This Smoked Salmon Pizza makes an elegant lunchtime or dinnertime meal. Made with homemade from scratch or store-bought pizza crust, and topped with mozzarella, pesto, smoked salmon, red peppers, and arugula, this is the pizza you’ve been waiting for.
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Pacific Northwest Pizza
This pizza was inspired by one that I had while I was in the PNW on the Mount Baker scenic bypass Highway 542 in the beautiful state of Washington last summer. We stopped at Chair 9 after a hike up to artist point and Table Mountain, and I ordered the Mt. Ruth pizza. It’s a pizza loaded with pesto sauce, smoked salmon, roasted artichoke hearts, fresh tomato, and feta cheese.
I posted a picture of the pizza on Facebook, and my friends just loved the idea. They wanted me to post a recipe! So, though I’m a little slow, here’s my version of that delicious pizza! The Best smoked salmon pizza recipe!
What is smoked salmon?
Smoked salmon is a way to prepare and preserve salmon. It can be hot or cold smoked.
The fish is cured and partially dehydrated. This impedes the activity of bacteria, thus preserving the fish. It has a high sodium content due to the salt added during brining and curing. Be aware of this when using smoked salmon in recipes; don’t add too much salt.
Cold smoked
Cold-Smoked Salmon is slowly exposed to smoke in an environment about 80° F for a few days. The flesh of cold-smoked salmon stays very moist and silky, similar in texture to lox.
Hot smoked
Hot-Smoked Salmon is smoked with heat just like meat gets smoked. The fish gets cooked all the way through and ends up with a firm, flaky, drier texture, and a delicious smoky flavor. Hot-smoked salmon looks very similar to a fillet of cooked salmon. This is the kind of salmon I prefer for this recipe.
Where can I buy smoked salmon?
Smoked Salmon is available in most grocery stores in the refrigerated section of the deli. I’ve seen it at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods market as well. Seabolt’s Smokehouse on Whidbey Island or {affiliate link} Whidbey Island Seafood Company are my favorite places to get smoked salmon. Both of these offer top quality seafood!
If you love smoked salmon like I do, be sure to check out my recipe for smoked salmon pate.
You can keep smoked salmon in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Although the term lox is sometimes used to describe smoked salmon, they are different.
Lox is a more specific term than smoked salmon, and is salt-cured or brined but never cooked or smoked. It has a silky, rich texture, and translucency.
For this recipe, I recommend a larger piece of hot smoked salmon that looks like a cooked fillet rather than lox or thinly sliced smoked salmon, though any smoked salmon will work. The larger chunks make for a nicer bite of pizza.
Homemade from scratch pizza dough
I’m sharing our favorite recipe for pizza dough with this salmon pizza. It’s a really easy to make dough, and my husband makes it all the time. He has lots of tips and tricks for bread making in our No-knead bread recipe post.
Just mix up the dough, pop it in the fridge, and a day or two later, press the dough out, top it, and bake it up.
The recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas. So, you can have one pizza tomorrow, and another one next week. Just keep the dough in the fridge.
If you prefer you can use store-bought pizza dough. I’ve seen it in the deli section at my grocery store. Trader Joe’s often carries pre-made dough. The store-bought stuff is usually 1 pound, which would be one pizza’s worth of dough.
Pesto
Make your own homemade pesto or use a good quality store-bought pesto.
If you go with a store-bought one, try to grab one that doesn’t have too much oil.
If your pesto separates and has a thick layer of oil on top, try to scoop off that oil and just use the thick solids below the oil.
How to make it
Don’t forget to scroll down for the printable recipe card with full ingredient amounts and instructions.
Whether you’re making the dough from scratch or using store-bought, preheat the oven and the pizza stone really well.
Place the pizza stone in the oven on a lower rack, and preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes before cooking the pizza.
Work the dough
Place a sheet of parchment paper on a work surface. Spread a small amount of oil on the parchment paper, and spread the oil out with your hands so that it’s a thin layer of oil. Turn dough out into middle of oiled parchment paper.
Spread the dough out using your fingers. Don’t worry about stretching it the way they do in Italian restaurants by flipping it above your head. The oiled parchment will make it easy to spread out and transfer in and out of the oven.
Top it
Using the back of spoon spread about ¼ cup pesto in thin layer over surface of dough, leaving ¼-inch border around edge. You just want a thin layer over the pizza dough.
Sprinkle with 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella evenly over sauce.
Sprinkle with chopped red pepper.
Add the pieces of flaked smoked salmon.
bake it
The pizza is ready to pop in the preheated oven on the pizza stone.
If you don’t own a pizza peel a cookie sheet with no edges works as well.
Carefully slide the pizza and the parchment paper onto a pizza peel, and transfer the parchment and pizza onto the hot pizza stone in the oven. The pizza peel is only for transferring, do not leave the cookie sheet or pizza peel in the oven.
Bake, without convection, until the crust is well browned and cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.
Let cool down a bit before adding arugula and slicing.
Kitchen items you may need
This section contains affiliate links
Mixing bowls
pizza screen
spatula
pizza stone
plastic wrap
pizza peel
pizza cutter
chef’s knife
big cutting board
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Recipe
Smoked Salmon Pizza
Ingredients
Pizza crust:
- 3 & 3/4 cups bread flour (16.5 ounces)
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 & 1/3 cups cold water
- 1 tablespoon light tasting oil like grapeseed or olive oil plus more for work surface
Toppings (this is enough for two pizzas):
- ½ cup basil pesto
- 16 ounces mozzarella shredded
- ½ red pepper chopped
- 8 ounces smoked salmon skin removed and flaked into smaller pieces
- Fresh arugula leaves
Instructions
Make dough:
- In a large bowl, stir the dry ingredients (bread flour, granulated sugar, yeast, and salt) together. Add the water and stir using a silicon spatula until there’s no dry pockets of flour. Add 1 tablespoon oil to dough and stir to combine evenly.3 & 3/4 cups bread flour, 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast, 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, 1 & 1/3 cups cold water, 1 tablespoon light tasting oil like grapeseed or olive oil
- Shape into a smooth round ball. Place in a lightly oiled bowl at least twice as big as the dough ball. Turn the dough over in the bowl and rub it around so there is a light coating of oil all over the dough ball. Use your hands if necessary.
- Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap leave it on counter for 1 to 2 hours to rest.
- Move bowl to fridge, still covered, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 3 days.
Start the pizza making process:
- Remove dough from refrigerator and divide in half. Shape each half into smooth, tight ball.
- (If you’re only making one pizza, place the other dough ball back in the fridge, tightly covered).
- Cover dough ball tightly with plastic wrap, and let it come up to room temperature, this can take a couple of hours.
Shape and top the pizza:
- Place a pizza stone in the oven on a lower rack and preheat the oven with the pizza stone to 450° F for at least 30 minutes before cooking the pizza.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper on a work surface. Spread 1 teaspoon oil on the parchment paper, and spread the oil out with your hands so that it’s a thin layer of oil. Turn dough out into middle of oiled parchment paper.
- Spread dough out with your oiled fingers, and stretch it into 13-inch round, leaving 1 inch of outer edge slightly thicker than center.
- Using the back of spoon spread about ¼ cup pesto in thin layer over surface of dough, leaving ¼-inch border around edge. Sprinkle with 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella evenly over sauce. Sprinkle with chopped red pepper and flaked smoked salmon.½ cup basil pesto, 16 ounces mozzarella, ½ red pepper, 8 ounces smoked salmon
- The pizza is ready to pop in the preheated oven on the pizza stone.
Bake the pizza:
- (If you don’t own a pizza peel a cookie sheet with no edges works as well.)
- Carefully slide the pizza and the parchment paper onto a pizza peel, and transfer the parchment and pizza onto the hot pizza stone in the oven. The pizza peel is only for transferring, do not leave the cookie sheet or pizza peel in the oven.
- Bake at 450° F without convection until the crust is well browned and cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating pizza halfway through, if necessary.
- Remove pizza and place on wire rack for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
- Sprinkle with fresh arugula leaves, slice, and serve.Fresh arugula leaves
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
