Pesto, Goat Cheese, Caramelized Onion, and Arugula Pizza

I have a thing for goat cheese. Especially on pizza. Combined with sweet caramelized onions, fresh basil pesto, and arugula – my stomach yelled at me for thinking such delicious thoughts when a kitchen was nowhere in sight. I had been craving this combo of flavors on a pizza all weekend. Well, maybe not all weekend because I did have some insanely tasty food at the Beef Lollipop party I attended yesterday. How can you go wrong when the name of the party is Beef Lollipop? Exactly – you can’t.

The truth is, I recently invested in a 10-inch cast iron skillet, and by invested, I mean spent a whole $16 on it. I’ve always wanted a cast iron skillet and for a price like that, I couldn’t resist. I’ve always wanted to make a giant deep dish chocolate chip cookie in a cast iron skillet. Right out of the oven topped with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge – welp, I know what my plans are tomorrow night.

So tonight, on my way home from work, I decided I’d pick up some pizza dough, whip up some pesto with the basil from my sister’s garden, and make myself (yes, myself) a deep dish, cast iron, pesto, goat cheese, onion, arugula pizza. Best idea I’ve had in a while.

This pizza was not only seriously delicious, but it was super easy to make and was done in no time! You can use pre made pesto, but I decided to make some myself tonight. I’ve never made my own pesto before but it couldn’t have been easier. For money saving purposes, I used walnuts instead of pine nuts and picked the basil right from the garden. In a food processor, pulse together about 15 basil leaves, a handful of walnuts, about 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, a teaspoon of garlic salt, and just enough olive oil to make a smooth, spreadable pesto. For the onions, I roughly chopped up about a half of a small red onion and caramelized it in a pan with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil until soft.

I didn’t follow a specific recipe for this pizza, I just threw together the flavors I was craving. So I cheated a bit and picked up some pizza dough from the store, rolled it out on a floured surface so that it fit in my (lightly greased) 10-inch skillet, spread around some pesto, tossed on my caramelized onions, and sprinkled on (with a heavy hand) some goat cheese crumbles. I read somewhere that when using a cast iron skillet you should heat it before putting it right into the oven, so I put the skillet on the stove over medium-high heat for about 4-5 minutes before letting it cook in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Personally, I’ve a huge fan of avocado and balsamic glaze on just about everything. So when the pizza came out of the oven, I slid it onto a giant cutting board, drizzled on some balsamic, added a handful of arugula, and sliced a few pieces of avocado. Cut, serve, and enjoy!

What do you like making in your cast iron skillet? I’m always looking for new ideas!