This is the next installment in our two cooks cooking-pizza.  We tried making this topping a few times before we were satisfied (although we’re not complaining about having to finish all our early attempts).  The recipe below reflects the tweaking.  The picture above is of our first attempt — it was half a pizza and the other half was tomatoes, mushrooms and pepperoni.  More on that one later.

First, this pizza requires a sauce and we used Bittman again with some small changes.

Fast (and stupidly easy) Tomato Sauce 

(Adapted from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

1 medium onion chopped

1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Chop the onion.  Put the olive oil in the bottom of a heavy bottom pan and heat.  Toss in the onions.  Open the tomatoes and drain the can into the pot with softening onions.  Then remove the tomatoes and chop them up into small chunks.  Toss the tomatoes into the pot.  Cover and let it simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Add some salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have the sauce simmering, make the toppings.

Mushrooms and Caramelized Onion and Garlic Pizza

1/2 lb cremini mushrooms

1 medium-large onion

1 head of garlic

2 tsp balsamic

2 tbsp butter

6 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

a few sprigs of rosemary

a few sprigs of thyme

1/4 cup water

1/4 lb fresh mozzarella

fresh ground black pepper to taste

First, make the dough recipe we used in our Portabella Pizza.

If you have a pizza stone, start by heating up the oven (with the stone in it) very slowly.  We were told to do it incrementally and that’s what we have done.  Eventually it has to be at 450.  Otherwise, pre-heat the oven to 450.

Separate all of the cloves of garlic from a head.  Cut the big ones in half.  Slice the onion nice and thin.  Heat the butter up and 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a sautee pan that has a cover.  Toss in the onions, garlic, 1/2 tsp sea salt, rosemary, thyme, and water.  Then drizzle with the balsamic.  Cover and cook over super low heat for about 30 minutes.  After they are cooked you’ll want to cut some of the garlic into smaller chunks.

Slice the mushrooms thin.  Toss them into a separate pan with 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp black pepper and 1/2 tsp sea salt.  Sautee them until they are softened.

Slice the mozzarella very thin.

Roll out the dough, lather with the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil.  Top with about  2/3 cup of the tomato sauce (or to your liking).  Then layer with the mozzarella, top with as much of the onion and garlic mixture and as many mushrooms as you desire.  Transfer to the hot pizza stone and bake for 10 minutes on 450.  We have made pizzas before on cookie sheets — so you can do that as an alternate option.  It probably would need a little more cooking time (since the stone seems to help heat it through quickly), but we don’t have any exact numbers for this.

pizza dough with olive oil

pizza dough with tomato sauce and mozzarella

pizza dough with tomato sauce and mozzarella topped with sauteed mushrooms

***

As a side note, if you have leftover ingredients (which we did) then we’ve decided that an omelet with these ingredients is a decent way to make use of them.  Either way you try it, enjoy!

sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions

omelet with caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms

Not a bad way to start or end your day.

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