Time to up your pizza game. This Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Pizza is worthy of red wine and fine dining. Made with the best homemade pizza dough and fresh Marinara Sauce. Make it and love it!
Sometimes I feel that pizza gets bad press. Many associate it with greasy fast food that’s not worthy of a proper dinner. I’m hear to say that’s fake news…hahaha. I think pizza deserves it’s place on any dining table along with the Sunday roast or baked Alaska. This one, much like my Caramelized Onion Mushroom and Caper Pizza, is a keeper.
Love Pizza
I am a self confessed pizza lover and in recent years, pizza maker as well. I never used to be a huge fan of pizza. Okay, I indulged in the occasional Italian delight and enjoyed a slice or two but was never an aficionado shall we say. I, like many others, pictured pizza as fast food, freezer food or just for something to eat when options were low. Wrong. How wrong could I have been.
Many years ago, my husband changed my mind by introducing to be the thin crust Italian style pizza at our local pizzeria here in town. It was a game changer for me and I never looked at pizza the same way again. Enjoyed with a full glass of red under dim lighting, it’s the perfect end to any week.
Learn all about How To Caramelize Onions in this post!
And this pizza really does deserve a spot light. Thin crispy crust, topped with home made marinara, perfectly caramelized onions, goats cheese, a little parmesan and just a few spinach leaves. Grown up pizza at it’s very best.
And have you had a chance to check out my Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Tarts? Kind of an easier version of this pizza…haha!
So, let’s take a little look how to get that perfect pizza.
MAKE AHEAD PIZZA DOUGH
Did you know that you can make pizza dough in advance? I used to once think that it has be used as soon as it was risen and ready. Then I got to thinking, how do the pizzerias do it? Clearly there are not in there putting on pan and pan of dough as we patiently wait for our steaming hot pizza perfection. No, it’s done in advance and refrigerated until it’s time to make that perfect pizza. In fact, I think it gets better with age. Pizza dough is one ingredient you can pretty much always find in my fridge. I usually make it once a week, on Friday because that’s when we like to have pizza generally. I always make a standard batch of dough which is enough for 4 large pizzas. I don’t often use it all, so just put the rest in the fridge until I’d like to make another pizza.
Making pizza dough and getting it right isn’t difficult, it just requires some time and once you got the knack of it, you are bound to have perfect pizza every single time.
Here you can take a quick look into a few of the stages of the dough. Click here for full low down on making pizza dough.
HOW DO I USE MY REFRIGERATED DOUGH
If you make your dough in advance and refrigerate it before using, you just need to bring it to room temperature before using. I like to take it out of the fridge about a 1/2 hour before using.
Below in the recipe you will see exactly how to make pizza dough. But if you are looking for a more in depth explanation and how to avoid fails and such, click on the Pizza Dough post. Here you can find all the tips and hints as well as find out how I eventually came to make the perfect pizza
The Dough For This Pizza Dough Recipe Makes Enough For Four Pizzas
This dough for this pizza makes 4 large pizzas. Now, I know most people might not want to make 4 pizzas at one time. Unless, you are feeding a crowd or really hungry. So, I kept the dough the same for this post because it’s such a process of work, it’s best to keep in on hand to use at another time.
This actual recipe for the Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pizza, I’m only including the ingredients for 2 large pizzas. So, if you plan to use up all your dough, make more ingredients for toppings. Hoping all this makes some kind of sense.
MAKE AHEAD MARINARA SAUCE
And of course, the best pizza and it’s own home made sauce. I started making marinara sauce when I couldn’t find it in the supermarkets here where we live in Southern Spain. Okay, I probably need to correct that sentence. I couldn’t find any good marinara sauce. I’m sure things have moved along in the past 22 years, but I still make it because it’s good!
Again, the sauce is something yon can make in advance and just pop open when you are ready to make your pizza. By having the dough and sauce on hand, pizza making is done in a jiffy.
Ideally, you’d like to have the marinara sauce on hand when you are making your pizza. I know you probably just want to pop a jar, That’s easy and I know there’s a tons of great sauces out there these days. But why not indulge yourself and make some marinara. Just because you can!
Marinara Sauce Will Keep For Two Weeks in the Fridge
Marinara sauce will keep for two weeks in the fridge, you can also freeze it or jar and preserve it. I personally prefer to jar it up.
If you’re not into jarring or batch cooking, you can just make enough to see you through about 4 pizzas by clicking this post here for basic Marinara Sauce.
