Goat Cheese Pizza

This past weekend is just what the doctor ordered.  It was the perfect mix of fun time, down time, and productivity.  In case you didn't catch yesterday's post, Mom came in town to spend Saturday/Sunday with me since Eric was out of town and we put together a really awesome new display piece for my quilts.  Have I mentioned how much I love it?!  Eric got home late Sunday and was exhausted because well he was in Las Vegas and apparently didn't sleep much while he was there.  He is not one to want to miss out on any fun, and he apparently didn't.  He was so glad to be home and has said more than once that he doesn't think he is ready to go back to Vegas any time soon.  This was his first Vegas trip.  I went when I was 13 for a dance competition and had a blast!  Maybe we'll go for an anniversary trip on down the road?

Yesterday I spent the day baking his birthday cake for Wednesday.  I know it's a little early but I have an away game tonight and practice Wednesday afternoon so it was yesterday or store-bought cake.  I am just hoping it stays fresh because it's going to be so so good!  I can't wait to share it! My afternoon was spent doing my usual Monday thing....practice and dance teaching.  But I did manage to make dinner (even though it was not ready until 8:30pm).  It was totally worth waiting until 8:30pm because it was absolutely delicious. I have posted a couple of pictures of this new favorite dish of mine and today you're going to get the recipe because it is too good not to share.  We'll call it Goat Cheese Pizza for lack of a better name.  Eric has decided it's his new favorite pizza, which means it ranks ABOVE Buffalo Chicken Pizza, which is big for him.  The idea for this recipe came from this post.  It's no secret that I am a pizza fanatic and I love fancy cheese, so I decided I would give goat cheese pizza a chance.

What you need:

1/2 batch of Mellow Mushroom Copycat Pizza Crust (I always make a whole batch that makes 2 crusts and put one in the fridge to use later in the week)

1 TBSP cornmeal

2 TBSP butter, melted

1/4 tsp garlic powder

2/3 cup Classico Traditional Pizza Sauce

3-4 sweet peppers, seeded and chopped

1 cup oven-dried (or sun-dried) tomatoes, drained

5-6oz goat cheese, crumbled

8 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup fresh spinach, washed and torn in to smaller pieces

1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning

Ready to go in the oven!

How to make it:

1. Make a batch of Mellow Mushroom Pizza Crust.  It will need to rise for a couple of hours, so if you are making it the day of start your crust a few hours before you're ready to make your pizza.  You can make the crust up a day or two before if you don't have time that day.  I had a 1/2 batch leftover from the weekend that I used for this pizza. If you are using dough that has been in the fridge make sure to set it out 20-30 minutes before you make your pizza.
2. Preheat oven to 400.  If you are using a baking stone, leave the stone in the oven while it pre-heats.
3. Once oven is pre-heated, take the stone out of the oven and sprinkle cornmeal over it.  Roll out pizza dough until it covers your baking stone. This might take a couple of minutes, but it will eventually spread out and stay spread out. Bake dough in oven for 5 minutes.  While dough is baking, melt butter and mix with garlic powder. You should also make sure you have all of your ingredients assembled while the dough is baking.
4. Take dough out of oven.  Brush with garlic butter and spread pizza sauce over butter.  Top with sweet peppers, tomatoes, goat cheese, bacon, and shredded mozzarella.  Top with spinach and Italian seasoning.
5. Bake 8-10 minutes or until mozzarella cheese is melted.  Serve immediately!

Yummmmm!

So simple, yet so delicious.  And now our new favorite household pizza.  There's something about the combination of bacon and goat cheese and tomatoes with a little sweet pepper added in that makes this pizza so amazing.  Funny thing is this combo was pretty much made up of the contents of my fridge.  I wanted to make a goat cheese pizza last weekend and realized all I had to go with it was bacon, peppers, and spinach.  We added the tomatoes this week and voila!

I realize a homemade pizza crust sounds a little intimidating, but the recipe above was so easy. You dump everything in your KitchenAid Mixer and let it do the work for you.  Seriously.  Even the kneading....thank you bread dough hook!

You're welcome!