White Pizza with Balsamic Syrup and Lemony Arugula

This past Friday we had no plans – big party for my mom’s bday on Saturday and a busy Sunday but a gorgeously low key night to kick it all off. I asked husband if he wanted snack dinner, healthy dinner, or homemade pizza. I also threw in several adjectives meant to promote his choice of “healthy dinner” as I’d OD’ed all week on Monday’s homemade ice cream. He heard pizza and justÂ couldn’t buy into my sale of healthy dinner. Fine, I’d make him his pizza, but it was going to be healthy (I said with a figurative stamp of the foot).

It’s a salad, on a pizza! A version of this arugula pizza can be found at most gourmet pizza places. I didn’t reference any other recipes as I wanted to create this to suit our tastes perfectly. The most important addition is the balsamic glaze. Have you had this before? You can apparently make your own by reducing balsamic vinegar but I tried this once to a terrible gross mess. Now I buy it at Trader Joe’s and it has quickly become my most favorite condiment. It fancies up roasted veggies, meats, and now pizza! It also gives you artistic opportunity to draw smiley faces, hearts, or bulls-eyes onto your food, which is awesome.

Lastly, even though this pizza may seem fancy it actually uses very few ingredients. By reducing the cheese and topping with fresh greens, you get more chews per calorie than a regular pizza. I know I’ve been a bit pizza happy with recipes lately but I just think pizza is the best and that’s that. Buy your dough pre-made at Trader Joe’s and it’s perfect for a week night!

White Pizza with Balsamic Syrup and Lemony Arugula

Makes 1 large pizza

1 lb. whole wheat pizza dough

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1/4 c. olive oil, divided

1/2 tsp. kosher salt, divided

pinch pepper

1/2 c. fontina (or mozzarella), shredded

1/4 c. freshly grated parmesan

2 tbsp. balsamic glaze

4 oz. arugula

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1. Preheat oven to 475 and place pizza stone in oven. Ideally, stone should heat for 1 hour before baking pizza.

2. Roll pizza dough on parchment. Combine garlic cloves with 2 tbsp. olive oil, and 1/4 tsp. of the salt in a small bowl. Set aside

3. Spread garlic oil over entire crust. Sprinkle pinch of pepper across surface.

4. Divide cheeses over top of pizza. Top with balsamic glaze in concentric circles (or whichever fancy way you prefer).

5. Bake for 12 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and golden and crust is crisp. Meanwhile, combine arugula with lemon juice, remaining oil and remaining salt.

6. As soon as pizza comes out of the oven, top with arugula. Slice and serve.