Super Easy Goat Cheese + Mushroom Pizza with Arugula and Onion Jam

The night before my baby brother got married, his brother-in-law-to-be and some of the couple’s friends threw a pizza party for themselves and our families. It was so much fun – everyone was so game and friendly. One of the guys manned the giant wood fired pizza oven at the fancy mansion where we were all staying (and where the wedding took place) and one of the guys helped with dishes and my brother’s brother-in-law made the pizzas. He had a huge array of toppings and sauces and he asked people what they wanted, but he would also just… throw stuff together. And my favorite of the night – probably one of my favorite pizzas of all time – was one of those impromptu creations. It had some sort of creamy balsamicky sauce on the bottom, and then it had goat cheese and caramelized onions on the top. It was exquisite.

Anyway, I have been thinking about that pizza for more than a year. And this weekend I decided I would try to recreate it.

What I came up with is not exactly what my brother’s brother-in-law made, but it was close. And it was delicious. AND it was super easy. I didn’t measure ANYTHING.

Goat Cheese and Mushroom Pizza with Arugula and Onion Jam

Ingredients

Pizza dough (obviously, you can make your own dough or buy one pre-made; I always use Papa Sal’s because it is delicious and foolproof.)

Herbed olive oil (I used this Classical White Pizza Sauce with Oregano, but I can’t find it online in a single bottle; you are probably NOT going to buy 12, but then again I don’t know your life)

Goat cheese – 6 to 8 oz, depending on how much you like goat cheese

Onion jam (I got the Stonewall Kitchen Roasted Garlic Onion Jam because it was available at my grocery store)

Mushrooms (I just used a handful of regular old white mushrooms, but you can really go crazy here! Trader Joe’s has a bag of mixed mushrooms in the freezer section that I am going to use the next time I make this pizza.)

Balsamic glaze (this one looks very similar to what I have – and I use it liberally when I make caprese salad with chicken)

Arugula (I use a couple of handfuls of arugula – this is a pizza, not a salad) (but if you can only buy arugula in bulk, I heartily recommend this spinach and arugula salad – for which you can also substitute goat cheese for the feta, in case you have extra goat cheese)

Directions

1. Leave the pizza dough to rest on a greased baking sheet, covered with lightly oiled plastic wrap, until it has come to room temperature and risen slightly. I sprinkle a little bit of corn meal on the baking sheet before I put the dough on it – I think it adds to that authentic pizzeria-style flavor.
2. Once your dough is room temperature, flatten it out a bit. Move the top rack of your oven to the very highest point it can go, about three or four inches beneath the heating element. Then pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. While your oven is pre-heating, wash and slice your mushrooms. No need to be particularly precise. And there’s no specific amount of mushrooms – if you love ‘em, put on more. If you don’t love ‘em, maybe choose a different recipe to follow. My only recommendation is to slice them thin, so they don’t make your pizza damp.
4. Shape your dough. Sprinkle the dough with your olive oil and herb mixture. No need to be super careful, or to assure full coverage.
5. Using a fork to prevent messy hands, distribute your goat cheese around your dough. Okay, you may need to use your hands to do this part.
6. Plop some large spoonsful of onion jam in and around and between your chunks of goat cheese. You can use the back of a spoon to smear everything together, if you want more even distribution. But it’s really okay to have pockets of cheese and pockets of jam speckling your dough.
7. Sprinkle your mushrooms all over your pizza.
8. Drizzle with balsamic glaze.
9. Cook for 15 minutes, or until your cheese is melty and your crust is golden brown.
10. Once you remove your pizza from the oven, top with arugula, and serve.

 

Easy peasy and so yummy.