 400. Slice the top off the head of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Wrap the head in foil and bake directly on the oven rack for 1 hour.

Pour 1/4 cup of oil in a small skillet and heat on medium. Squeeze the roasted garlic out the skin and into the skillet. Stir, breaking up the large chunks of garlic. Heat the oil for about 10 minutes. Use as desired.