Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pesto Pizza

This week's chef for the FNCCC is Alexandra Guarnaschelli. I had a bit of a hard time figuring out which recipe I wanted to use of hers because A: there weren't that many to choose from and B: many had hugely long ingredient lists and were insanely complicated. I already did one complicated recipe this week! So I chose one that looked fairly easy: Flatbread with Bacon and Scallion Pesto.

As usual, my comments are in italics and parenthesis.

Flatbread with Bacon and Scalion Pesto aka Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pesto Pizza
Recipe courtesy of Alexandra Guarnaschelli

Ingredients

* 4 thick strips bacon, thinly sliced (I used about 100 grams of already chopped bacon)
* 1 large white onion, thinly sliced (make sure to use a white (sweet) onion, they caramelize better)
* Pinch of sugar
* Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper
* 6 scallions, thinly sliced (green onions, green tops included)
* 1 teaspoon capers
* 1/2 cup fresh parsley (I used flat leaf)
* Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream (I used creme fraiche because it's cheaper here than sour cream)
* 1 pound frozen pizza dough, thawed (I made my own whole wheat dough)
* All-purpose flour, for dusting (didn't need this)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until browned and crispy. Transfer to paper towels to drain; keep warm. Add the onion slices to the drippings in the skillet; sprinkle with the sugar and season with salt and pepper (I didn 't use salt here, the bacon is salty enough so you don't need it). Cook until light brown and tender, 5 to 7 minutes (I cooked my onions for about 15 minutes so they were caramelized more). Taste for seasoning.

Combine the scallions, capers and parsley in a food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste and half of the lemon zest; pulse gently to chop and blend. Turn the processor on and add the olive oil through the top in a steady stream. Transfer the scallion pesto to a bowl; set aside. (I tasted the pesto at this stage and thought it needed a little something, so I squeezed a bit of lemon juice into it as well.)

In a small bowl, whisk the creme fraiche and the remaining lemon zest until smooth. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.

Roll the pizza dough into an 8-by-14-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface (used a round pizza pan). Roll the dough around the rolling pin and unroll it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in the center of the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Spread the creme fraeche mixture on the crust. Dot with the onions and some of the bacon drippings from the pan; sprinkle with the bacon. Slice into pieces and drizzle with scallion pesto. (There is NO drizzling happening with that pesto, it's way too thick, so I just blobbed it on!)

The Verdict: Martijn and I both really liked this. It's a nice break from a normal pizza. I really don't care for capers, but the small amount blended up into the pesto was actually quite good.

In addition, be sure to check out Tasty Tuesday @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday @ Blessed with Grace for more yummy recipes!