Fast Food: Basil Goat Cheese Pizza

Imagine how much better this would be if I could roll dough into a remotely recognizable geometrical shape. Magic, I tell you!

You know those nights where work sucks, the commute is a bastard, and the last thing you feel like doing is cooking? This recipe is perfect for those kind of nights, with time and effort comparable to picking up crappy takeout, and a much better result.

Using a pre-made crust might not be much of a foodie's purist approach, but Tuesday nights after an eight hour day don't always allow for that. This is still a fresh, fairly healthy meal that beats the hell out of obstructing your colon with Arby's.

Let's set out how to make a superb pizza in a half hour. But first, a tedious note about equipment!

Tedious Note



The instructions assume you have a pizza stone. I got mine as a gift, but if you don't have one, there are alternatives to dropping $40 on a stone at a fancy kitchenware store. You can use a cookie sheet, at the expense of the extra-crispy crust, or you can head down to Lowe's or Home Depot and ask for some unglazed quarry tiles. Buy a bunch of them and line the bottom of your oven with them, taking care not to block the vents. They're about 70 cents apiece. Buy extras in case a tile cracks. Go crazy. You'll get all the benefit of an expensive stone at a tenth of the price. Leaving them in the oven all the time will help temper them to heat changes and keep a more consistent temperature in your oven.

The Setup



1 pre-made pizza crust, 10 oz. (12")
2 tsp cornmeal
3 med garlic cloves, quartered
1 c arugula
1 c fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp grated fresh Parmesan
Salt and black pepper
4 oz goat cheese



You're also going to want a food processor and a pizza peel (the wooden pizza board you seen in every movie ever with a pizza parlor in it) along with the aforementioned stone/tiles. You're also definitely going to want fresh Parmesan, as opposed to the sawdust in the green can that you shake over pasta.

Cooking

1. Preheat oven to 500, allowing stone to heat up along with the oven.



2. Put the garlic, arugula, parmesan, basil, and olive oil in the food processor along with salt and pepper to taste. Pulse until a paste forms.

3. Spread cornmeal on pizza peel. Roll out dough on top.



4. Top the pizza with paste and goat cheese. Add additional toppings if you'd like, like cherry tomatoes, red pepper flakes, or some sopressata.

5. Slide pizza onto stone and bake until pizza is crisp and puffed, 6-9 minutes (see top picture, or ... you know, use common sense).