Hold The Pickle, Hold The Lettuce - Bacon Smashburger Pizza

There are certain phrases that live in the American culinary brain forever. “Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce” is one of them. If you’re old enough to remember the old Burger King jingle, you probably just heard the rest of the line in your head. I certainly did. The song promised you could have your burger exactly the way you wanted it, which, when you think about it, is a pretty bold culinary philosophy. Recently, while standing in my kitchen and contemplating dinner, I realized that philosophy applies beautifully to pizza. Why should pizza be limited to pepperoni and mushrooms when it could just as easily be… a smashburger?

It starts with a quick homemade dough that rises in about half an hour. While that’s happening, bacon is diced and cooked until crisp, filling the kitchen with the kind of smell that causes people to wander in from other rooms asking hopeful questions. The Burger King jingle famously told us to hold the pickle and hold the lettuce. I managed to do that for the photograph, though not entirely on purpose. But once they’re added, the transformation is complete.

Smashburger Ingredients

1 pound ground Wagyu beef

1 tablespoon each onion powder, garlic powder and paprika

1/2 pound bacon, diced

12 oz yellow onion, sliced thin

1 teaspoon salt

1 batch pizza dough, below

Dill pickles – enough to make about 1 cup diced

8 oz Low Moisture Mozzarella, grated

4-6 tomatoes, depending on size (see photo - mine were tiny)

5-6 slices American cheese

Sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 tablespoon  Hot Honey

Crust Ingredients

2-2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour OR bread flour, divided (250-295g)

1 packet instant yeast, (2 ¼ teaspoon)

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

⅛-¼ teaspoon garlic powder and/or dried oregano leaves, optional

2 Tablespoons olive oil, + additional

¾ cup warm water

METHOD

Combine 1 cup (125g) of flour, instant yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. If desired, add garlic powder and dried basil at this point as well.

Add olive oil and warm water and use a wooden spoon to stir well.

Gradually add another 1 cup (125g) of flour. Add any additional flour as needed, stirring until the dough is forming into a cohesive, elastic ball and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the bowl. The dough will still be slightly sticky but still should be manageable with your hands.

Drizzle a separate, large, clean bowl generously with olive oil and use a pastry brush to brush up the sides of the bowl.

Lightly dust your hands with flour and form your pizza dough into a round ball and transfer to your olive oil-brushed bowl. Use your hands to roll the pizza dough along the inside of the bowl until it is coated in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place.

Allow dough to rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Preheat your oven to 425 at this point so that it will have reached temperature once your pizza is ready to bake. If you’re using a pizza stone as I did, let it preheat in the oven as well.

Once the dough has risen, use your hands to gently deflate it and transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until smooth (about 3-5 times).

Use either your hands or a rolling pin to work the dough into 12” circle.

Transfer dough to a pizza pan and either pinch the edges or fold them over to form a crust.

Cook bacon, stirring occasionally, until the bacon pieces are crisp, 10-15 minutes. Set aside and strain the bacon fat into a bowl.

Slice your onions thinly, then place them in a bowl. Add the salt to the bowl and massage them into the onions. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, rinse them then place the onions in a thin cloth and wring out the liquid.

Add about two tablespoons of bacon fat to a griddle or cast iron pan. Cook your onions until golden and soft – not completely caramelized. Remove.

Mix the beef with the 3 spices listed. You can also add salt, but salt at this stage can actually make the ground meat seize up. You can make one big smashburger by rolling the beef in a ball, putting parchment on top and using a burger press or another pan to smash it down. The good part about this way is that every piece of pizza gets a bite of burger, but it can be a bear to flip, so smaller patties are fine too if that seems like too much on a weeknight.

Halve the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Dice small.

Top the dough with crushed tomatoes, then bacon, then mozzarella. Carefully place your onions then burger on top, then cover with American cheese slices.

Transfer the pizza to the oven and bake until browned on the bottom and the cheese is melted on top, about fifteen minutes.

Drizzle the sauce over the pizza then add the pickles and lettuce (which, as I said,  I forgot to photograph unfortunately.)

Slice and serve. It’s messy. It’s indulgent. And one slice is probably enough, though I wouldn’t bet on it. After all, when you’re playing with food, restraint is rarely the point.