I took this recipe as more of a suggestion/inspiration than actual instructions. Because, as written, it was completely insane! First off, recipe-as-written, it called for no cheese. And, I'm sorry, if it doesn't have cheese, it's not a pizza, it's just a vegetable-topped flatbread. Secondly, it called for white button mushrooms rather than cremini or oyster or something with a bit more flavour. And finally, they had you relegate each of the four toppings to its own quadrant. So, you could have mushrooms or peppers or artichockes or olives, but there was no way to get all of the above without eating four separate slices of pizza. Which is completely bonkers!

TF and I took one look at the recipe and immediately decided to go off-script. We added a bunch of mozzarella cheese and also increased the topping quantities slightly and put all four toppings on the whole pizza rather than doing that weird quadrant thing. And, having done that, it was pretty good!

Mushroom, Bell Pepper, Artichoke, and Olive Pizza

Adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 450g whole wheat pizza dough
• 1/2 c. pizza sauce
• 1 c. grated mozzarella
• 1 roasted red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 3-4 cremini or oyster mushrooms, sliced
• 2-3 marinated artichoke hearts, sliced
• 8-10 black or kalamata olives, sliced
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil

Directions

1. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 290°C (550°F) or the highest temperature it will go.
2. Roll out pizza dough into a 35cm (14") circle.
3. Dust a pizza peel with cornmeal and place the pizza crust on top.
4. Spread pizza sauce over dough (leaving a 1cm border).
5. Top with mozzarella.
6. Sprinkle with bell pepper, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and olives.
7. Quickly slide pizze onto preheated pizza stone and bake until crust is crisp and cheese is bubbling (~8 minutes).
8. Remove from oven, sprinkle with basil, slice, and serve.