We love arugula’s peppery flavor, and rather than having it just in salads we try all kinds of ways to enjoy it. Sometimes it’s hard to think of other ways to enjoy a particular ingredient, but one way is to consider what goes well with it and then try using those same ingredients in a totally different type of dish.

For example, arugula is often paired in salads with goat cheese, red onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes. So we took those same ingredients and decided to make pizza. Practically every ingredient has been cooked on a pizza so why not these?  Should be a winner…and it is!

If you find a great store bought pizza dough, you can shave a day or two off prep time; great pizza dough from scratch takes a minimum of one day for great flavor.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (with store bought pizza dough); 2 days and 30 minutes (with pizza dough from scratch)

Cooking Time:  15 minutes

Yields: 1 12-14 inch pizza  (we usually title this entry as “Serves” but when it comes to pizza…well we think you understand).

Ingredients:

• 1 prepared but uncooked pizza dough  (we’ll leave pizza dough from scratch for another post)
  • 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour to dust cutting board or prep area
• 2 cups arugula, washed, spun dry, and loosely packed
• 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles
• 1 medium red onion sliced into rings
• 1 cup mushrooms sliced
• 1/2 cup marinara
• 1 + 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Black pepper to taste (optional)
• Crushed red pepper to taste (optional)

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 500F with a pizza stone on the bottom level.
  • In this preparation, we use a pizza stone.  If you don’t have one you should put it on your Christmas gift list (but make sure you get one that will fit into your oven).
  • Scenario:
    • First, make sure lots of your family or friends are around when you do this.
    • Take a measuring tape, open the oven door and measure the depth and width of the inside.
    • If someone asks what you’re doing just say “I’ve asked Santa for a pizza stone but it has to be x inches wide and y inches deep.”
    • Smile, then walk away.
    • Hope you get one!  It’s well worth the investment.
  • Note:  Wait at least 10 minutes AFTER your oven’s temperature sensor indicates it is at 500F.  Oven temp sensors are measuring the air temp in the oven.  Your stone may not be that hot when your sensor goes off so wait a few minutes after the sensor goes off before you put your pizza on the stone.
• Take the prepared, uncooked pizza dough out of the fridge and let it warm to room temperature (about 30 minutes).
• While the pizza dough is getting to room temp:
  • Wash and spin dry the arugula; set aside.
  • Peel and slice the red onion; set aside.
  • Wash and slice the mushrooms; set aside.

Cooking:

• Roll out pizza dough per producer’s instructions.  Flour your work surface liberally.
• Very quickly after rolling out the dough make the pizza:
  • Spread the marinara over the flattened pizza dough leaving about 1 inch of the edge uncovered.
  • Liberally spread the arugula over the marinara followed by the red onion and mushroom slices.
  • Sprinkle the goat cheese over the pizza.
  • Drizzle 1 tbsp of the evoo over the pizza.
  • Black pepper to taste (optional)

• Using a pizza peel slide it under the bottom of the pizza being careful to keep its shape.
• Slide it onto the pizza stone in the preheated oven.
• Cook for 15 minutes.
• Your pizza is ready!

Enjoy!