Roasted Garlic Pizza with Veggies

This is the first of the three pizzas I’m posting about this week. For background, as well as cooking instructions and the dough recipe, check out the introductory pizza dough post.

I got the idea for this pizza from one of my favorite pizza places I ate at when I was a kid. There was a restaurant I my home town called Bertuccis (this is not the chain restaurant Bertuccis that you sometimes see around). They made a number of wonderful pizzas (including a to die for clam pizza I hope to recreate someday). One of my favorites was a pizza with chicken, red peppers, and broccoli. I don’t remember what the sauce was, but I know it wasn’t tomato. I embarked on this pizza hoping to recreate just a little of that childhood memory, though I skipped on the chicken because I had some vegetarian friends coming. I thought this pizza was tasty, but not my favorite. I made it with a roasted garlic béchamel sauce, white onions, broccoli, and red peppers. If anything, it could have used something to give it a little more kick (this can be solved with the addition of some red pepper flakes to the top), and maybe just a little salt. This pizza was also the one that faired the poorest on reheating. Still tasty though.

Roasted Garlic Béchamel Sauce

Makes ~ 1 cup

2 Tbs unsalted butter
2 Tbs all purpose flour
1 cup milk
~ 10 cloves roasted garlic
1 tsp chopped fresh garlic
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt to taste

1. Melt the butter over the heat. Once completely melted, stir in the flour. Cook briefly, (45 seconds to a minute) stirring constantly. Do not allow the flour to color.

2. Add the milk and whisk to combine. Add the roasted and fresh garlic. Add the parmesan, and salt to taste. Let the mixture get hot enough that it just starts to bubble.

3. Pour the heated sauce into a blender, and mix until smooth. This step is optional, skip it if you want chunks of roasted garlic in your sauce.

Roasted Garlic Pizza with veggies

Makes one ~14 inch pizza (my pizza’s were irregularly shaped, makes it hard to guess a size)

Rolled out Dough for one pizza
½ cup Roasted Garlic Béchamel sauce (see above)
½ medium white onion very thinly sliced
2-3 Tsb chopped garlic (use as your taste prefers)
2 cups broccoli (just the florets)
½ red bell pepper, sliced
1 ½ - 2 cups Cheese Blend (see Dough post)

1. Use a pastry brush or spoon to spread roasted garlic sauce all over the pizza. Be generous.

2. Add the raw garlic, followed by the white onion, then the broccoli and red peppers. Top it all off with the cheese.

3. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until dough is cooked and cheese is melted (see dough post for more details).