I had been planning a goat cheese and strawberry dessert a couple weeks back. I got the goat cheese for it, but then ended up doing something else with the strawberries. So then I had a bunch of goat cheese that needed used. I put a little bit into the roasted beet salad that I made the other day (and have yet to do a write-up for), but that still left me with most of the package. This pizza took care of most of it.

As pizzas go, this one is somewhat unusual. It doesn't have any sauce, just a bit of olive oil. And the cheese is a mix of fresh goat cheese and Parmesan. No mozzarella here! And the only other topping is roasted butternut squash and some salad greens that get added after it comes out of the oven. (That said, I went ahead and added a bunch of garlic as well.) It was very minimalist, but surprisingly tasty!

Butternut Squash Pizza

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash¹
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
• 1 recipe sourdough pizza dough
• 150-200g fresh goat cheese
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• 4-6 Tbsp. grated Parmesan (or a mix of Parmesan and romano)
• 1/2 c. baby arugula or spring mix

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Halve the squash and scoop out the seeds and guts.
3. Cut into 3cm thick slices.
4. Toss squash with 2 Tbsp. of the olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme and spread out on a baking sheet.
5. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until tender (30-45 minutes).
6. Remove from oven, allow to cool, trim off and discard skin, and cut flesh into bite-sized pieces.
7. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and increase temperature to 250°C (475°F).
8. Divide dough into two portions and strech or roll each out into a large circle.
9. Generously dust a pizza peel with cornmeal and place one of the crusts on it.
10. Drizzle with 1/2 Tbsp. of the remaining oil and brush to coat the surface evenly.
11. Scatter ~1/2 the squash, half the goat cheese, half the garlic, and half the Parmesan over it (leaving a 2cm border without any toppings).
12. Quickly slide the pizza onto the stone and bake at 250°C (475°F) for 8-10 minutes.
13. Use the peel to remove the pizza from the oven.
14. Transfer to a cutting board and set aside.
15. Repeat shaping, topping, and baking process with remaining dough and toppings.
16. Top each pizza with ~1/2 of the arugula.
17. Drizzle with additional olive oil² if desired.
18. Cut into slices and serve.

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¹ The recipe calls for a 680g squash. Mine was nearly twice that at ~1200g (closer to 1100g once the seeds and guts had been removed). And, while I didn't end up using all of the squash, I did use most of it. At a guess, I'd say somewhere in the 800g range. And, to be honest, I probably could've squeezed even more on if I'd really wanted to. So, use your judgement and feel free to adjust the amount of squash based on how much you have or how squash-y you're feeling. ^Back
2 A citrus-infused oil would be excellent here. Particularly lemon. Although orange probably also be nice. ^Back

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.

Just a super quick post about this pizza. It's pretty simple, but I enjoyed the combo, so I figured I should probably add it to the blog. I haven't given any measurements because... I didn't really measure anything. Just configure it as you see fit.

The original recipe suggested 100g of haggis, 40g of cheese, and 1 "baby" potato. I definitely used more than that, but I'm not sure how much more.

Haggis Pizza

Slightly adapted from Ooni

Ingredients

• 1-2 Tbsp. oil
• 1 medium potato, sliced thin
• haggis
• pizza dough
• tomato/pizza sauce
• Cheddar cheese, grated
• mozzarella cheese, grated (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F). If you have a pizza stone, place it in the oven before you start preheating it.
2. Heat oil over medium-high heat.
3. Add potato and cook until both sides develop a bit of colour. Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Remove casing from haggis and add to now-empty pan. Reduce heat to medium and cook until browned. Set aside.
5. Roll/stretch the pizza dough to desired size and shape.
6. If using a pizza stone, transfer to pizza peel that has been liberally sprinkled with cornmeal. Otherwise, transfer to a baking sheet/pizza pan.
7. Top crust with sauce, cheese(s), haggis, and potato slices.
8. Transfer pizza to preheated pizza stone (if using). Otherwise, bake it on the baking sheet/pan you prepared it on.
9. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for 7-8 minutes.

