Pizza Tricolore

Pizza in Padella con Cime di Rapa, Pomodoro & Gorgonzola

Frying-Pan Pizza with Cime di Rapa, Tomato & Gorgonzola

This evenings supper had very Italian colors and very Italian flavors, was quick, fun and easy to make as usual and was refreshingly different to the typical pizza combinations you may be more familiar with. But the combination of Cime di Rapa, with their light bitterness, the sweet onion slices and tomato pieces and the salty and rich gorgonzola were a perfect and balanced topping!

Using a ready made dough and my favorite, frying-pan method for baking the pizza at a very high temperature for a relatively short time, this was also a lot of fun to make, with very little prep-work and even less tidying up afterwards. And yes, yes, yes- we all like that every now and again, don't we?

Basically, the only prep-work involved was warming the oven and pre-cooking the onion and the greens. So that's where we will begin!

As usual, my method is a little different to most, a little lower-fat- and in my opinion- a lot more tasty and a lot more fun! Look- anybody can FRY stuff- it's quick, it's easy and it works- but what if you do happen to want to keep the fat reduced and to try a healthier method? Well- this may be for you too... because I know that I always try to take the healthy option if I can- and in this case, especially so as the gorgonzola packs quite a punch in the calorie department!

I sliced a medium size onion and popped it into a frying pan with just enough water to cover the surface. I stirred the onion slices around to get them all equally wet and let them bubble away until the pan was practically dry. I then added a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar, topped the water up a little and continued stirring away.

Once the onion had become translucent, I added the cime, which was about a coffee-mugful and stirred them in, topping up the water again in order to get the leaves nice and wet and steaming as quickly as possible. I popped on the lid, let it steam away for 3-4 minutes, then seasoned with a little nutmeg, salt and sugar and stirred until everything had softened up considerably and then set it to one side, in a bowl, to cool down.

In the meantime, I cut some pre-made pizza dough from the roll, into a circle and laid it into the frying pan. I then folded over the outside edges to give it a more rustic look and got busy preparing the other couple of ingredients... the tomato and the gorgonzola!

I sprinkled a few blobs of gorgonzola here and there over the pastry, not too much mind you as it melts at a very low temperature and I didn't want the pizza to end up being either too salty or too soggy. I then spread the onion and cime di rapa out evenly on top and continued by adding the occasional few pieces of tomato here and there... and fear not- I am not expecting you to go to all of the trouble of blanching the tomatoes to peel them either... as mine came straight from the can!

I seasoned with more pepper, a sprinkle of cumin seed, but no salt, as the gorgonzola is really quite salty in itself. A last few blobs of cheese here and there, and onto the stove-top it went, for 2-3 minutes at high heat, until the base bakes firm and comes away easily from the bottom of the pan... then into the oven it went at maximum temperature for a further 3-4 minutes on the top shelf. A final minute or so at the end under the broiler turned it wonderfully brown and was ready to be served up- it was THAT easy to make!

This is a wonderful, grown-up pizza, with simple but complex flavors, sweet, savory, bitter and spicy at the same time- I am sure you will enjoy it. Make the kids something else if you must- but if you ask me- let them try it too and see if you can't educate their taste buds a little... life is too short for that fast-food flavor... when you can have the real Italian deal! You know it makes sense!