Homemade Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Rosemary & Gorgonzola

Sometimes the name of a dish sounds so intimidating your immediate reaction is: "Pish posh! I can't make that! And why did I just say pish posh?"

Such might be the case with the pizza you see above. You hear "pizza" and that doesn't sound so difficult, but you add "caramelized onions, rosemary and gorgonzola" and you feel like you're on Planet Impossible. Well come back to Earth, Earthling, and let me assure you: that pizza you see above may SOUND difficult, but it's really a cinch. Here, let me convince you.

To make the pizza you see above, choose any recipe you want for the pizza dough. I used Elise's from Simply Recipes (click here) and though the dough was super sticky, it was extraordinarily easy to make--especially with a Kitchen Aid mixer. Plus I had all of the ingredients right on hand: flour, water, olive oil, salt and sugar.

While the dough was rising in the oven...

...I got to work on the topping.

The topping comes from the Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza and Calzone cookbook and it's the one that, when I read all the topping options outloud to Craig, made him squeal: "Ooooh, that one! That one!"

Here's what you need:

- 4 onions

- fresh rosemary

- good gorgonzola cheese

You slice the 4 onions really really thinly and place in a pan with 2 or 3 Tbs butter and an equal amount of olive oil (or less--it's not very specific) on low heat. Add salt and pepper and stir around.

An hour later, the onions will be caramelized and the dough will have risen. How hard is that?

Now divide the dough in half, place in separate bowls to let rise a little more, and while that's happening preheat the oven to 450.

If you have a pizza stone, that works best, but I left mine in my old Chelsea Apartment (hey you, in 23A: give it back!) so I used a baking sheet, which I placed in the oven while it preheated.

Then, on a pizza peel (which you really don't need, but which is fun to have--it's a big flat shovel that you see them use at your local pizza parlor) I covered the whole thing in polenta (which is corn meal), stretched out the dough--which was difficult, actually, because it was so sticky--and once I had a decent circle that shifted around when I shook the peel (meaning that it would release when I opened the oven), I placed on the toppings.

You don't want to overload it, or the pizza won't get crispy, so I put on about half the onions, big glops of gorgonzola, a sprinkling of finely chopped rosemary and then a few grindings of pepper. Into the hot oven it went and ten minutes later, it came out looking like this:

Craig called it "a big hit" and I had to concur. I made two of them so we each had our own, which I thought would be too much, but they were both pretty much gone in ten minutes. Well his was.

"Can I have a slice of yours?" he asked when one slice remained on my plate.

"No," I answered. Give up my pizza? Had he lost it?

It's that good. And that easy. Did it sound that hard? It's really not. You could go make it right now. Why don't you? Make it right now. NOW!!!