Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese Pizza

Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese Pizza

Ingredients

• Beano’s Classical White Pizza Sauce with Oregano (2 tablespoons)
• Sonoma Creamery Organic 5 Year Cheddar Cheese (.25 lb)
• Steamed broccoli (1/2 cup)
• Red pepper flakes (1 teaspoon)
• Homemade pizza dough

Most couples plan a romantic date out the first time they hire a non-family babysitter, but my husband and I opted to visit Wegmans to shop for pizza ingredients. We sampled a couple of organic cheeses and landed on an aged cheddar cheese from Sonoma Creamery in California. When you purchase such a rich cheese you don’t want to take away its intensity by adding too many toppings so the combination of white pizza sauce, broccoli, and a dash of red pepper flakes was the perfect combination. After pre-baking the dough, the cheese melted nicely at 450 degrees for 8 minutes.

Apple Bacon Cheddar Pizza Recipe

Apple Bacon Cheddar Pizza

Ingredients

• Thinly sliced Granny Smith apples
• Oven-baked Applegate Natural Sunday Bacon
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Caramelized onions
• Homemade pizza dough

Apple, bacon, and cheddar are becoming one of my most favorite pizza combinations. What’s interesting to me is that this pizza turns out different each time I make it. Check out this post from November 2011 and another from October 2012. Two different strategies make this version stand out from the others. First, my friend Sara showed me how to slice the onions super thin, making caramelizing easier. Second, rather than putting the toppings on one topping at a time we added them more randomly. This made for nice flavor distribution and nice presentation. This apple, bacon, and cheddar recipe is sweet and savory, and so delicious!

Four Cheese Pizza Recipe

Four Cheese Pizza

Ingredients

• BelGioioso Freshly Shredded Four Cheeses: Asiago, Fontina, Parmesan, and Provolone
• Homemade pizza sause
• Homemade pizza dough

It’s been almost two years since I made a four cheese pizza, and one year since I’ve eaten real dairy cheese. What a simple pizza recipe! The cheese combination was strong but tasty and went well with my homemade pizza sauce. I was so excited to eat my first real cheese pizza after a year without, that I only let the dough rise for 30 minutes when it really needs at least an hour. When it baked the crust didn’t get as fluffy as it usually does. Despite the slightly dry, flat crust it was a good pizza.

Dairy-Free Autumn Pizza

Dairy-Free Autumn Pizza

• Applegate Organic Chicken & Apple Sausage
• Roasted acorn squash
• Roasted garlic
• Sautéed mushrooms and onions
• Teese Mozzarella Vegan Cheese
• Homemade pizza sauce
• Homemade pizza dough

Notes: I would never have imagined making a dairy-free pizza a year ago, but since I found out my daughter has a dairy allergy I’ve adopted a completely dairy-free diet. My pizza dough doesn’t contain dairy, but if you’ve being reading my blog for long you know I love cheese. Recently, I’ve started to experiment with dairy-free cheese. Non-dairy cheese will never compare to a fresh block of soft-ripened cheese, but I’ve come to appreciate the subtle flavors in vegan cheese. However, what made this pizza special was the roasted acorn squash. Combined with chicken and apple sausage, my dairy-free autumn pizza tasted like fall.

If you’ve had a good experience with a dairy-free cheese, please let me know because I am open to suggestions.

Apple Sausage Pizza Recipe

Apple Sausage Pizza

Ingredients

• Applegate Organic Chicken & Apple Sausage
• Sautéed onions
• Sliced and sautéed Cornell Autumn Crisp Apples
• Organic Valley Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• Annie’s Goddess Dressing
• Homemade pizza dough

Notes: The 31st Annual Downtown Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival inspired this pizza. I picked up some fresh apples from the friendly students at Cornell Orchards and knew I had to make a pizza. After a quick stop at GreenStar Natural Foods Market for some organic ingredients I was ready to assemble. A light spread of Annie’s Goddess Dressing helped keep the dough from drying out. My husband said the flavors of the apples, onions, cheddar cheese, and sausage were an excellent combination.

Deep Dish Pizza Recipe

Deep Dish Pizza

Ingredients:

• Italian sausage
• Sauteed onion
• Sauteed banana pepper
• Sauteed jalapeno pepper
• Steamed broccoli
• Fresh mozzarella cheese
• Marinara sauce
• Deep dish pizza dough

Note: I can’t really describe how awesome this pizza was. We couldn’t stop eating it. A special thanks to Matt for the cast iron skillet!

Zucchini, Mushroom, Pepper, Spinach Pizza Recipe

Zucchini, Mushroom, Pepper, Spinach Pizza

Ingredients

• Zucchini
• Sauteed mushrooms
• Baby bell peppers
• Baby spinach
• Mozzarella cheese
• Marinara sauce
• Homemade pizza dough

Notes: I made this pizza for my Aunt Bev when she was visiting from Australia. She wanted a healthy pizza and that’s just what she got. It was light, summery, and fresh.

Squash Parmesan Pizza

Squash Parmesan Pizza

Ingredients

• Breaded yellow squash (egg, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper)
• Mozzarella cheese
• Homemade pizza sauce
• Homemade pizza dough

Notes: Throughout my pizza adventures I’ve tried chicken parmesan and eggplant parmesan as pizza toppings. I prepared this pizza the same way. First, I cut the squash into bite sized pieces. Next I dipped the pieces in an egg wash, then in bread crumbs mixed with parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. I then baked the squash until it became crispy on both sides. I pre-baked the dough, spread on a thin layer of pizza sauce, sprinkled on mozzarella cheese and added the squash parmesan.

 

Chicken Mole Pizza

Chicken Mole Pizza Recipe

Ingredients

• Roasted mole pepper
• Diced hot pepper
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Garlic marinated grilled chicken
• Mozzarella and cheddar cheeses
• Homemade pizza sauce
• Homemade pizza dough

Notes: I make more pizzas than I have time to blog about. In fact, I made this pizza in the fall of 2011 with a mole pepper from The Good Food Collective and a hot pepper form our neighbors garden.

BBQ Rib Pizza Recipe

BBQ Rib Pizza

Ingredients:

• Grilled baby back ribs, chopped into small pieces
• BBQ sauce
• Cheddar cheese
• Homemade pizza dough

Note: I love when I can use leftovers to make an awesome pizza (see my Thanksgiving Pizza recipe from last year). For this pizza, I broiled, then grilled the ribs with BBQ sauce. The ribs were delicious on their own, but on a pizza with cheddar cheese… amazing!