Here’s our take on a classic pie. The idea began when my wife’s grandparents were canning tomatoes with my sous chef, and her grandpa gave him about 4 lbs of cremini mushrooms. Needing to use them, we sauteed more than you’d ever consider a reasonable quantity for a pizza…and then we added some thin slices of green bell pepper from our garden along with onions and black olives! We also made our own garlicky tomato sauce from scratch with the help of some of our Canned Tomatoes.
We wish we’d thought to dice and sautee some eggplant to add as well, as we think that would have been fantastic. And for those of you who don’t want a fully vegetarian pie, crumbled (precooked) sausage or pepperoni would pair nicely…perhaps even some cubed ham.
Time: 35 Minutes (+70 if making your own dough from scratch)
Ingredients:
- Pizza crust or dough (or Make Your Own!)
- Tomato Sauce
- Shredded Mozzarella
- Mushrooms. White Button or Cremini will work well.
- Green Bell Pepper
- Onion
- Black Olives
- **While we didn’t use it in ours, diced sauteed eggplant would have been a good addition.
Method:
- Slice your mushrooms and sauté in olive oil with some salt and pepper until they begin to caramelize. **If you’re cooking eggplant, do it during this step as well.
- As your mushrooms cook:
- Place your pizza stone in the oven, and preheat to 425 degrees F.
- Slice your peppers, onion, and olives.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on your counter, and either place your premade crust atop or roll out your pizza dough on the parchment.
- When your mushrooms are ready, start building your pizza!
- Scoop and spread your tomato sauce evenly up to the edge of your dough.
- Spread your mushrooms, green pepper slices, onion slices, and black olives evenly across the dough as well.
- Finally, sprinkle cheese atop.
- Remove your pizza stone from the oven, and lift your parchment paper (with pizza on top), and place it atop your stone.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until your crust reaches your desired level of crispness, and your cheese melts and starts to brown just a little.
- Remove from the oven.
- Slice, plate, devour, and enjoy!
