Pizza Improv

As mentioned on Sunday, I decided to try my hand at making pizza dough.  While I was at Trader Joe’s getting the ingredients for the dough, I picked up a couple of topping options.  Combining those with things in the pantry, I did a little Pizza Improv to get together a great toppings embellishment to go with my pizza dough attempt. 

In total, I had 16 options for sauce and toppings:

1.) Breakfast Pizza

The first option could be a “Breakfast Pizza.”  For this, combine rosemary, butter, olive oil, lemon zest, and capers to make a sauce.   Then, add fresh arugula, mozzarella, tomatoes, and cooked pancetta for toppings.  Cook for half of its time, then take out of the oven, crack the eggs on top, and cook for the remainder.  

Yummy, yet not quite what I’m craving, and maybe not fancy enough to show of the crust.  A keeper for another day. 

2.) Meat and Potatoes

Another route would be to go with a manly meat and potatoes option.  For this, I’d sauté the onions in a pan, add the tomato soup and rosemary, then reduce to a sauce.  Then, I’d crisp up the pancetta and parboil the potatoes.  Give the dough a generous smear of sauce, top with potatoes, pancetta, Parmesan, and mozzarella.

Tasty, but a little more labor intensive than I wanted. 

3.) Arugula Pesto

Make a pesto out of olive oil, arugula, capers, almonds, and Parmesan.  Smear on pizza dough, then top with tomatoes, mozzarella, the crisped pancetta, and Parmesan.  Cook the full time.  Then, remove from the oven, add avocados, and place under the broiler for a minute. 

Overall, the combination made for a nice decadent, but fairly fresh, topping for handmade, wheat pizza dough.