My rule about making things from scratch or buying them is very simple. Can I make this better than I can buy it? Yes or no. For pizza dough (and in fact for most yeast dough) my answer is NO. Maybe I have no patience or maybe I'm not a very dedicated measure-er or for whatever reason I've never really gotten the hang of yeast dough. Luckily, my local chain grocery store understands. In the deli section with the pre-made macaroni salads and things I would never normally buy, they sell balls of frozen pizza dough that are all ready to go.
If I want to make a pizza tomorrow, I set it out the night before in the fridge and I am ready to go. If you are more capable than I (which is likely), obviously you could make your own dough. For me, the real star of this dish is not the dough at all. The dough is just the simple receptacle that I use to shovel as much of this amazing pizza into my gut as possible. I adore the salty bacon, creamy and smooth squash, and sharp blue cheese together with the sweet onions and the egg gives it that final, over-the-top quality that we all need sometimes. This originated as a "what are we going to eat tonight" type recipe from many random things leftover in the fridge/freezer. I love it so much and will be making it again soon.
Butternut Squash, Blue Cheese, and Bacon Pizza (makes one small pizza for two)
Ingredients:
6 pieces of bacon
1 cup frozen, cubed butternut squash
1 medium onion
pizza dough
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
2 eggs
olive oil
salt and pepper
1. Set pizza dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a kitchen towel, and allow to rise according to the instructions.
2. In a large frying pan, heat 1 Tbs. olive oil over medium-high heat. Coarsely chop the bacon into pieces and add to the hot pan. Cook for 5-7 minutes until the bacon is just beginning to get crispy.
3. For the onions, I usually do a coarse chop, but for this recipe I want the pretty, half moon slices so that the onion is more part of the show. Slice onion in half and then slice each half to make uniform,half moon slices. Add to the pan with bacon along with the butternut squash. Cook for another 5 minutes until the onions are tender, the squash begins to caramelize and the bacon is crispy.
4. When you are about ready to make the pizzas, preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Leave one large cookie sheet in the oven to get hot while it is preheating.
5. On a floured board, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. It doesn't need to be a perfect circle.
6. When the oven is preheated you are going to work quickly to assemble the pizzas on the hot pan. Remove the hot pan from the oven and place the dough on top of the pan.
7. Drizzle the dough with about 1 Tbs. olive oil. Then sprinkle the bacon, squash, onion mixture evenly over the pizza dough. Leave two "wells" or spaces for the eggs. Crack the eggs and set the raw egg into the wells.
8. Sprinkle the blue cheese over the whole pizza evenly and place the pan back into the oven.
9. Cook for 10-15 minutes until your dough is browned and the eggs are just set.
If you can, allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before slicing.
Devour!
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