Gourmet Cheese and Prosciutto Pizza

I'm not gonna lie, everything that I've turned out of my kitchen this week has been stellar!(I'm feeling so humble today) I love weeks like this. This pizza was the perfect end to a lovely week in my kitchen. This recipe was inspired when I saw an advertisement for a gourmet pizza contest in a two year old magazine. The contest was sponsored by a wine label, Cavit. I've never tried this wine, but their pick for "America's Best Gourmet Pizza, 2007" grabbed my attention. I decided to prepare this gourmet pizza in my own way for our usual Friday night pizza dinner. It was so delicious! It even garnered a compliment from the picky kid, "Daddy doesn't know what he's missing with this pizza!"(My husband was a little late for dinner). He was quickly brought up to speed on the merits of this pizza as he ate it straight from the fridge while I was cleaning up from dinner.

I started by finely chopping two small onions. Then I heated a tablespoon or so of oil in a skillet. I added the onions and cooked and stirred until they carmelized.



While the onions carmelized, I prepared my pizza pan. I oiled a baking sheet and then sprinkled with crushed rosemary, garlic salt, and parmesean cheese.



Next, I pressed a refrigerated pizza crust into the pan. I used the Pillsbury Thin Crust for this recipe. I like mine a little crispy, so I followed the directions on the package and baked it for 5 minutes before topping.



When the crust came out of the oven, I spread about 2/3 cup of pizza sauce on top. I used whatever was on sale this week, it happened to be DelGrosso New York Style Pizza Sauce. I topped with 1/2 cup of shredded asiago, then 3 slices of chopped provolone, and then filled in the spaces with a generic shredded 4-cheese pizza blend.



Next, I took about 2 oz. of prosciutto, sliced fresh from my local deli, and cut it into strips. I sprinkled it over the cheese.



By now, the onion had carmelized, so I spread it over the entire pizza. Grind a little pepper over the top.




Then I baked it for another 10 minutes. Doesn't that look delicious?! Resist the urge to devour it in this state. There's more...



While the pizza baked, I combined fresh chopped tomato and parsley, oil, cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and a some freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese. A clove of garlic would be good here too.



Top the pizza with the tomato mixture. It's like a little bruschetta pizza. It was amazing!



I was eating before I even finished taking the pictures!



For more of the Cavit Gourmet Pizza contest click here.

Also, Pillsbury has a variety of homemade pizza recipes on their site.

Here's the recipe adapted from the Cavit Collection contest:

4 Cheese Prosciutto Pizza with Tomato Topping

Crust:

oil
crushed rosemary
garlic salt
grated Parmesean cheese
1 Pillsbury thin crust refrigerated pizza crust

Spread oil evenly over a baking sheet. Sprinkle with rosemary, garlic salt, and parmesean. Press refrigerated pizza crust into pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes.

Toppings:

2/3 cup pizza sauce
1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese
3 slices of provolone cheese, chopped
1-2 cups pizza blend cheese
2 oz. prosciutto, sliced into strips
2 small onions, finely chopped and carmelized

Top the pizza and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Serve with tomato topping.

Tomato topping:

1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar