Sunday, April 10, 2011

Bruschetta Pizza


People often tell John how "lucky" he is to be married to someone who cooks so much and loves food so much. What these people don't see is the other side of the coin. The side where I'm obsessed with food, always know where I want to eat out, what I want to eat when we get there, etc. John tends to have little to no opinions when it comes to food- he's so easy going and will eat whatever I want. Have I mentioned I love him? 'Cause I do. Who else would put up with me?!


Recently John became obsessed, and I mean obsessed, with the bruschetta pizza at this local Italian place. We typically go there and split a pasta dish and an order of bruschetta, but nooooo, John had to throw me off and insist on their bruschetta pizza. Well, fine, I caved... and it was very tasty. So I decided I need to try my hand at this recipe that turned John into a pile of mush. I made a twist on my regular bruschetta recipe by adding some red onion to it like they do at the restaurant, and low and behold this was pretty close. I chose to add pesto because I like a sauce, and really it complimented this perfectly. This was an awesome dinner and I will definitely be making it again!

Source: Stephanie Cooks Original

Ingredients:
1 batch of pizza dough
1/4 cup pesto sauce
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 tbsp. chopped red onion
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1- In a small bowl combine the tomatoes, red onion, garlic, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Season with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Set the bowl in the fridge and allow it to marinade for at least an hour.
2- Preheat the oven to 450. Place your pizza stone in the oven while it preheats.
3- Prepare your dough (either on parchment paper or on a cookie sheet/pizza peel coated with corn meal).
4- Top the dough with the pesto sauce, spread evenly.
5- Top evenly with the bruschetta mix, careful to drain the tomatoes from the olive oil/vinegar to prevent the pizza from being too moist.
6- Sprinkle the mozzarella over the pie, until evenly covered (about 1/2-3/4 of a cup of cheese).
7- Transfer to the pizza stone and bake 10-12 minutes, until golden.

9 comments:

  1. That looks delicious! What pizza dough recipe did you use? I don't have a good one for a thick crust...

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  2. This looks delicious! Your husband sounds like my husband--I usually have meals to cook or eat in restaurants planned out days in advance (in my head, usually), whereas my husband gives it no thought and never minds where we go. It works well for me! :)

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  3. Dena- I just used dough from my Italian deli, and didn't roll it out all the way. I rolled it out a bit smaller and it came out nice and thick.

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  4. We have very similar husbands! All of his friends tell him how lucky he is too and are shocked by the fact I cook almost every night. He is also very easy going and says "I don't care" whenever I ask him what he feels like eating. Makes it very easy for us then! :)

    I will be making this pizza btw. It it right up my alley.

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  5. I have the pesto in a jar, is that what you used for the 'pesto sauce'??? This looks DE.LISH.

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  6. I have pesto in a jar, is that what you used for the 'pesto sauce'?? This looks DE.LISH.

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  7. BettyAnn- as long as it's pesto and not basil, yep!

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  8. This looks AWESOME! Love the name of it too - that crust is super thick and fabulous! Love your idea above for rolling it out smaller/thicker!

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  9. I made this last night, it was awesome. This is coming from someone who used to hate tomatoes until I discovered bruschetta. I used balsamic vinegar instead and then just a pizza dough ball from the store.

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