This is 2 years in the making. Well, technically dreaming of making it over the last 2 years, but the other day I finally had an epiphany about the mushrooms in this pizza.
Hubs is back working in NY state temporarily on a special project and pretty much the first thing I asked was if Uno’s Shroom Pizza is still on the menu. Sadly no, they pulled it off again. I can see why because of the amount of cheese used as well as the time it takes to make this pizza, or more importantly, the time necessary for marinating of the mushrooms can cause their costs to produce to be quite high.
I knew the little round scrumptious fungi were marinated in something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Until the other day. I was minding my own business, trimming my herb garden when it hit me. Thyme, there has to be thyme in it along with the white wine.
After gardening chores, I pulled my tablet out and googled “marinated mushrooms”….BINGO.
A dozen or so recipes came up, pretty much all the same with slight variations. So I picked one and got to work. The mushrooms need to marinate overnight, hence why I think this (and the amount of cheese) is why Uno’s Grill only brings it back for a short time. Definitely a loss leader for them, I am sure they try to sell more beer/liquor to make up for it.
Anyway, back to the shrooms! Marinating the mushrooms is THE key to this pizza and this must be done 1 day earlier. As for the deep dish pizza crust, I like Uno’s 5-grain version but couldn’t find a copycat out there (another thing to work on) so I just used my own pizza dough recipe here: http://www.ournorthernhomestead.com/how-to-make-your-own-pizza-doughand-make-it-healthier-too/
CopyCat Deep Dish Shroom Pizza!
Ingredients
Pizza Dough (recipe link above, or google Deep Dish Pizza Dough recipe)
1 cup baby spinach leaves, washed and stems removed
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
1 lb Button mushrooms (if buttons are not available, quarter larger mushrooms)
For Marinade:
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar (or White Balsamic Vinegar)
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small shallot, minced
1 Tbsp fresh Thyme (or 1/2 Tbsp dried)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
Rinse mushrooms and slice a layer off the stem end (if mushrooms are larger, quarter them); bring a pot of water to a boil, add mushrooms and reduce heat to med-low and simmer for 2 minutes. Drain mushrooms and rinse with cold water, set on a towel to dry.
Meanwhile, whisk remaining ingredients together in a container large enough to hold all the mushrooms and marinade. Add mushrooms and combine. Seal up container and place in fridge overnight.
Directions
Prepare Pizza Dough (see recipe link above), this will make 2 small pizzas or one large one. If making 2 small, use a 9″ cake pan or a deep dish metal pie plate. For a large pizza, use a large, cast iron skillet.
**Note – if making 2 small pizzas, divide toppings in half between the 2 pans
Grease skillet/pans with Olive Oil
Preheat oven to 500F
Roll out dough and lay over the pan, gently press dough down and up along sides to the top edge. Trim an excess dough. **Let dough sit for 20 minutes before filling**
Drain mushrooms from marinade (reserve marinade – see footnote) and place in bottom of the pan on top of dough.
Layer spinach (I actually used chopped chard from the garden as I didn’t have spinach, which is an excellent substitute) over the mushrooms.
Add mozzarella cheese and top with parmesan or asiago.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (for 9″ size), up to 35 minutes for a large pizza **keep an eye on the top crust so that it doesn’t burn)
Remove from oven, let cool a few minutes and serve!
Voila! A thing of beauty!
Deborah
*Marinade Footnote – Marinade can be used for roasting beets, trim beets, place in a baking dish and pour marinade overtop. Cover and roast for 35-45 minutes in a 400F oven or until beets are cooked through. Let cool, peel and chop. These are FANTASTIC on salads!
**Edit ~ I used the leftover marinade as a salad dressing….yowza! What fantastic mushroom flavour it added to a tossed salad!
Great copycat recipe! However, I searched for the Mushroom al Ajillo Deep Dish Pizza the Pizzeria Uno used to have to no avail. By any chance, do you have the recipe?
Thank you for your kind comments on my Shroom pizza recipe. Unfortunately I have not heard of the Mushroom al Ajillo deep dish pizza, now you have me curious! What was in it?
“al ajillo” is a typical Spanish way of cooking mainly used for shrimps. It basically means “sautéing” or a quick frying in a small amount of olive oil and garlic. I assume this is the way shrooms are pre-cooked.
Thank you for the explanation! apparently 4 yrs of Spanish lessons didn’t clue me in lol. The mushrooms on the shroom pizza are boiled for 2 minutes in water first, then placed in the marinade for 1 to 2 days before you plan to make the pizza. I had one last week as it had been awhile. so yummy! Thank you again for your information nugget on “al ajillo”!
This was absolutely nothing like the Uno Shroom Pizza
I don’t remember tasting lemon ever, and all this pizza tasted like was lemon. I followed the recipe exactly.
Unfortunately we ended up throwing out over half the pizza.
I am sorry you didn’t have a good go of making the shroom pizza, and yes, there is lemon it (after speaking with the kitchen chef on my last visit to an Uno’s in Webster, NY). You can always leave the lemon out if you do not enjoy its flavour.