Meatless Monday: My Gourmet Pizza Creation

Homemade pizza was on the menu the other night. I had the dough made and rising when I realized I had no tomatoes to make a sauce. No problem, we'll go white. I started grabbing things I had on hand and came up with this delicious pizza.

Start with the dough of your choice. I made this food processor dough found on the Cuisinart website, but I substituted 1/3 of the white flour with whole wheat. This is not a huge substitution, but wow does it ever change the dough. I mean it was good...fine...delicious. But, it really added a lot of texture and substance to the dough.

I par-bake the crust first, then add toppings, then finish off baking.

I topped it with:

• caramelized onions
• mushrooms, which I lightly sautee'd along with 1 chopped garlic clove with the onions when they were almost finished.
• sliced pear. Slightly under-ripe worked well. Sliced it thinly and did not cook it at all before adding it to pizza.
• a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
  
• toasted pecans (walnuts would also be great)
• a sprinkle of Italian seasoning since I had no fresh herbs
• a little mozzarella cheese on top (gorganzola would have been divine...next time)

This pizza was really, really tasty and wholesome and wonderfully filling.