Pizza with Prosciutto, Peppers, and Goat Cheese

I've mentioned before how I'm pretty sure that dough can smell fear and anxiety. If I'm in a rush, the gluten strands just will not relax no matter how much time I give them. But on Sunday, I got my pizza dough thinner than I ever have before. I had frozen a 1/2 batch of it, and I got it out Sunday morning to defrost. By the time dinner came around, it rolled out like a dream. And with toppings of goat cheese, prosciutto, and red pepper (arranged artfully by Joe), this pizza was one of the best I had ever made. I will definitely be making pizza more often now.

Pizza with Prosciutto, Peppers, and Goat Cheese
adapted from Kelsey's Apple a Day

Ingredients
1/2 batch pizza dough (I use Bridget's recipe.)
Cornmeal for sprinkling
1 roasted red pepper, sliced into strips
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 oz goat cheese, crumbled
2 oz prosciutto, sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, divided
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Preheat oven and pizza stone at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes.
2. Sprinkle your work surface with cornmeal and prepare the dough by shaping it with your hands. Brush lightly with olive oil.
3. When oven and pizza stone have been at temperature for 30 minutes remove the pizza stone and transfer pizza dough. Use a fork to prick a few holes in the dough. Bake for five minutes.
4. Remove the partially baked crust. Top with tomato sauce, prosciutto, peppers, goat cheese, and half the basil. Bake for 7-8 minutes more, or until crust is golden brown on the outer edges.
5. Allow to cool three minutes, then top with the remaining basil, salt, and pepper and serve.

Strawberry, Pistachio, and Goat Cheese Pizza

In Houston, there was this restaurant right around the corner from my apartment that, in addition to some killer margaritas, had this salad on the menu that included a sort of cheesy pita bread under all of the salad. It was like you were rewarded for eating your salad with some delicious, cheesy flatbread. This pizza is a little bit like that in concept because it's not really a traditional pizza with sauce and cheese and toppings. It's more like salad on top of bread, with which, as I learned from that salad in Houston, there is absolutely nothing wrong.

I had bookmarked this last year as part of a fictional backyard cookout menu that we never got around to hosting. Because, you know, it's totally normal to plan menus for parties that you don't actually have. It was brought to my attention again by Coach Nicole from Sparkpeople, and I decided that this time I would actually make it.

The goat cheese melts a little on the hot crust, and this is just a lovely spring supper with a glass of white wine. It would also make a nice appetizer for a not-so-fictional outdoor party. I substituted arugula for the watercress and really enjoyed the peppery bite of the arugula with the cool sweetness of the strawberries.

Strawberry, Pistachio, and Goat Cheese Pizza
source: Cooking Light May 2009
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 12 oz prebaked whole wheat pizza crust
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 cup trimmed watercress (or arugula or spinach)
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper
1/4 cup shaved fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3 tbsp shelled, dry-roasted pistachios, chopped

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425-degrees.
2. Place crust on a baking sheet or pizza stone. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove crust from oven and sprinkle goat cheese evenly over the crust.
3. Combine strawberries, watercress, olive oil, juice, salt, and black pepper; toss gently to coat. Arrange strawberry mixture evenly over goat cheese. Sprinkle pizza with Parmigiano-Reggiano and nuts. Cut into 12 wedges. Serve immediately.

Chicken, Red Grape, and Pesto Pizza

I found my camera! And I realized I had forgotten that I had made this chicken, red grape, and pesto pizza when I posted my recipe round-up, so it gets its own entry complete with photo. This meal is a little semi-homemade, but you could do it completely homemade if you were so inclined. That would just involve making the pesto and pizza dough from scratch ahead of time.

I tend to prefer pizzas without tomato sauce, so I loved the pesto base. The fresh mozzarella adds a lot of flavor and creaminess, and the juiciness and sweetness of the grapes is a nice unique twist.

Chicken, Red Grape, and Pesto Pizza
source: Cooking Light, September 2009

Ingredients
1 whole wheat pre-made crust (like Boboli)
1/3 cup refrigerated pesto
1 1/2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
8 oz shredded skinless, boneless chicken breast, cooked
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
3 tbsp grated Romano cheese
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup sliced green onions

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425-degrees with pizza stone inside (if desired).
2. Spread pesto evenly over pizza crust, leaving a 1/2 inch border. Spread grapes evenly over pesto, and top with chicken. Place garlic and mozzarella over grapes and chicken. Sprinkle with Romano cheese and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes or until crust is brown and cheese is melted. Sprinkle with onions.

Cilantro Pesto Pizza with Red Onion and Feta

I had the brilliant idea to use the cilantro pesto I made as the base for a pizza, but I couldn't decide on appropriate toppings so I tweeted about it. All of the selections sounded delicious: baby bella mushrooms, shredded chicken, etc. But when I asked Joe he promptly said, "Red onion and feta," which sounded so perfect that I wasn't even shocked that he didn't request meat.

I cooked the onions until soft so that they didn't have quite as much bite and so the sweetness could shine through. The tanginess of the feta offset the wonderful taste of all that cilantro. After a whole day of hospital orientation, this pizza was a great way to end the day, and I hope it lived up to Joe's expectations since he said he had been looking forward to it all day!

