Fast Foods: Basil Goat Cheese Pizza
You know those nights where work sucks, the commute is a bastard, and the last thing you feel like doing is cooking? This recipe is perfect for those kind of nights, with time and effort comparable to picking up crappy takeout, and a much better result.
Using a pre-made crust might not be much of a foodie’s purist approach, but Tuesday nights after an eight hour day don’t always allow for that. This is still a fresh, fairly healthy meal that beats the hell out of obstructing your colon with Arby’s.
Let’s set out how to make a superb pizza in a half hour. But first, a tedious note about equipment!
Tedious Note
The instructions assume you have a pizza stone. I got mine as a gift, but if you don’t have one, there are alternatives to dropping $40 on a stone at a fancy kitchenware store. You can use a cookie sheet, at the expense of the extra-crispy crust, or you can head down to Lowe’s or Home Depot and ask for some unglazed quarry tiles. Buy a bunch of them and line the bottom of your oven with them, taking care not to block the vents. They’re about 70 cents apiece. Buy extras in case a tile cracks. Go crazy. You’ll get all the benefit of an expensive stone at a tenth of the price. Leaving them in the oven all the time will help temper them to heat changes and keep a more consistent temperature in your oven.
You’re also going to want a food processor and a pizza peel (the wooden pizza board you seen in every movie ever with a pizza parlor in it) along with the aforementioned stone/tiles. You’re also definitely going to want fresh Parmesan, as opposed to the sawdust in the green can that you shake over pasta.
Fast Foods: Basil Goat Cheese Pizza Recipe
By Published: May 22, 2010
Imagine how much better this would be if I could roll dough into a remotely recognizable geometrical shape. Magic, I tell you! You …
Ingredients
- 1 pre-made pizza crust 10 oz. (12
- 2 tsp cornmeal
- 3 medium garlic cloves quartered
- 1 cup arugula
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp grated fresh Parmesan
- Salt and black pepper
- 4 oz goat cheese
Steps
- Preheat oven to 500, allowing stone to heat up along with the oven.
- Put the garlic, arugula, parmesan, basil, and olive oil in the food processor along with salt and pepper to taste. Pulse until a paste forms.
- Spread cornmeal on pizza peel. Roll out dough on top.
- Top the pizza with paste and goat cheese. Add additional toppings if you'd like, like cherry tomatoes, red pepper flakes, or some sopressata.
- Slide pizza onto stone and bake until pizza is crisp and puffed, 6-9 minutes (see top picture, or ... you know, use common sense).
