Bacon, Tomato, and Arugula (BLT) Pizza

I haven’t made a pizza recipe on here in a while (since October! Wow!) so it’s about time I rectified that! I honestly would not have typically chosen this recipe from my latest Cooking Light magazine, but my boyfriend spotted it on the cover and put in a special request. He typically eats whatever I decide to make without complaint, so I figured I could make something out of my typical repertoire just this once 🙂

This BLT Pizza is pretty self explanatory: pizza with bacon, “lettuce” (arugula), roasted tomatoes, and even a mayo base. It does take some time to make though (~1 hour) so either plan accordingly on a weeknight or save this recipe for a weekend!

This is also the first time I used a pizza stone (very exciting, I know). I’ve apparently had this little guy for a while but completely forgot about it! If you don’t have a pizza stone, just use a large cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ripe tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/4 cup canola mayonnaise

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives

• 2 garlic cloves, grated

• 4 center-cut bacon slices, cut in half

• 10 ounce fresh pizza dough

• 1 tablespoon cornmeal (if needed)

• 2 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 cup baby arugula

Before beginning, follow any prep instructions needed for the dough (some require that you leave them out at room temperature for an hour).

Place a pizza stone/cookie sheet on the bottom oven rack. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Arrange tomato slices on a separate parchment-lined baking sheet (if you have a silicone mat, you can use that as well). Sprinkle the tomatoes with oregano, parsley, and pepper. Add the  baking sheet to the oven on a higher rack. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until tomatoes have released most of their liquid. Remove tomatoes and let cool. Keep the pizza stone/other cookie sheet in the oven and increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees.

Combine the mayonnaise, oil, chives, and grated garlic in a small bowl.

While waiting for the tomatoes to cook, cook the bacon in a saute pan over medium heat until crisp and let drain on paper towels. Reserve the bacon grease in the pan.

Form the pizza dough into a 10-inch circle. Place the dough on a pizza peel or a baking sheet sprinkled with 1 tablespoon cornmeal.

Pierce the dough with a fork (I forgot to do this. Oh dear) and transfer to the preheated pizza stone/cookie sheet. Bake at 500 degrees for 5 minutes.

Carefully remove pizza stone from oven. If you didn’t prick the dough beforehand with a fork, it’ll puff up like mine did.

Brush mayonnaise mixture over the crust, leaving a 1-inch border.

Top with tomatoes and bacon.

Top with the mozzarella cheese.

Brush the crust with some of the bacon drippings left in the saute pan.

Bake 10 minutes or until cheese melts and crust browns.

Top with arugula. Cut into 8 slices.

The pizza really captures the taste of a BLT sandwich. Roasting the tomatoes beforehand adds a different dimension of flavor and the arugula adds a touch of much needed spice to the pizza. Four pieces of bacon may seem stingy, but there was bacon in each bite!

I love making fun little pizzas like this for parties, cutting them up, and serving as an appetizer. I’ve made the Artichoke and Arugula Pizza with Prosciutto and the Prosciutto, Fig, and Arugula Flatbread before for parties and they were a hit!

Despite it’s small size, this could easily feed 3-4 people, it was pretty rich! I enjoyed it, but I think this would be really tasty if a marinara sauce was substituted for the mayo, still including the garlic, chives, etc. I wanted a bit more tomato-y goodness in every bite!