Date Completed: 7/17/2021

Confession: When I grow up, I want to be just like Ina Garten. That girl knows how to have fun! I started watching her Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics show a couple of months ago, and pulled Garrett in, too. Now it’s a rare occurrence when more than a few days pass between watching at least one of her episodes. I want to be a guest at one of her parties!

I had already started this project when I discovered the show, and I quickly realized one of my cookbook “additions” had to be a Barefoot Contessa. We ended up finding the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics cookbook. How perfect is that?

Almost everything in that book looks amazing! Today, we’re making White Pizzas with Arugula from the Lunch chapter. Admittedly, we made them for dinner.

Garrett actually picked this recipe which surprised me because of the arugula on top of the pizza. I gave him a leaf to try before we started cooking.

Here’s his review of plain arugula leaves:

“Needs pizza.”

— how funny is that?

So off we go to make that much-needed pizza to complement our arugula.

I love a good excuse to break out my stand mixer! This recipe let me use the dough hook for the first time, too. Love it!

The stand mixer does most of the kneading (10 whole minutes). My machine kind of jumped around the counter as it kneaded which concerned me slightly. I’ll have to look into that!

After the stand mixer did 90% of the kneading, I pulled the dough out and kneaded it by hand just about 12 more times.

The dough then rested, covered, in an oiled bowl for about 30 minutes.

While the dough rested, we made the garlic oil. Hello, delicious! It was just olive oil, sliced garlic, fresh thyme, and red pepper flakes simmering over low heat for about 10 minutes. How easy is that?

Needless to say, the kitchen smelled awesome after this!

Once the dough finished rising, we cut it into six equal pieces. This recipe makes personal pizzas - how darling! We wrapped up 4 of the dough balls and froze them for later. The remaining 2 rested under a damp paper towel for just about 10 minutes while we finished grating the cheese: fontina, mozzarella, and crumbles of goat cheese.

After the dough finished its final rest, we each picked one and started stretching it into about an 8-inch circle. We brushed them with just enough garlic oil to cover and seasoned with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Then we topped our pizzas with the three cheeses and drizzled with another tablespoon of the garlic oil (each). Decadent!

We popped them in the oven to bake up for about 10-15 minutes and turned our attention back to that arugula topping. It’s tossed in a simple lemon vinaigrette: olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Here’s that pizza straight out of the oven. It looked awesome and the crust browned beautifully - even on the bottom.

All that was left to do was to toss the arugula with the vinaigrette and arrange it on top of our pizzas.

Taste Report:

Here’s the thing: after every single bite of this pizza I kept saying “this pizza is SO good!” I could not stop!

It got to the point that Garrett made reference to an infamous Klasek family story about a gentleman my parents witnessed in a hotel breakfast room. That man had an equally enthusiastic response to the breakfast buffet.

Truly, though, this pizza is more than good. So delicious! The combination of the garlicky crust, sharp and creamy cheese, and fresh/lemony/peppery arugula. Days later, I still can’t get over it!

I would make these pizzas again in a heartbeat. And, happily, we’re already halfway there with our frozen dough!