This was a Hello Fresh recipe and came with a salad; I've included the instructions for the salad as well, but you can easily swap it out for something else or omit it entirely. Symbol and I both liked this, and the Kidlet wanted me to put it on the "super favourite" list.

As an added bonus, between frozen naan and pesto in a jar, we often have all of the ingredients needed for this on hand except the bocconcini.

Pesto Bocconcini Pizza Naan

Hello Fresh

Ingredients

• 4 naan
• 120mL + 10mL  basil pesto, divided
• 15mL white wine vinegar
• 15mL olive oil
• 132g cucumber, cut into half moons
  
• 225g cherry tomatoes, halved
  
• 113g spring mix greens
• 2 bell peppers, sliced
• 400g bocconcini, sliced
  
• cooking oil
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
2. Arrange the naan in a single layer and bake until golden brown; time could be anywhere between 2-7 minutes depending on oven and whether the naan is frozen or not. Remove the naan and set aside to cool.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together vinegar, olive oil, 10mL pesto, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl as the salad dressing.
4. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, and greens and toss to combine.
5. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Add a splash of oil and the bell peppers and cook, stirring often, until tender.
6. Spread the remaining pesto over the now-cool naan. Evenly divide bocconcini slices and bell pepper between them.
7. Return the naan to the oven and cook until melty, ~5 minutes.

The Kidlet wanted to make the monkey bread recipe out of her cookbook today. It calls for 1 lb. of pizza dough. I have an excellent pizza dough recipe. It makes ~3 lbs. of dough. I thought about scaling back the recipe but, after discussing it with TF, I opted to make a regular-sized batch of pizza dough and then just look for something to do with the remainder. Normally pizza would be a no-brainer. But we don't have any mozzarella on hand right now. And with COVID-19 keeping everybody at home, I can't easily run out and get some. So I asked the Internet for other ideas on what to do with my leftover pizza dough.

Most of the recipes I came across were just variants on pizza: pizza with unusual toppings, stuffed pizza, deep-dish pizza, calzones, pizza bites, pizza skewers, pizza pinwheels, etc. Even when I specifically looked at pages that claimed to have compiled lists of non-pizza recipes, they were still basically just pizza with different topology.

I did manage to turn up a few recipes that were actually not pizza. Sadly, I didn't have the ingredients for a lot of them. Many still required mozzarella. Others were after meatballs or sandwich meats. And a few required sour cream, cottage cheese, or cream cheese. This left me with only a handful of recipes. The scrambled egg pockets and the "quichzza" didn't really appeal and I was NOT prepared to make a kilo of pizza dough crackers. So that left me with pretzel bites (a strong contender), Cheddar-onion focaccia (which got TF very excited), and garlic knots (which got an extremely enthusiastic vote from the Kidlet).

I've made garlic knots before, but I've never really been impressed with the flavour. The garlic never has enough presence. These ones seemed like they had a lot of promise though. Rather than brushing them with garlic butter before and/or after baking, you drown them in an herby garlic butter mixture. It's not just brushed on, they're swimming in it. Now that sounds more like it!

Garlic Knots

Slightly adapted from Foodie Crush

Ingredients

• ~1kg Pizza dough
• 1/2 c. salted butter¹
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Prepare the pizza dough as directed and let it complete its first two rises.
2. Press the dough into a large flat rectangle and cut thin strips/ropes off of it.
3. Tie each dough rope into a knot and place on a greased baking sheet.
4. Cover and set aside to proof for 30-45 minutes.
5. Bake at 220°C (425°F) for 10 minutes. Lower temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for another 5 minutes. (If you made smaller knots then you may not need the last five minutes.)
6. Meanwhile, heat the butter and oil over medium heat.
7. Stir in the garlic, oregano, and parsley and cook for 30 seconds. Do not allow garlic to cook or brown. You want it hot but not really cooked. Set aside.
8. Transfer rolls to a large serving platter and sprinkle with Parmesan. If you used unsalted butter, sprinkle the rolls with a little salt at this point too.
9. Pour the garlic butter mixture over the rolls and serve.

