Pizza with Bacon, Onions, and Cream

My friend Adam recently finished his master's thesis and I wanted to celebrate that achievement. The best way to celebrate, in my opinion, is with food. I have far too many recipes starred in my reader, so I decided to tackle a couple of them that would work well for a midweek meal. Smitten Kitchen always comes through - for both the midweek easy (like this pizza) to the I'm going to spend all day Saturday making this. I also have my go-to pizza dough recipe thanks to my mom and I had everything I needed in the house, so this was a snap to put together.

Pizza with Bacon, Onions, and Cream from Smitten Kitchen:

Serves 3 with another pizza and a side

½ pizza dough recipe
Olive oil, for oiling baking sheets
½ c. fromage blanc or ricotta (I had ricotta on hand)
½ c. crème fraîche or sour cream (same)
1 Tb. all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ lb. thickly sliced smoky bacon, cut crosswise into ¼” strips
½ medium onion, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 450°F. In a medium skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon crisps up. I accidentally burned some of the bacon, so I added in some turkey bacon and combined the two. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Add onion to skillet and cook until softened and beginning to caramelize.

Whisk together (or blend together in a food processor, if you want it silky-smooth) ricotta and sour cream with flour, then season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Divide the dough into 2 pieces. Roll each piece out to a rough round, about 1/8 inch thick. If the dough becomes difficult to roll, let it rest for 10 minutes, then continue. I reserved one of the rounds for a pizza that Aaron made using marinara as the base.

 

Oil a large baking sheet. Transfer the dough. Spread the cheese mixture over the rounds to within 1/4 inch of the edge. Sprinkle with the bacon and onion. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for about 12 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Cut into wedges and serve.

I loved this pizza! I've never made a pizza like this one before, but it was tangy and rich and had great contrasting textures. Adam said he doesn't usually like white pies, but this one was good. We have a winner for the weekdays. I love experimenting with pizza and I'm glad have made another tasty pie.