BLT Pizza

What?!  Two posts in a day!?  Yeah, I am still trying to play catch-up on all the summer's recipes.  It was the busiest summer ever, but that didn't stop me from cooking - just posting, apparently.  I have some great excuses... for example....  this picture:

Thanks, Erica Ewing Photography!

Yeah, we just got our wedding pictures and I am obsessed :)  Okay okay, I'll stay on topic.  Let's talk about pizza.  Let's talk about BLTs.  Let's put the two together.  You heard me.

I saw this idea on one of the blogs I follow and thought it was amazing.  It's basically a BLT on top of a pizza.  Now to be honesty, I have never even eaten a BLT, being a non-meat-eater, but even I think the idea of it is pretty good.  So imagine this: homemade pizza dough, topped with tomatoes that were roasted with bacon, and a sauce made from olive oil, scallions, parsley and garlic - not to mention mozzarella cheese.  Then when it gets out of the oven, the pizza is sprinkled with arugula.  Okay so I guess it's more of a BAT than a BLT, but warm lettuce on a pizza isn't the most appetizing thing, so Bacon Arugula Tomato works just fine.  If arugula isn't your style, any leafy green will work fine.

Mark and I had a pizza party one night this summer at our new house.  I spent the day making doughs to make lots of "regular" pizzas but also knew this was one I'd be trying out as well.  Mark remains my go-to guy when it comes to rolling out the doughs into perfect circles and accurately transferring them into the oven, but I was in charge of the toppings for this pizza.  

The recipe calls for the sauce to also have mayonnaise in it, which grossed us out (we both hate mayo), so we used canola oil instead and found that it was awesome without it.  I will still add it to the ingredients list, but I recommend that you leave it out, because, yuck. 

This pizza was a big hit at our pizza party, and every slice was devoured within seconds of taking it out of the oven.  If you need to spice up your pizza toppings a bit, this is a recipe to try out.

Recipe:

BLT pizza

from Pink Parsley

serves 4

Ingredients:

1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, halved or quartered if large

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper

kosher salt

3 slices bacon

1/4 cup canola or reduced fat mayonnaise

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing the dough

1 tablespoon minced fresh scallions

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

2 cloves garlic, minced or grated

1 pound fresh pizza dough

1 tablespoon cornmeal

2 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1/2 cup)

1 cup greens of your choice (such as spinach or arugula)

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven 400 degrees.  Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer on a  foil-lined baking sheet, and sprinkle with the oregano and pepper.  Scoot the tomatoes towards the center of the baking sheet and fit the bacon around the edges.  Bake for 20 minutes, stirring the tomatoes hallways through.  Drain the bacon on a paper towel-lined plate, then break into bite sized pieces.

2) Place a pizza stone in the oven and increase the temperature to 500 degrees.

3) Meanwhile, whisk together mayonnaise/canola, scallions, parsley, olive oil, and garlic in a small bowl.

4) Sprinkle the cornmeal over a large square of parchment paper, then roll and stretch the pizza dough into a 12-inch circle.  Spread the sauce mixture over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border, then brush the border lightly with olive oil.

5) Scatter the tomatoes and bacon over the sauce, then sprinkle with the cheese.  Transfer to the pizza stone in the oven and bake 10 minutes, or until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted and bubbly.  Allow to cool 10 minutes.  Top with greens, cut into 8 slices, and serve.