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¹ If you don't have any salted butter on hand, use unsalted and sprinkle the rolls with a bit of flaky or coarse salt when they first come out of the oven. I think I used ~2 tsp. of coarse sea salt. ^Back

I initially overlooked this pizza. Putting the sauce on top just seemed weird and wrong to me. I wasn't on board with this whole upside down assembly. But, after thinking about it a bit more, I decided maybe it was worth a try. So glad I did! It was delicious! The crispy, cheesy edges really are great.

We opted to do a mushroom, pepperoni, and kale pizza. Cook's Country simply gave instructions for a basic cheese pizza. Feel free to treat it as you would any other pizza and put on whatever toppings in whatever combination sounds good to you! Since the toppings go under the cheese, rather than on top, many of them will need to be cooked before going on the pizza to achieve the desired result. As long as you're mindful of that, this should be a very flexible recipe that results in many delicious and satisfying pizzas.

One thing I will note: Don't be shy with the toppings! This is not your typical thin disc of cheesy bread. Heck, it's not even your typical thick-crust pizza. The crust is very soft and lovely, but it's also thick and sturdy enough to stand up to a good quantity of toppings. I topped it as if I was topping a "standard" pizza. And then I was sad that it didn't have more stuff on it. I've adjusted for this in the recipe below. It'll look like a lot to go on one pizza. Don't be alarmed. It should all balance out nicely.

Detroit-Style Pizza

Adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2017

Ingredients

• 1/2 recipe whole wheat pizza dough¹
• 1 recipe sautéed kale with crispy pepperoni and cherry peppers²
• 200-250g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. white miso paste
• 300-400g Monterey Jack or Brick cheese, shredded
• 1 recipe no-cook pizza sauce

Directions

1. Place dough in greased 23x33cm (9x13") baking pan, cover, and let rest for 10-15 minutes.
2. Press dough flat and press into corners of the pan. Try to get it as even as possible. Cover and set aside to rise.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the pepperoni and kale and set aside.
4. Heat mushrooms and water over medium heat and cook, covered for 3-4 miutes.
5. Uncover and add butter and miso paste. Cook for another 5 minutes or so.
6. Once dough is done rising (it should double or triple in size), sprinkle it with kale, pepperoni, and mushrooms.
7. Sprinkle cheese on top, covering toppings.
8. Create three lengthwise lines of sauce on top of the cheese. Use ~1/3 c. of sauce for each line.
9. Bake at 260°C (500°F) for 15-20 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes.
11. Run a knife around the edge to release the cheese, then slide a lifter (or two) under and transfer the pizza to a cutting board.
12. Cut into 8 squares -- so each slice has some of the delicious crispy edges -- and serve.

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¹ Work in as much water as you possibly can during kneading. The dough should be very wet and soft. ^Back
2 Leave out the cherry peppers for a milder flavour. Leave out the pepperoni for a vegetarian topping. ^Back

No-Cook Pizza Sauce

I posted another pizza sauce recipe not too long ago. I debated whether or not to post this one too. They're both very tasty though. And this one has the benefit of being a super quick, stir-everything-together-in-a-bowl-and-you're-done recipe!

Pizza Sauce

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2017

Ingredients

• 1 c. canned crushed tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 5 tsp. chopped fresh basil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.

I made a full batch of pizza dough for the picnic sandwich earlier this week without really thinking about how much extra dough that would leave me with. After making my sandwich, I still had just over a kilo of dough left. So, instead of the bulgogi that I'd planned to have for dinner that night, we each made our own pizza instead. I'm really pleased with how mine came out. Although I think I'd add a few mushrooms next time.

If I wanted a fully vegetarian option, I think mushrooms and capers would replace the anchovies quite nicely.

Almost Vegetarian Pizza

Ingredients

• whole wheat pizza dough
• roasted garlic paste
• pizza sauce
• mozzarella, shredded
• anchovies
• artichoke hearts, chopped
• jarred pepperoncini peppers, chopped
• Parmesan
• baby spinach and/or arugula/rocket

Directions

1. Stretch dough to desired size.
2. Let rest for a few minutes, then smear a very thin layer of roasted garlic paste over surface.
3. Spread sauce generously over this.
4. Sprinkle liberally with mozzarella.
5. Place a few anchovy fillets over the cheese. (A little goes a long way.)
6. Scatter a few chopped artichoke hearts and some pepper pieces over this.
7. Sprinkle a bit of Parmesan cheese over everything.
8. Top with a handful of greens.
9. Bake at 260°C (500°F) for 5-7 minutes.
10. Add another handful of fresh greens on top after the pizza comes out of the oven.

