Yes, two pizza posts in a row! I didn't plan it that way! There were other things eaten in between, but they were either leftovers or things that I didn't really feel like writing about. So, here we are then, at with another pizza post.
This one is my own creation. Nothing really unorthodox or revolutionary, but... oh boy! Did this ever come out good! For me, this was pizza Nirvana. This was the pizza to end all pizzas. The one that makes me feel like I've won at pizza; there's nowhere else to go from here, this is the apex, the peak of pizza-dom.
Okay, so now that I've probably way oversold it, here you go:
Mushroom-Pesto Pizza
pizza dough
pesto sauce
fresh mozzarella
cremini mushrooms, sliced
bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
caramelized onions (optional)
Sorry I don't have any amounts or measures for you. This was one of those dinners that sort of just... happened. TF had found some water-packed fresh mozzarella on sale at the grocery store a few days prior. I had asked him to get some mushrooms so I could make western sandwiches, but then my red pepper went off and I ended up scrapping the idea. I had seen some bacon on sale at the grocery store the day before and got a pack because... discount bacon! Do I really need any more reason than that?
Shortly after making the previous pizza, I was going through the pantry and found a forgotten jar of pesto sauce. We normally stock up when it's on sale and then use it for various pasta dishes, but now that I had pizza on the brain, I started thinking that it'd make a good sauce base there as well. More pizza dough was purchased with the pesto in mind, but I hadn't really figured what else would go on it yet.
Once I started looking at what we had in the fridge, it all started coming together. I figured that the mozzarella was a natural choice for the pizza. And I'd been worried about how to use up the mushrooms ever since my toasted westerns got tossed. I figured some of the leftover caramelized onions wouldn't go amiss either.
So that was my plan: pesto, mozzarella, mushrooms, and onions. There was still something missing though. Fresh mozzarella tends not to be salted like pizza mozzarella or other types are and, while I'm normally all for low-salt, I really feel like I need that hit of saltiness with my cheese. We had just restocked on anchovies, so I figured that'd be a good way to add some extra salt and flavour. I got them out and was all ready to put them on when I suddenly remembered the bacon! I'd already opened it that morning to make a breakfast fry-up for TF and the rest of the package was just sitting there in the fridge, waiting to be eaten.
I quickly cooked up the rest of the 500g package (probably about 10-12 slices). A few slices got wolfed down by TF and myself straight out of the pan, but the rest got crumbled and made it onto the pizza.
This time I rolled and stretched the dough on the counter and then transferred it to the pizza stone. (I know you're supposed to preheat the stone and then transfer the assembled pizza to the stone, but we don't have a pizza peel, so that's not really an option for us at the moment.) From there, I slathered on a generous coating of pesto and sliced up the entire mozzarella ball and topped the sauced crust with it. I figured I sliced up maybe a dozen mushrooms and sprinkled them over, along with the crumbled bacon. I actually forgot the caramelized onions at first and ended up tossing a few on top about halfway through cooking.
The crust cooked up beautifully on the stone! The aroma of the pesto was amazing! And the cheese, bacon, and mushrooms complemented perfectly! While the onions added a nice, gentle sweetness to the whole thing. I will definitely, definitely be making this one again!
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