|
Pizza and I have a contentious relationship. Sometimes I really love it and other times I can’t stand it. In general, I’m not a fan of most pizza parlour pizzas, as I find them terribly greasy and pretty much all the same. I love my mother’s pizza though, and my friend Marc and I have cranked out a few good ones over the years, so I guess I can say I like homemade pizza. Mom makes her own dough, but I find the whole process pretty annoying. I can do it, but I usually choose not to. Grocery stores (and even a few pizza places) sell premade dough, which does me just fine. Dough is essentially a blank canvas, so you can slather it with whatever toppings you like, from a traditional pizza margherita to one with smoked salmon, capers, and goat cheese. I got the idea for this pizza from watching Chuck’s Day Off on the Food Network, and in typical MacKenzie fashion, I declined to use his recipe and worked out my own.
Ingredients
2 fennel bulbs
2 red onions
2 sundried tomato sausages
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
½ tbsp. garlic
salt and pepper to taste
goat cheese (I used a quebecois Caprino cheese)
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
2. Dice your fennel, making sure to remove the cores, and dice the red onions.
3. Remove the sausage meat from the casing and add to a frying pan with a bit of oil. Fry the meat until it’s cooked through but not too dark, as it will cook further in the oven. When finished, drain the meat and put aside.
4. To the same pan, add olive oil and a bit of butter, and sautee the vegetables until golden, adding the garlic, salt, and pepper a little while before they’re finished.
5. Stretch out your dough onto a medium pizza stone (or pan, whatever you’ve got, really) and brush on some olive oil. Spread your vegetables, then sprinkle the meat over top. Leave a half inch or so border around the edge. Finish with goat cheese. I like it quite a bit, but I know it’s too pungent for some people, which is why I didn’t give an amount. I covered it pretty well, but you can add as much as you like.
6. Bake for 18 minutes or until crust is golden. You can give the crust a nice shine by taking a pad of butter and rubbing it around the edge while still warm. Let it cool, slice, and serve!