Sorry for the lack of measurements here. I don't really know how much of what I used. Pizza is pretty forgiving though. So the exact measurements don't matter too much. For a 36cm (14") pizza you'll probably want:
~250mL of sauce
cheese really depends on personal preference
~50g anchovy fillets
3-4 artichoke hearts
~1 tsp. chopped pepperoncini peppers
~1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
2-4 big hand-fulls of greens

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Variations

Actually Vegetarian Pizza

Ingredients

• whole wheat pizza dough
• roasted garlic paste
• pizza sauce
• mozzarella, shredded
• capers, drained and rinsed
• cremini mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in a little butter¹
• artichoke hearts, chopped
• jarred pepperoncini peppers, chopped
• Parmesan
• baby spinach and/or arugula/rocket

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¹ Add a bit of water to the pan for the first part of cooking to reduce the amount of butter needed for cooking the mushrooms. ^Back

Just a quick tomato sauce. It can be either chunky or smooth depending on whether or not you purée it after cooking.

Pizza Sauce

Slightly adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 6 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 1/3 c. canned diced tomatoes
• 2 tsp. fresh basil, chopped

Directions

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion and cook for 2-4 minutes.
3. Add garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
4. Add oregano, pepper, and salt and cook for a further 30 seconds or so.
5. Add tomato paste and cook for another minute.
6. Add tomatoes, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Stir in basil and allow to cool.
8. Purée in blender if a smooth sauce is desired.

I've made my own pizza dough many times before. It's easy enough to do. I've never had good luck with using whole wheat flour though. Even using a 50:50 mix of whole wheat and white flour seems to result in heavy, dull, sadness dough. So, although I'm happy to use whole wheat flour other places I have, historically, stuck with white flour for pizza dough. This is fine as far as it goes, but I've been trying really hard to eat more whole grains, so I decided to give whole wheat crust another shot.

This time I turned to the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book for the recipe. And I'm pleased to say it was a resounding success! The dough was pleasantly supple and elastic. It baked up chewy and wonderful with just the right crust. And it didn't come out heavy and dense like my previous attempts at whole wheat pizza crust. It just looked and tasted like normal, wonderful, delicious crust. I won't say it was better than plain, white crust, but I wasn't necessarily going for better. I honestly, don't think it was noticeably different from white crust aside from the slightly darker colour.

Taste, texture, baking, handling were all just as good as anything I've made with white flour. I finally have a whole wheat pizza crust that can hold its own against the more processed version! I know pizza's never going to be the healthiest, most balanced meal, but I'm glad I can work at least a little more nutrition into it and use ingredients that have been processed a little less. It's a small thing, but it pleases me anyway.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

From the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 c. warm water
• 1 tsp. honey
• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 900g hard (bread/strong/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• up to 1/2 c. additional warm water¹

Directions

1. Dissolve the honey in the first measure of warm water.
2. Add the yeast. Set aside for 5-10 minutes.
3. Combine flour and salt and mix well.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture.
5. Stir from centre outward, gradually incorporating the flour.
6. Once the flour is mostly incorporated, add the oil.
7. Turn out onto a counter top or other convenient surface and knead, working in any bits of flour that haven't yet been incorporated into the dough.
8. Once all the flour has been incorporated, begin working in the additional water. Wet your hands periodically and continue kneading. The dough should be very soft and supple. Work in as much water as possible.
9. Knead for a total of 20-30 minutes.
10. Shape dough into a ball and place smooth side up in a large bowl.
11. Cover and let rise at room temperature².
12. Wet a finger and poke the dough to make a 1cm (~1/2") hole. If the hole does not fill in at all, it's ready to be knocked back³.
13. Turn the dough out onto your work surface and press out all the accumulated gas. Knead it for a few strokes if you like, although it shouldn't need much at this point. I just like to do it as a way of making sure I've got all the gas out.
14. Shape dough into a ball again and place back in the covered bowl to rise again. Second rise should be ~1/2 the time of the first, give-or-take.
15. Once it's done its second rise, it's ready to be shaped. This should be enough dough to make two 36cm (14") round pizzas or a large 46cm x 30cm (18"x12") thick-crust pizza/flatbread.
16. Divide the dough up according to how many pizzas/breads you'd like to make.
17. Shape each piece into a smooth ball and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes.
18. Shape into desired form and bake.

