Roasted Portobello and Caramelized Onion Pizza with Arugula Pesto

TGIF! I'm feeling a little giddy, not just because I'm on my second glass of wine but because Friday is my all time favorite day of the week! There is the wonderful feeling of freedom and the potential for two full days of me time. The possibilities are endless apart from those necessary commitments such as laundry and grocery shopping. At least I enjoy the latter!

This weekend I start my first of five fundamental cooking classes. I will be learning proper knife skills which I'm sure will greatly improve my amateur cooking skills and at the very least teach me how to sharpen my knives!

So enough about me. Whats for dinner? I am sure I have mentioned at least once before, I am a bit of a traditionalists when it comes to Friday. I tend to opt for easy finger food such as pizza and burgers. This time around pizza was on the menu and local arugula was in my fridge from my last market trip.

I have been waiting for the perfect moment to bust out an arugula pesto recipe. For those of you that have never tried arugula before it has a very fresh peppery taste to it. I quite like it, but I bet there are quite a few people that would much prefer traditional basil or sun dried tomato pesto (either would work for this recipe). We had an unfortunate mishap with the pizza dough so the crust you see pictured is just a store bought shell. This recipe yields two pizzas.

Arugula Pesto

• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
• 4 cups arugula, heavy stems removed
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 

Pizza 

• Dough for two medium pizzas (I use my bread machine to make dough)
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced
• 3-4 vine ripened tomatoes, quartered
• 4 large or 6 medium sized portobello mushrooms
• 1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 4 cups cheese (I used Mozzarella and Asiago)

1. To make pesto throw all ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth. Season with freshly ground sea salt and pepper.
2. Preheat oven to 400°. 
3. In a medium frying pan heat up 1.5 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. When oil is nice and hot add onions (should sizzle). Stir so all onions are coated with oil. Cover with lid and lower heat slightly. Cook until onions become very soft and turn caramel color, about 20-30 minutes. 
4. While onions are cooking, spread tomatoes out on a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with minced garlic and freshly ground sea salt and pepper. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until wrinkly and soft. The aroma will be amazing!
5. In a large frying pan heat up 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat (8 on my dial) add portobello mushrooms and allow them to fry until their juices are released. Squeeze 1 tsp of fresh lemon juice over mushrooms and stir with a pinch of freshly ground sea salt and pepper.
6. Raise oven temperature to 500°.
7. Roll pizza dough into two medium size crusts. Smear both with generous amount of pesto and top with tomatoes, onions and mushrooms. Sprinkle cheese.
8. Bake for 15 minutes or until crust begins to brown.

Note: If using a pizza stone you will need to allow the oven to cool before placing stone in oven and heating up to 500°. If you add a cold pizza stone to a hot oven you risk cracking or shattering your stone. Also this method will allow the stone to distribute heat evenly.