Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Fresh Ricotta, Caramelized Onion, & Prosciutto Pizza


Pizza.  Just say the word and my mouth starts to water.  I do love a good pizza, and we have a couple decent joints close to us that we order from every so often.  But, what I love even more is making my own at home.  Not only is it a fun activity, but this way I know exactly what's in it.  Yeast and I don't have a good relationship so I used Trader Joe's all natural refrigerated pizza dough.  But if you're in with the yeast, by all means please make your own crust!  Some day it will like me, I have hope....


For tonight's pizza I wanted to use up my fresh ricotta I had leftover from the weekend.  I thought it would go well with some caramelized onion, heirloom tomatoes, olives, crushed red pepper flakes, and prosciutto.  I brushed the base of the crust with some of this fabulous seasoned olive oil we got from a local Italian joint here in the Cities.  It's out of this world taste!  And I knew it would add just the right flavoring to the pizza.


I caramelized the onion - added about a tablespoon of brown sugar to give them that sweet but savory taste and laid them on top of the oil-brushed crust followed by the rest of the toppings.  Baked this beauty for 15 minutes and this pie came out looking so divine.  Crunchy prosciutto, creamy ricotta, tangy olives....my gosh, how we had any leftovers from this baby is beyond me.

Save some gas - make your own pizza at home tonight!

Happy Eating!

Fresh Ricotta, Caramelized Onion, & Proscuitto Pizza
Recipe by A Toast to Taste

Ingredients Needed:
1 refrigerated pizza dough at room temperature (or you can make your own)
2 Tbsp seasoned olive oil (garlic is best)

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 cup fresh ricotta
6 mini heirloom tomatoes, halved
15 olives
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
5 slices prosciutto

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Spray a pizza pan with non-stick spray. 

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium low heat.  Add the onions and brown sugar.  Stir to combine and let cook for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are a light brown color.  Remove from heat.



Flour work surface and roll out pizza dough to 12 inch circle with rolling pin.  Transfer to greased pizza pan.  Brush with seasoned oil.  Now we start to build.  Start with the caramelized onions and spread in an even layer across the dough, leaving about an inch for the crust.  Next add the fresh ricotta, followed by the tomatoes, olives, and crushed red pepper.  At this point, I did drizzle a little olive oil over everything.  Then lay the slices of prosciutto over the pizza.  Bake in preheated oven for 15-17 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.




Slice, serve, and eat....and eat.....and eat...



2 comments:

  1. I must know, are you making your fresh ricotta? I'm going to try your breakfast casserole recipe this weekend with homemade ricotta. I can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sad to say that I used store bought ricotta - got it at Surdyk's cheese shop so it was fresh. But, I definitely want to try making it homemade sometime. The breakfast casserole is fantastic!! Enjoy!

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