For Pizzas (with a Pizza Stone)

1. Place pizza stone in oven.
2. Preheat oven to 260°C (500°F).
3. Dust pizza peel generously with cornmeal.
4. Pick up a portion of dough and stretch it to the desired size⁴.
5. Give the peel a light jiggle to make sure pizza is loose and will slide well. If it's stuck, address it now, before it's topped and things get messy.
6. Once the desired size and shape is achieved, allow it to rest for a few minutes.
7. Spread with your favourite sauce (tomato, pesto, olive oil, barbecue, etc.) and top generously with shredded mozzarella.
8. Add any desired meat or vegetable toppings and, if you like, finish with a sprinkle of Parmesan.
9. Open the oven and flick the pizza from the peel onto the stone. As long as the dough hasn't stuck to the peel anywhere, the cornmeal should act almost like little ball bearings to help it slide from one surface to the other.
10. Baking time will depend somewhat on crust thickness. I found 7 minutes at 260°C (500°F) to be about right for a medium crust thickness. For a very thin crust, you may only need 5 minutes. Or you could even try preheating the stone in the oven and then switching to the broiler once once the pizza goes in. The stone should give good bottom heat and the broiler will ensure the cheese gets properly melted and toasty.

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¹ The original recipe advises working the full 1/2 c. of water into the dough during kneading. I found I only needed about half of it (1/4 c.) to make a pleasingly soft dough. Use your judgement. ^Back
2 How long the dough needs to rise will depend on room temperature (and possibly how fresh/active your yeast is). Mine only needed ~1 hour at ~25°C (78°F). If your kitchen is cooler, you may be able to let it go for longer. Possibly 2 hours or more in a room that's only 18-20°C (64-68°F). You can estimate how long it'll take based on the temperature, but watch and test the dough to determine when it's ready to knock back rather than relying solely on a timer. ^Back
3 If the dough sighs and sinks back slightly around the hole, it's probably slightly over-proofed. Not a huge deal for the first rise, but try to catch it before this point on the next one. ^Back
4 I find stretching tends to work much better than rolling. Rolling is more likely to lead to ending up with an unbaked pizza stuck to your peel/work surface. You don't necessarily have to toss it. I like to hold it sideways and let gravity to part of the work. You can also leave it on the peel/work surface and just stretch it horizontally along the surface. The important part is to stretch rather than press. ^Back

Mushroom, Garlic, Mushroom, Arugula, and Mushroom Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 pizza crust
• olive oil
• At least 1L chopped assorted mushrooms
• 3 cloves garlic
• 128g mozzarella
• 16mL lemon oil
• 750mL arugula
• 1mL coarse salt

Procedure

1. Sautee mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until delicious
2. Roll out crust
3. Brush with olive oil
4. Slice garlic and scatter over crust
5. Tear or slice mozzarella and scatter over garlic
6. Top with half the mushrooms
7. Bake
8. While baking, toss arugula with lemon oil and salt
9. Top cooked pizza with arugula, then the rest of the mushrooms
10. Slice very carefully and eat.

Breakfast Pizza

This is a recipe from Cook's Country magazine, which we've been cooking out of a lot. It's called "breakfast pizza", but it's fairly involved, so we made it for lunch instead.

The recipe as written calls for doing it in a baking pan, but we have a pizza stone and decided to use that instead. This also meant some changes to timing; as written, the original recipe calls for pre-browning the crust, then removing it from the oven, adding the toppings, and cooking it again.

