Okay, disclaimer. We blatantly stole this pizza concept from Matchbox’s fire and smoke pizza, here in DC. But it’s delicious, so what are ya gonna do?
Recipe – makes 1 large a-pizza
- pizza dough, unbaked*
- smoked gouda, grated or sliced thinly**
- 1/2 jar of spicy red pepper tomato sauce
- 1 onion, sliced and caramelized
- 7oz can [containing 2 to 3] chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped finely
- fire-roasted red peppers, sliced – optional
- fresh basil, roughly cut
- olive oil
Preheat oven to 500 F.
Heat olive oil in pan to medium-high heat and add onions. Stir occasionally, until onions have begun browning. Lower heat and stir frequently until golden brown or desired color is reached, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
Chop chipotle peppers finely and mix with tomato sauce.
Punch out the dough onto a cookie sheet lined with foil and lightly coated with olive oil. We happen to have a circular one, but I imagine a rectangular sheet would work fine. The olive oil will prevent the pizza from sticking to the foil.
Once you have your shape, spread sauce mix evenly over dough. Add onions and peppers if you have them. Add cheese to cover. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes until crust is golden brown, checking at 7 minutes. Add basil when right out of the oven.
Notes
* We have a lovely Italian deli down the street called Vace that makes homemade pasta and sauces. We stopped by to pick up premade pizza dough, and it was a little over a pound of dough and cost us 3 bucks! It baked so well and tasted amazing. I imagine if you don’t have a place like this in your ‘hood, you could probably make the dough yourself or pick up a premade shell.
** Okay, so we saw that Matchbox’s version called for smoked gouda on the pizza, and I recall the smoked gouda being ooey and gooey. I don’t know how that could have been possible though, because as the Google and the Interwebs will tell you, Gouda won’t melt. Or will it? For some reason, the night we made the pizza, I was able to find at least a few websites explaining that gouda wouldn’t melt. Whereas today, I can find none that tell me that, and only websites that tell me how easily it melts!
We didn’t grate the gouda, we cut slices and spread them over the entire pizza. However, the gouda didn’t “melt” as I mentioned. It kind of got rubbery, but it tasted just as good. If we tried it next time, I’d try it grated to see if it melted easier.
Also, we didn’t take pictures like we normally do because once it was out of the oven we ate the sucker right up. It was so so delicious. It’s going to be very spicy though, and it’ll make you sweat. You’ve been warned.
