Meat and Cheese Lover’s Pizza

Last night’s Meat-Lover’s Calzone was too much of a flop to even blog about. Suffice it to say, I realized I do not like Gorgonzola cheese in Italian dishes. With buffalo wings? Sure, probably. Sis insists there’s a difference between Gorgonzola and Blue Cheese. My delicate palate couldn’t distinguish any difference.

With a half a batch of Garlic and Herb bread dough in the fridge, I decided to try my Meat-Lover’s Calzone as a pizza sans Gorgonzola cheese. The results were even better than I had expected.

ingredients.

1/3 to 1/2 recipe for Garlic and Herb Bread Dough (or any other pizza crust recipe — store-bought is fine, too)
cornmeal
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
one recipe of Creamy Marinara Sauce
1/2 lb ground hamburger, cooked and drained of grease or sliced meatballs
1/2 lb sliced pepperoni or salami
1/2 lb country-style sausage crumbles, cooked and drained of grease
6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
5 oz fontina cheese, shredded
7 oz provolone cheese, shredded
4 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
2 oz fresh grated parmesan cheese

directions.

Remove the pizza dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 degrees and sprinkle a 16-inch round pizza pan with cornmeal. Prepare the Creamy Marinara Sauce.
Using an ample amount of flour, begin to stretch the dough out into as large of a circle as possible. Place on the pizza sheet and work the dough at the edges using the heel of your hand to press and stretch toward the edge of the sheet. This will take a few minutes.
Once the crust is stretched all the way to the edge of the pan, sprinkle with olive oil and rub the olive oil over the surface of the crust. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Spread the sauce evenly over the pizza crust. Layer with shredded cheeses; pepperoni, sausage and hamburger; then sliced mozzarella, bacon and parmesan cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown on top. Let stand five minutes before cutting.

I spent an obtuse amount of money buying ingredients for this pizza – mainly on the cheese! (Though it’s my own fault. I know better than to shop at Fred Meyer’s for ingredients I can get across the street at Trader Joe’s for way cheaper. When laziness wins out you (quite literally) pay the price.) I was ecstatic to find a brick of provolone cheese, which I’ve never before seen in a store! (Slices, yes. A brick, no. I’ve had to shred slices of provolone cheese before when making a pizza. Needless to say, trying to shred a brick of sliced cheese doesn’t work all that well.)

Recipe rating: 