Pizza - Portabello, Roasted Red Pepper & Blue Cheese

I haven't done this recipe in a long time. It's a bit more complicated than I'm up for these days. I buy a jar of pasta sauce. However, if you want use fresh ingredients this is worth it. You can use a boullion cube instead of the canned consume; vegetable instead of chicken for vegetarians. There are three somewhat labor intensive projects in this recipe, the sauce, the portabellos and the roasted red peppers.

Here's a master ingredient list. When I recently made this recipe, I forgot to buy blue cheese and spring onions. The attentive student will note this omission in my pizza assembly section on the Pizzer Dough article.


Ingredients Tally
6 fresh tomatoes (use more if using plum tomatoes)
6 cloves garlic
1 big can tomato puree
1/2 can chicken consume. Or one bullion cube (chicken or vegetable)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 onion
3 red bell peppers (if this ends up being too many, use them in salad)
4 spring onions (those are the skinny long ones - I'd put in a photo but I forgot to buy them)
Cheddar cheese
Blue cheese
4-5 Portabello mushroom caps

Start the sauce. Go to the sauce recipe page.

While the sauce is simmering away....
Prepare the Portabellos

Portabellos
4 portabello mushrooms, heads with stems
1/2 cup butter
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 cloves garlic
salt & pepper (When there are no quantities are given, it's "too taste" which is completely lame if you don't cook much. You could start with 1/4 teaspoon of each. I like salt.)

Chop stems fine.
Saute garlic in melted buter with stems until soft.
Add vinegar, salt & pepper.
Turn off heat.
Put mushroom caps in broiler with the round sides up for 2 -3 minutes. Flip them over and brush with butter mixture. Broil for 4 - 5 minutes.
Slice the mushrooms into strips.
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Now prepare the roasted red peppers....

Roasted Red Peppers
4 - 6 Red Bell peppers

Cut peppers in half and remove seeds and some of the more obvious veins. Cut them in half, length wise.
Roast the peppers round side up in the broiler until black. Pre-smoke alarm. Take them out and cover with tin foil for 10 minutes. Peel off the skins.

Julienne these which means cut them into really thin strips.
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Now make the pizzer dough (this recipe includes assembly and cooking) Assembly will vary depending on the ingredients and the religion you subscribe to about topping order. So, for this pizza, the general idea is:

Spread tomato sauce over pizza dough. Sprinkle cheddar, then blue cheese across pizza. Arrange peppers, mushroom strips and onions radially around the pizza.

Bake at 500 for about 10 minutes. Longer if the oven is at a lower temp.