THINGS YOU NEED TO GET YOUR PERFECT PIZZA
A pizza stone, cast iron slab or baking steel is something you really need to have or invest in for pizza. I’m not one about using gimmicks or spending money on stuff you’ll only use once or twice. But this is a must if you want to get into pizza making. You also need parchment paper and some kind of board to get your pizza into the oven.
Here’s what I use below. The parchment paper is used for ease of sliding the pizza into the oven. The board is used to transfer the pizza to the oven. And the cast iron plate is used for getting that perfect pizza base. Don’t skip the steps and get your perfect pizza!
All of this has been previously covered in the Pizza Dough post, but just in case you haven’t seen that post I’m covering it here as well.
I pretty much always use my basic Pizza Dough recipe that I have developed over about a decade. Starting with a Jamie Oliver recipe and taking it from there. You might say, why change a Jamie Oliver recipe? Well, it just didn’t work out perfect for me. Over time, I made changes and made it perfect for me. Again, you can read all about that here if you like.
Apart from making this perfect Pizza Dough recipe, I sometimes like to make a whole wheat one that’s pretty great as well. I don’t make that one often because the kids aren’t too keen and I try to keep the family happy…haha
PUTTING TOGETHER THIS PERFECT PIZZA
Okay, so below you will find the recipe for all you need to put this pizza together. I have not adjusted my pizza dough recipe to adapt to just two pizzas. So, note the dough part of this recipe makes 4 large pizzas. I found it just as well to keep the recipe the same as it’s a bit of work and it will keep in the fridge for a good week before you have to use it. If, however, you only want to make enough dough for the two pizzas, just simply half the pizza dough ingredients. I have done it before and it works perfect.
Again, you can use marinara sauce of your choice, but I always make my marinara. The time stated below does not include the making of the marinara sauce. So, if you plan to do that fresh for your pizza, you might want to do it while the pizza dough is rising.
The cook time you see below is including the cooking of the onions, which does take a bit of time.
This is a delicious grown up pizza. Worth the time and effort if you want to up your pizza game. Although it might seem like a lot at a glance, it isn’t as much work as you might think.
And if you looking for something for the kids, check out my Tri Bell Pepper Mini Pizzas or the Homemade Pepperoni Calzones.
Happy pizza making friends. Light the candles, open a bottle and enjoy the pizza.
Get the recipe!
Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Pizza
Ingredients
For the pizza dough:
- 4 Cups strong white bread flour
- 1 level teaspoon of sea salt
- 1 1/4-ounce or 7 grams packet instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups warm water hot to touch, may need up to 1 3/4 cups water
Other ingredients:
- 1 Cup Marinara Sauce
- 8 oz Log goat’s cheese cut into 10 slices
- 1/2 Cup fresh parmesan cheese
- 1 Onion thinly sliced
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- Small bunch fresh spinach leaves
- 2 Tablespoons dried oregano
Instructions
- For the pizza dough:
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, salt, instant yeast and sugar. Mix well to combine. Drizzle over the olive oil and just give a quick stir.
- Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in about 1 1/2 cups of the water. Using a fork, start pulling the flour into the water until you have incorporated all the flour. If it seems too dry, add remaining water. The dough should be really sticky at this point.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and place on a clean and lightly floured surface. Lightly flour your hands and start kneading the dough. Flip and knead the dough until it’s soft, elastic and springs back when touched. This will take between 5 – 10 minutes.
- Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour or up to two hours until the dough has doubled in size.
- Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and punch it down. You can either use it immediately, or keep it wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge until required.
- The rest of the pizza:
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Place a pizza stone or cast iron slab on the bottom rack of the oven.
- Place a skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the sliced onions and give a good stir. Cook over high heat for about 3 -5 minutes until the onions are starting to brown. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking for about 15 – 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Note: You may need to add a splash of water to the onions as they are cooking to prevent sticking or burning. Remove from heat when done.
- Place one ball of pizza dough on a lightly floured surface and press down with your hands until you have a disk. Using a rolling pin, roll the pizza base out to about 10 – 12 inches. Place the pizza base on a large sheet of parchment paper. Transfer the pizza base onto a pizza shovel or board (on top of the parchment paper)
- Top the pizza with marinara sauce, oregano, caramelized onions, goats cheese, parmesan cheese and fresh spinach.
- Transfer the pizza to the baking stone in the oven. Cook for 4 – 6 minutes or until the pizza is risen, golden and crisp. Remove from oven and serve immediately. Repeat for remaining pizza.
*A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are estimates only.
Notes
Thanks For Stopping By And Hope To See You Soon!
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