Saturday, May 21, 2011

Bacon pizza recipe with green garlic

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When I think back to the first times my kids and I cooked together, I always think about pizza.

I remember both kids as toddlers, standing on a chair at the kitchen counter, poking their sticky fingers into a wad of pizza dough and rolling their little pieces into odd shapes.

I remember little hands holding big spoons as they spread tomato sauce around on the uncooked pies.

I remember cringing when more shredded cheese ended up on the tray and the floor than on the pizza.

But most of all I remember their delight when the hot pizzas came out of the oven and they took the first bite of their pizza, the dinner they created and decorated all on their own (more or less).

We still make pizza at least a few times a month. Now that the boys are older, they do more and I do less. Emery has mastered the rolling pin and can turn a hunk of dough into a perfect, paper-thin circle - something at which I completely suck, by the way. Both boys have the gift of proportion: Their pizzas always have just the right balance of sauce to cheese to toppings. And fortunately we agree on toppings - particularly in the spring, when I buy green garlic (the young shoots of the garlic plant) every week at the farmers' market. Green garlic and bacon are best friends when it comes to pizza.


You'll notice there's no tomato sauce in this recipe. You don't need it - the salty bacon combined with the mild garlic is just right. Paint the dough with a slick of olive oil before adding the cheese and you'll be fine. Remember, the entire stalk of the green garlic is edible - it's more a vegetable than a seasoning.

I can't give you a recipe for my homemade pizza dough because I do it by feel. Use your favorite recipe or store-bought pizza dough - Trader Joe's makes several excellent varieties. You can also stop by your local pizzeria and buy dough there. They may give you a strange look, but they won't say no.



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Bacon pizza recipe with green garlic
Bacon and green garlic are best friends when it comes to pizza.
Ingredients
  • 1 pound pizza dough (store-bought or homemade)
  • 4 tsp olive oil
  • 3 stalks green garlic, chopped
  • 6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • 1/2 lb fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 500 degrees or its highest temperature. Put two sheet pans in the oven while it's heating up - you want the sheet pans good and hot before you put the pizza on them. This helps crisp the crust.On a piece of parchment paper, roll out half the pizza dough. You can flatten and stretch the dough by hand or roll it with a rolling pin - it doesn't really matter. Get it nice and thin. Spread 2 tsp of the olive oil on the dough with your fingers or the back of a spoon, leaving a small border around the edges. Lay half the mozzarella slices on the dough with a little room between them. You don't want a solid sheet of cheese, ideally, although this part is really to taste. If you like more cheese, use more.Sprinkle half the chopped green garlic and the bacon over the pizza, then drizzle it with the olive oil. Sprinkle the pizza with salt and pepper. Repeat with the rest of the ingredients for the second pizza.Carefully carry each pizza on the parchment paper and put the whole thing, paper and all, right on a hot sheet pan. (It may be easier to remove the sheet pans from the oven - use oven mitts! - and slide the parchment paper from the counter onto the pan.)Bake the pizzas about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and browned and the crust is golden and crisp. Cut and serve immediately.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 2 large pizzas

3 comments:

Kristy said...

You brought tears to my eyes! I still have little ones cooking with me and I'm loving every second of it. I hope they still enjoy cooking with me when they get older. It's such precious, uninterrupted time. Great pizza recipe too!

Kim said...

Erika -

Great seeing you over the weekend! I wonder how this pizza would taste with some of that soppressa sprinkled on top. :-) Thank you again for hosting FBLA!

[K]

Rock Kitaro said...

Very nice!!!

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