Thursday, June 11, 2009

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

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I love all of your pizza toppings - prosciutto is my fav!

Heather S-G said...

I. WANT. IT. Seriously, delicious..prosciutto is a favorite pizza topping around this house, too!! Delicious.

Reeni said...

This looks really good! I once made a burger with prosciutto and caramelized onion and it was off the charts! This looks amazing!!

Anonymous said...

The pizza alone looks amazing. Once you add the tomato mixture to the top, it starts screaming to be devoured. Great job!

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