Cilantro Pesto Pizza with Red Onion and Feta

Ingredients

Pizza dough
Cilantro pesto to cover dough
1 red onion, sliced and cooked down
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out dough into a circle. Coat dough with cilantro pesto to the thickness of your liking. Spread cooked onions evenly around the pizza and sprinkle crumbled feta on top. Bake 12-15 minutes or until dough seems cooked and cheese is slightly browned.

Pizza Night

Last week was pretty insane, it being Holy Week and all, so I deemed Saturday Pizza Night before going to Easter Vigil. It was my last night of Lenten pescatarianism, so I knew pizza would be something easy to do, plus I had a bunch of odds and ends in the refrigerator that I wanted to use up. I also tried out a new pizza dough recipe, which left me with enough dough for two good-sized pizzas, so we each made our own pizza.

I was also feeling a little punchy after spending all week in church, so I ended up tossing my pizza dough for the first time. Joe thought it was going to end up all over the kitchen, but once I got a few good tosses in, he reached for the camera. Next time I'll work on improving my technique, but it was pretty fun!

Joe's pizza consisted of marinara sauce, TJ's smoked apple and chardonnay chicken sausage, fresh tomato slices, mozzarella cheese, and healthy dose of crushed red pepper.

My pizza had marinara sauce, spinach, mozzarella cheese, and fresh tomato slices. This made two meals each for the two of us. Not bad for using up a bunch of fridge remnants!

Pizza night was a big success. Not only did we enjoy making pizzas using our own toppings, but we put on music and danced around and it was a great way for Joe and I to spend a little quality time together in the middle of a stressful week.

I like this pizza crust a lot. The seasonings and parmesan cheese put it over the top, and it's a nice thick, chewy crust. I used subbed in half whole wheat flour to make it even heartier and a little healthier.

Easy Bread Machine Pizza Crust

source: RecipeZaar

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups bread flour

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Preparation

1. Add ingredients to the bread machine in the order given. Set to dough setting and let run.

2. When finished, roll dough out to desired shape, top with desired toppings, and bake at 450-degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Margherita Pizza

Oh boy, looking at these pictures is making my stomach grumble. Now that I have discovered the wonders of homemade pizza, there may be quite a few of these types of updates. After transplanting my basil plant to a bigger container, it finally grew, so now I have lots of basil too! When I was contemplating what to do with it, I decided on a margherita pizza: a little more exciting than plain cheese but still simple.


There's no real recipe here. I rolled out some of Mitch's Pizza Dough, mixed an 8 oz can of tomato sauce with some Italian seasoning, covered the dough with the sauce (we used leftovers to dip the crust in), sprinkled on some mozzarella cheese and some sliced Roma tomatoes and chiffonaded basil. I threw it in a 450-degree oven for about 10 minutes.

I honestly don't know if there is a more beautiful sight in the world than real, non-greasy delivery pizza.

Pizza Dough Success

After my last pizza-making attempt, I needed a little time to recover. I really like pizza and making it at home is cheaper and healthier, but I was so underwhelmed by store-bought pizza crusts so I opted to try again. I decided that my next move would be to try to make pizza dough using the dough setting on my bread machine. Obviously, KMAYS + kneading = trouble. After looking around, I decided on this recipe, and it turned out really well!

After doing Crockpot Pulled Pork on Monday, we had this BBQ pulled pork pizza the Tuesday night of the Town Hall debate, so even though I got stuck behind the candidates' motorcades on my way home from work, we were still able to have freshly-baked pizza as the debate started.

Mitch's Basic Pizza Dough

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups flour (Bread flour works best.)
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons yeast
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Throw the ingredients in the bread machine and set to "dough" setting. When it finishes, it's ready to be rolled out. The dough can also be refrigerated or frozen, just allow time for it to return to room temperature before rolling out.

BBQ Pork Pizza

When we lived in Houston, Joe and I used to occasionally go to a brewery called Two Rows on Monday nights because they had half-price pizza and cheap beer. Joe would almost always get the BBQ Chicken Pizza. Because we had all the leftover pork from the slow-cooker, I decided to try my hand at a similar pizza for dinner last night.


Ingredients:
- 1 (12 inch) pre-baked pizza crust
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I used Kroger brand honey barbecue sauce)
- 1/2 cup diced grilled chicken (I used shredded pork)
- 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper (I omitted. Have you seen the price of red bell peppers lately?)
- 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped red onion
- 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used part-skim mozzarella instead.)

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
- Place pizza crust on cookie sheet. Spread with barbecue sauce. Scatter chicken over top. Sprinkle evenly with red pepper, green pepper and onion. Cover with cheese.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

So I didn't really measure any of the ingredients, and it turned out I used a little too much barbecue sauce. Also, I used a Kroger brand pre-baked crust, and it was not that great. Next time I will use a little less barbecue sauce, either splurge for the Boboli crust or make my own, and perhaps flash-saute the veggies before going on the pizza. Joe liked the crunch of the veggies, but I think that the flavor could be brought out a little more by sauteing them. I have an extra crust and more pork leftover, so I think I'll make another one and freeze it. Also, if we had a pizza stone, I would've used that instead of the cookie sheet.

I served this with a side salad of mixed greens with a Dijon vinaigrette dressing, and we ate outside on the deck because it was such a nice evening.

recipe from here