Simplifying Things

Reducing something to its simplest form is not always an easy task. For a class once, I had to draw a vegetable of my choice, in this case a mushroom, and make a detailed drawing of it.

Then, step by step, make that drawing into a pictogram. This was when we were doing everything by hand, computers came in a few years later. I sort of liked the process of it all, with the tracing paper and the pencils and then the markers. Man, when 20 of us were using those markers in a closed room, we left with quite a buzz!

Anyways, the whole thing reminds me a lot of cooking, the idea of using a vegetable or any other food and bringing out it’s essence. You don’t need a pinch of this or a pinch of that to make mushrooms tasty. All you need is a hot pan, a pat of butter and thinly sliced mushrooms sautéed until golden brown and delicious. Same goes for onions. Simple things that don’t need much to get even better.

Add a batch of pizza dough, a little goat cheese and it becomes Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Pizza with Goat Cheese. Sounds elegant but really, it’s a simple dish, with simple ingredients. Just add a glass of wine for the buzz…

CLICK!: The photo at the top will be my entry for this month’s CLICK! Event : Au Naturel. Visit jugalbandi for the details.

Pizza Dough
I use Ricardo’s pizza dough, which I love because it’s so soft and easy to work with. It’s enough for 2 pizzas so I keep the rest in the fridge and usually make foccacia or whatever the next day. Or you can make 2 pizzas, it’s up to you!

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Pizza with Goat Cheese
2-3 yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 package of button mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper, to taste
about 100g firm goat cheese (I used La Patte Blanche from Fromagerie Bergeron)

Place your pizza stone in the oven and preheat it to 500F.

In a skillet heat 1 tbsp butter with 1 tbsp olive oil. Add onion slices and let cook over medium heat until nicely caramelized. Give it a good 45 to 50 minutes, it’ll be worth it, I promise. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.

In the same skillet, heat the remaining butter and olive oil. Add the mushroom slices and sauté until nicely browned. The time this takes depends on how high a heat you’ve got your skillet on, so watch carefully. Once they’re done, let the mushrooms cool a few minutes.

Divide your pizza dough in two and roll one piece to your desired thickness. Place the rest in the fridge for later use. Spread caramelized onions onto the dough, followed by the mushrooms and goat cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let it rest a few minutes then dig in!