Adventures in Franco-Italian Fusion

French onion soup turned into pizza.

One of the things I’ve always wanted to make was French Onion Soup. Funny thing is that I’ve never actually had French Onion Soup before. So I made a batch one night, not knowing how it should taste. It came out alright… I guess. Like I mentioned, I didn’t really have anything to compare it to. Since I had so much soup left, I decided to use it to make a pizza.

I’m going to super simplify this recipe. Basically you’re going to take the caramelized onions from your French onion soup, drain them, and top a pizza crust with them.

French Onion Soup Pizza

• 1/2 – 2/3 c drained onions from French onion soup, depending on size of pizza (or caramelized onions)
• 1 lb. pizza dough
• 1/2 c shredded mozzarella or Swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. It’s important that you take the time to drain your onions well as you don’t want the broth making your crust all soggy. Take your favorite pizza dough, whether it’s from scratch or from a terrifyingly pressurized can, and flatten it out on a greased pizza pan or baking sheet. Dock dough with a fork so it doesn’t puff up in the oven. Pop it into the oven for 7 minutes so that the crust can set. Take the crust out and evenly distribute your drained onions all over. Sprinkle liberally with the shredded cheese. If you want to stay true to the French onion soup, use shredded Swiss (Gruyere). If you only have mozzarella on hand, then that’s fine as well. If you want a REALLY crispy crust, then bake pizza directly on oven rack. If not, then bake in pan in oven for 12 minutes or until crust & cheese are golden brown.

Eye of the Gorgonzola

Almost gone.

A few weeks back, I was jonesin’ for CPK’s Pear & Gorgonzola pizza. This was my attempt at making one. I used store-bought dough from Trader Joe’s. While there, I also picked up some arugula, a couple pears, and some crumbled gorgonzola. I also had some mozzarella and bacon on hand.

A few deviations: I caramelized the pears after the onions. I also decided to top the pizza with greens before baking so that they could wilt into the cheese and I wouldn’t have to use any dressing. The bacon was added because… it’s bacon.

 

Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza

These are all approximations…

• Pizza dough
• 2 T olive oil
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup caramelized onions
• 1 cup sliced caramelized pears
• 1 1/2 cups of fresh arugula
• 1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola
• 1/4 cup chopped cooked bacon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Flatten out the pizza dough onto a baking sheet. Make sure you dock the dough in the center with a fork so that it doesn’t rise. You can drizzle olive oil now or not. Your call. Now you’re gonna go down the list of ingredients, one by one, and layer them evenly all over the pizza. I am not going to sit here and repeat that 6 times. Place pizza into oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until crust is golden brown.