Double Onion & Garlic Pizza

I pride myself on being a fairly health-conscious eater, but being from Chicago the craving for pizza sometimes is just…unbearable. Rather than suffer the cardboard greasiness found in the big pizza giants, I always choose to do it myself. If I have yeast on hand I’ll even make my own dough using this recipe by Tyler Florence, but it’s a fairly time consuming process so sometimes I buy the already made dough.

The good news is that most bakeries—even those inside the grocery store—will sell you pizza dough for less than $2 so if you don’t really want to get it from the store hit up your local bakery. But make sure you don’t buy the bakery dough too many days in advance or it will dry out.

As much as I wanted to go all out and make nice deep dish pizza with chunky tomato sauce I decided against it mostly because my pie plate isn’t deep enough. But as I was walking the frozen food section I came across a Scallion & Cheese pizza and I thought, “Hmmm that sounds yummy” and decide that’s what I was going to make…with a twist.

I combined Vandalia onions and scallions and cooked them just to the point of being caramelized so they would be slightly sweet. And instead of basic mozzarella I used shredded Gouda for a little extra flavor. If you’re going to go all out with sausage or pepperoni then it’s fine to use a milder cheese.

Servings: 2

Ingredients

2 onions, quartered & chopped

1 bunch of scallions

1 tbsp. coconut milk

5 garlic cloves, chopped

1 9-inch round pizza dough

¼ cup tomato paste

2 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. basil

½ tbsp. red pepper flakes

1 cup Gouda, shredded

1 tbsp. each flour & cornmeal

1 ½ tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

1. Swirl 1 tbsp. olive oil and red pepper flakes in a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Add onions to skillet and season with salt & pepper. Cook 5 to 7 minutes, or until onions begin to soften.
3. Stir in scallions and garlic and cook an additional 5 minutes or until garlic is slightly browned.
4. Now, preheat oven to 350° F.
5. Roll out dough on a floured surface until you have desired thickness and diameter.
6. Rub ½ tbsp. oil on dough and place on pizza pan sprinkled with flour and cornmeal mixture. The oil will make the dough crispy on the outside.
7. Season top of pizza dough with oregano and basil, plus any other herbs you like.
8. Place dough in oven and pre-cook for about 5 to 7 minutes but don’t let it get too crispy. This is just to allow the dough to cook so it isn’t soggy when you add the ingredients.
9. Combine tomato paste, salt, pepper and coconut milk in bowl and spread over dough with a spatula.
10. Sprinkle onion mixture and gouda over the dough as desired. I like to put a little bit of cheese directly on the dough so they don’t all fall off after the first bite.
11. Place pizza back in the oven for 7 to 10 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

If you want to make your own stuffed crust pizza, use string cheese and roll the edges of the dough over the cheese.