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Homemade Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Blue Cheese and Thyme
It's no secret, we love pizza. In fact, Americans eat 350 slices of pizza every second! But now there's a reason to eat a lot more. You won't need any fancy Italian flour or your oven to reach 950 degrees. Heck, you don't even need a pizza stone. You just need to love pizza.
This recipe was created exclusively for Planet Green by Kevin Schuder, Executive Chef at Yield Wine Bar, to pair with a bottle of Valeriano from our featured green wine maker Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. Valeriano is like a big bloody steak (and this is coming from a vegetarian!). It's bold, structured and tannic with flavors of summer cherries, currants and leather. But it's also quite balanced, so it pairs nicely with food. But you're going to need a strong dish like this pizza to stand next to the Valeriano.
The best part of a homemade pizza is that it can be a bit messy. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle. Mine have ranged from oval-shaped to hexagons. Circles are for quitters!
INGREDIENTS
| The Pizza Dough | |
| 1/2 t. | fresh yeast |
| 3/4 t. | extra-virgin olive oil |
| 1 cup | tepid water |
| 3 cups | all-purpose flour |
| 1 1/2 T. | kosher salt |
| Toppings: | |
| 5 | large red onions |
| 4 T. | canola oil |
| Blue cheese | (we suggest a local cheese) |
| Fresh fresh thyme | (dried is okay too) |
| Kosher salt | |
| Grated Parmesan Cheese | |
| Red chile flakes | |
| Shaping and Baking the Pizza | |
| Sheetpan or Baking Stone | |
| Parchment Paper | |
| Your risen, pillowy dough | |
| The toppings | |
PREPARATION:
Pizza:
- In a large mixing bowl add the water then whisk in the yeast and olive oil
- Let the mixture stand for a few minutes
- Add the flour, mix into a homogenous ball
- Cover the mixture with a damp towel and let stand for 20 minutes
- Knead in the salt thoroughly
- Separate into 3 equal portions, place on a floured tray and lightly cover with plastic wrap
- Let it sit at room temperature for 4 hours until it each ball has doubled in size
Remember, you could also purchase dough from the supermarket (Trader Joe's has a nice whole wheat pizza dough) or hit up your favorite local pizzeria!
Toppings:
- Julienne all the red onions as shown above
- Begin heating a large heavy-bottomed pot or dutch oven
- Add the oil and the onions, and gently stir to break them up and distribute the oil
- Turn the heat to low
- Cook down the onions for about 3 hours, stirring periodically to prevent from burning
- Salt to taste.
- The onions must be cooled down before they are added to the pizza
- Break the blue cheese into large crumbles and set in a bowl
- Strip the thyme from it's stems and set aside
Shaping and Baking the Pizza
- Heat the baking sheet on your oven's highest temperature for 30 minutes
- Line the backside of a sheetpan with a layer of parchment paper
- Shape the dough by tapping the center to deflate it. Stretch it by pressing it with your fingers away from the center
- Grab it along the edges and turn it like you would a steering wheel and let gravity stretch it for you
- The trick is to grab the very edge so it is not paper thin in the middle nor very thick at the edge
- Give the dough a final stretch with the back of your hands if the shape or thickness still needs some correction
- Set the unbaked crust on the parchment paper
- Top with a layer of the caramelized onions
- Quickly, open the oven, pull the rack out partway, and slide the pizza with the parchment onto the already hot pan or pizza-stone in the oven. Push it back and close the door
- After 5 minutes, add the blue cheese and the thyme. Bake it for another minute.
- Enjoy!
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