Pizza again? Yes, but this time it has tomatoes.

Ok, I know that last time you were a little disappointed that I didn't have any actual tomatoes on a pizza, nor did I replace them with a pesto or make a white pizza. But did I make an abomination?! No. It was tasty. This time, however, I will bend to more conventional pizza stylings and give you tomatoes. Not just any tomatoes, though, tomatoes that you don't have to farm yourself yet have flavor. How is that possible (you ask)? Well, you roast them and they become magically delicious.

The key here is patience, as the process itself is extremely simple. Go out and buy a bunch of roma tomatoes, cut them in half, remove some of the inner juices (otherwise they will explode upon biting), toss them in some olive oil and salt (I throw in a hint of balsamic vinegar as well), then put them in the oven at 250 for at least two hours. AT LEAST. You can decide when they are done, but you want to dry them out a bit to intensify the flavor. I tend to cook an extra tomato or two just to eat straight out of the oven, and might I suggest you do the same.

Once you have these lovely tomatoes, you get to make a pizza...

On dads and cheese

Today, we shall discuss two things: 1) How awesome my dad is and 2) a food he wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Yes, this is how I show him my love on Father's Day, I post a recipe he'd hate.

First, the good part: during the official Father's Day call this morning, Dad informed me that he made some changes to his traditional grilled chicken marinade inspired by one of my posts. I practically glowed I was so pleased. It's the little things.

Now, it is unfair to say that Dad doesn't appreciate a good pizza, he loves them... as long as there isn't a shred of cheese present. In fact, my house was impressively cheese-free (except for one Atkins burst inspired by my mother) for the first eighteen years of my life. As a result, I've come a little late to the cheese game and have been trying to sort out the sweet from the salty and the creamy from the hard and the goat from the cow from the sheep. Incidentally, I still can't handle bleu cheese and Snofrisk goat/cow cheese is happiness in a plastic container. In this attempt to catch up, I've started making a lot of cheese-related foods. I started with a fancy mac & cheese, moved on to bechamel sauces with whatever I had in reach melted in them, and now have started making my own pizzas. They. Are. Delicious. I even made one without cheese for Dad when I was home, because I'm nice sometimes.

This particular pizza is a nice balance between a spicy sausage and the sweetness of caramelized onions and peas, topped with fontina for the creamy, mild flavor. It's a little bit different from your average delivery, but not so far out that it would spark an outcry. Of course you can, and should, put anything you want on your pizza. In fact, the dough recipe I'm about to give you makes enough for not one, but two 10-14 inch pizzas. I popped the second dough ball in the freezer for round two (oh my, was that a pun?) later this week.

Enough talk, time to eat.