Pictures to come once I find them. I'd swear that we photographed it...

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 6 slices bacon, cooked until just crisp
• 2 C shredded mozarella cheese
• ½ C fresh grated parmesan
• ½ C small-curd cottage cheese
• ¼ tsp dried oregano
• salt, pepper, and cayenne
• 1 lb pizza dough
• 6 large eggs
• 2 scallions, sliced thin
• 2 tbsp minced fresh chives

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 500°F with pizza stone inside.
2. Prepare toppings:
1. Cook bacon until just crisp and crumble into a bowl.
2. Mix mozarella and parmesan in another bowl.
3. In a third bowl, combine cottage cheese, oregano, a pinch of cayenne, ¼ tsp ground black pepper, and olive oil.
3. Roll out dough. Transfer to pizza peel.
4. Spread with cottage cheese mixture. Sprinkle bacon evenly over top.
5. Sprinkle mozarella mix evenly, then make six wells, one for each egg. Arrange them as you see fit for the shape of your pizza -- for a round pizza, 5-6 wells surrounding a central one works well. Season with salt and pepper, but do not add the eggs yet or they will go everywhere when you transfer to the pizza stone.
6. Open the oven, transfer the pizza to the pizza stone, then crack an egg into each well.
7. Cook until the crust is browned and the eggs are set to your taste, 10-15 minutes.
8. Remove, let cool, sprinkle with scallions and chives, slice, and eat.

(2)

Saag Paneer Pizza

I thought it would be fun to adapt my favourite saag paneer recipe into a pizza. I'll just jot down the recipe for now, but I'll ask TF to stop by and add his notes on the process later.

Saag Paneer Pizza
8 oz. frozen chopped spinach
1 small tin pizza sauce
1-2 Tbsp. garlic paste
1-2 Tbsp. ginger paste
1-2 tsp. bin bhuna hua garam masala
1/2 tsp. turmeric
fresh mozzarella
red onion, thinly sliced
garlic, thinly sliced
paneer, cubed and fried
red Thai chiles, sliced
Punjabi garam masala

1. Thaw the spinach and combine with the pizza sauce, garlic paste, ginger paste, bin bhuna hua garam masala, and turmeric.
2. Spread some of the spinach sauce over a piece of naan. (You will have enough sauce to make more than one.)
3. Scatter some torn mozzarella over the sauce.
4. Add onion, garlic, paneer, and chiles to taste.
5. Sprinkle on some Punjabi garam masala.
6. Bake at 500F for 5-7 minutes.

Bin Bhuna Hua Garam Masala
2 Tbsp. coriander seeds
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1/2 tsp. whole cloves
1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds from green pods
2 bay leaves
3-4 dried chiles de arbol

1. Combine all the spices and grind. (This is an un-toasted blend.)

Punjabi Garam Masala
1 Tbsp. coriander seeds
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. whole cloves
1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
1/4 tsp. cardamom seeds from black pods
3 cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves

1. Toast the spices over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes.
2. Immediately transfer to a plate to cool. Grind once completely cooled.

Mushroom-Pesto Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella and Bacon

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!

Caramelized Onion Pizza

Okay, so I may have spent way too much time browsing Food52 over the last couple of weeks but, in my defense, there's some really good stuff there! Including this caramelized onion pizza!

I was going to be all cool and make my pizza dough from scratch but, alas, my yeast had expired! In the end, I just bought some ready-made dough and took it from there. I also used cured black olives instead of kalamata. Normally I prefer the kalamata as I find them a bit milder, but I really liked the way the black olives combined with this pizza!

This came out quite nicely. Although, rolling the dough out on the pizza stone turns out to be a bad idea. (Just in case you were wondering.) It took... a while to pry each slice of pizza free from the clutches of the pizza stone once it came out of the oven. Once were were able to pry the pizza off the stone though, it did taste quite good!

I like this as a cheeseless, sauceless pizza option. Olives, anchovies, and onions will all keep well in the fridge or pantry respectively. So, as long as you have some yeast and flour and whatnot on hand to make the crust, you can have a pretty tasty pizza without having to do a grocery run to stock up on ingredients!