Fontina & Baby Bella Pizza, From Last Week's Class
If you were in class last Wednesday, you watched this one come together live. If you missed it, this is the pizza, and now you've got the recipe.
No red sauce on this one. No white sauce either. Just a thin layer of grated fontina that melts into the dough, a scatter of baby bella mushrooms cooked down with shallots, and a crust that puffs and chars the way it's supposed to on a Baking Steel.
A few people asked why there's no sauce at all. That's the point. Fontina is rich and a little nutty, and when it melts it does everything a sauce would do, it just lets the mushrooms stay front and center. Keep it simple.
Here's how to make it at home.
What You Need
Makes one pizza.
- 1 ball of dough, our 72 Hour Dough Pack, fermented 24 hours
- Fontina cheese, grated, enough for a thin, even layer
- Baby bella mushrooms, sliced thin
- 1–2 shallots, finely chopped
- Olive oil
- Fresh parsley, finely chopped, for finishing
That's the whole list. Nothing fancy.
A Note on the Dough
We used our 72 Hour Dough Pack but only fermented it 24 hours this time. Still great. The pack is built for a long, slow rise, but a 24-hour ferment gives you a lighter dough that's a little easier to work with if you're newer to stretching. Go longer if you've got the time, go 24 if you don't. Both work.
The Mushrooms
This is quick. We cooked these on the Mini Griddle, but any hot pan works.
Get the griddle hot, add a little olive oil, and lay the mushrooms down. Sauté for about 1 minute, you're just waking them up and getting a little color, not cooking them all the way down. They'll finish on the pizza.
For the last 30 seconds, dump the chopped shallots on top. Quick toss, then pull everything off the heat.
Don't overdo it. A short, hot sauté keeps the mushrooms from going limp and watery.
Build It
- Stretch your dough out. Leave the rim alone so it can puff.
- Grate the fontina straight over the top, a thin, even layer. Resist the urge to pile it on. Thin is what gets you that clean melt.
- Scatter the mushrooms and shallots over the cheese. Thin layer here too. You want to see cheese peeking through. A crowded pizza doesn't bake right.
The Bake
This is where the Baking Steel earns its keep. Here's exactly what we did, in an electric oven:
- Preheat the steel for a full hour at 450°F on convection. Don't rush this. A cold steel gives you a flat, pale crust. A fully heated one gives you the leopard spots.
- Switch the oven to broiler and launch the pizza. Bake 1–2 minutes under the broiler, this blisters the top fast.
- Open the oven and rotate the pizza. Electric ovens always have a hot side. Rotating gets you an even bake.
- Switch back to convection bake for another 2–3 minutes, until the crust is set and the cheese is bubbling.
Watch it the whole time under the broiler, it moves fast. You're chasing those dark blistered spots on the rim. That's the char that makes it taste like it came out of a wood oven.
Finish It
Pull the pizza and right away sprinkle finely chopped parsley over the top. That's it. Slice it and eat it hot.
Thin layer of fontina, baby bellas and shallots, a charred puffy crust. Nothing complicated, just good ingredients and a hot steel.
If you make it, I want to see it. Tag us.
And if you missed class, I run these live most Wednesday's. Here is the recording....
FAQ
Why is there no sauce on this pizza? That's the point. Fontina is rich and a little nutty, and when it melts it does everything a sauce would do. Skipping the sauce lets the mushrooms stay front and center.
Can I use the 72 Hour Dough Pack if I only ferment it 24 hours? Yes. We only fermented ours 24 hours for this class and it was great. A 24-hour ferment gives you a lighter dough that's a little easier to stretch. Go longer if you've got the time, go 24 if you don't, both work.
Do I have to sauté the mushrooms first? Yes. A quick one-minute sauté in olive oil wakes them up and keeps them from going limp and watery on the pizza. Don't overcook them, they finish in the oven.
What oven temperature should I use for a Baking Steel? Preheat the steel for a full hour at 450°F on convection. Then switch to broiler to launch the pizza for 1–2 minutes, rotate it, and finish on convection for another 2–3 minutes. A fully heated steel is what gives you the charred, blistered crust.
Why do I need to rotate the pizza halfway through? Electric ovens always have a hot side, the back of the oven. Rotating the pizza partway through the bake gets you an even crust instead of one side coming out darker than the other.
About the Author
Andris Lagsdin invented the Baking Steel in 2012 using steel from his family's Stoughton Steel Company in Hanover, MA — a shop his family has run since the 1960s. What started as a Kickstarter project (backed after an endorsement from Kenji López-Alt on Serious Eats) has grown into the go-to tool for hundreds of thousands of home pizza makers. Every Baking Steel is still made at the family shop.
Before launching Baking Steel, Andris trained under renowned chef Todd English and spent 15 years in the family steel business. He's the co-author of Baking with Steel with Jesse Olson Moore.
Today he teaches thousands of students how to make pizzeria-quality pizza at home through his free online classes and recipes.
In 2026, Andris launched the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix the same recipe he's been teaching for over a decade, now in a bag. Just add water.
