This pizza makes for an excellent dinner if you are having a few friends over to share a nice bottle of Barolo. The black forest ham is great on sandwiches, and excellent on pizza. It’s not overly salty and thus goes really well with the veggies. As always, enjoy making pizza, have some fun, and don’t be afraid to experiment a little. Pizzas are the Chef’s playground, they are very hard to mess up, and everyone always enjoys fresh-baked bread. Just buy decent ingredients, and kick loose. We made this pizza on the spur of the moment, with ingredients we mostly ‘found’ in the kitchen. Adding Peperino seeds was purely because we had some. Black forest ham? We had some. Green bell pepper? Yup, we had some. That’s how we make pizzas, and the best ones go on the blog for you guys.  So go crazy tonight. Make your own pizza, or try this one.

Pizza Recipe

• 1 pizza dough
• 2 1/2 tbs mascarpone
• 2 1/2 tbs pesto
• 5 oz black forest ham
  The ham has a very black edge, it’s not burnt although it may look like it on the photos.
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1/2 large red onion
• 3 oz sautéed garlic mushrooms
• 2 oz grated Jarlsberg cheese
• 3 oz grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 tbs peperino seeds
• 15 small heirloom tomatoes

Mix the mascarpone and pesto with a fork and you got our famous mascarpone pesto. Well, it’s famous in our house anyway, but spread the word!

Slice the mushroom into quarts or 1/4 inch slices. In a pan on high heat, melt the butter. When the butter is hot and has started bubbling, turn the heat back to medium and then press the two garlic cloves through a garlic press into the pan. Stir for 10 seconds then add the mushrooms. Keep stirring for about 2 minutes then remove the mushrooms. They should have soaked up the butter and taste like garlic, yet not be soggy.

Roll out the pizza dough, and spread the mascarpone/pesto sauce on it. Grate the Jarlsberg and Parmesan cheeses and mix them together. Cut the onion into onion rings and then cut the rings in quarters. Spread all the ingredients except the tomatoes, finishing with the cheese. Cut the tomatoes in half, and lay them around the edge of the pizza. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 10-14 minutes on 400 degrees until the cheese has melted and the dough is golden brown.