Playing with Pissaladiére

Although Daniel and I are not really big things of routine or making the same dish more than once, one of the things that we enjoy making over and over is homemade pizzas with unique toppings. As you can guess from the recent plethora of posts on bacon, we still had some of the amazing bacon purchased at the farmer’s market so I decided to try to finish it up on a unique pizza.

The recipe for this dough is the same used in an earlier post, left over from the large batch it makes. Although we like this particular recipe pretty well, we will keep experimenting as always and update on any improvements. Although I knew I wanted to finish off the bacon that we had, I always have trouble thinking of unique things to do with bacon. It’s just so delicious by itself, I want to be sure I’m doing something to improve and compliment the taste of the bacon, rather than hide it. As I looked back through our previous pissaladiére post for the dough recipe, I thought that I’d do a play on the "French Muse" and give it a slight makeover deciding on a BLT style pizza using tomato, bacon, and leeks in place of the onions.

As usual, once you decide what to put on the pizza, it’s pretty easy going from there. I simply prepared the leeks just as you would the onion base for the pissaladiére with lots of roasting and butter and olive oil, added the bacon fried crisp, and the tomatoes soaked in an aged balsamic to enhance the fruitiness of the tomato. Once the pizza was assembled, I decided to add a little bit of cheese as well, deciding on a light crumbled goat cheese. The result was a deceptively complex pizza with an amazing flavor from the leeks, permeated through the fruity taste of the tomatoes, the tartness of the goat cheese, and the salty smoky flavor of the bacon. I usually think my pizza's are pretty plain or boring in comparison to Daniel's concoctions, but I have to say I was pretty proud of this one. Enjoy!

BLT Pissaladiére

 Pizza Crust Recipe, available here

Cornmeal sufficient for dusting (1/2 cup)

3 Large Leeks, Sliced thin, white & light green parts only.

3 Tablespoons Butter

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

3 Fresh Thyme Sprigs

2 Fresh Rosemary Sprigs

Salt & Pepper to taste.

3 Pieces of Bacon; Fried Crisp, Crumbled

1/2 Cup Tomatoes, Diced

1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 Cup Goat Cheese Crumbles

1 Tbsp Olive Oil* (Optional)

1/2 Tsp Dried Rosemary

1/2 Tsp Dried Thyme

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees while slicing the leeks. Place butter in bottom of casserole dish and place in oven to melt. Once butter has melted add 1/3 of leeks to bottom of pan. Place herbs on top. Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil. Place another 1/3 of leeks on top. Drizzle with remaining olive oil. Season with Salt & Pepper. Return to oven. Bake until leeks are tender and mostly golden, stirring every 20-30 minutes, approximately 1-1/2 hours. Cool mixture, and discard herbs. (Can be made prior and cooled in fridge overnight).

2. When ready to make pizza, place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 450, allowing at least 45 minutes.Place diced tomatoes in balsamic to soak while you fry or bake the bacon until crisp. While bacon cools, prepare pizza dough and place dough on pizza peel dusted with cornmeal.

3. Spread cooked leeks on prepared pizza dough. Top with crumbled bacon, tomatoes, and goat cheese crumbles. Drizzle with balsamic. Sprinkle herbs on top. *Optionally, can also brush crust with olive oil.

4. Carefully dust pizza stone with corn meal, and carefully slide pizza from peel on to the stone. Cook approximately ten minutes, until crust is golden brown in color. 

5. Remove from oven, allow to cool 3-5 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!