If you love gourmet pizza but are trying to trim your budget, try this easy homemade pizza recipe. If don’t love blue cheese, use goat cheese – it’s just as delicious! The garlic oil sauce and fruity apples are the perfect match for salty meat and creamy blue cheese.
We make pizza at least once a week, and over the years we’ve gone from making pizzas with pretty typical toppings, to making what I think of as gourmet pizzas. Pizzas that make you sigh with satisfaction and wash down every bite with a sip of red wine.
Pizza Toppings for Gourmet Pizza Recipes at Home
Spicy Italian Genoa salami, garlic oil sauces, apples, pears, arugula, carmelized onions, fresh parsley, goat cheese, brie, mushroom tapenade, olives, blue cheese and proscuitto have all made many appearances on our pizza (not all at the same time, obviously haha).
I’ve found that I really like making pasta with a few fantastic ingredients that work beautifully together, with a nice thin crispy crust. YUM.
One of the most common pizza options we make is this spicy Italian Genoa salami, garlic oil sauce, thinly sliced apples, blue cheese (or goat cheese), fresh parsley combo.
The garlic oil adds a delicious flavour overall, the meat is spicy (but feel free to use non-spicy meat if you want!), the apples add a nice fruity note and the cheese is creamy to counteract the spice. A sprinkle of parsley before eating is fresh and keeps things from getting too heavy.
It is SO good.
Tips to make homemade gourmet pizza budget friendly:
So this being a gourmet pizza and all, you might be thinking that it’s expensive to make.
Nope.
I find pizza a super cheap meal, especially for how delicious and satisfying it is. You really only need a small amount of each ingredient, so even if your ingredients are a little pricey, the end result is still super affordable.
I costed out the ingredients to give you a rough idea of what this pizza cost us. Keep in mind that groceries are pretty expensive where we live.
Total cost of this pizza: $2.92.
A few of these ingredients need a little explanation:
Apple: I bought a bag of apples for $4 and there were 10 apples in it. So each apple cost $0.40. I actually only needed 1/4 of the apple (not the full half in the picture) so it only cost $0.10.
Mozzarella Cheese: I usually buy big blocks of cheese when they are on sale for $4 and this recipe only used a portion of the block.
Olive oil and garlic I costed out for the recipes I put in our ebook:
Parsley was FREE because we own a parsley plant, which is a great, inexpensive way to have fresh herbs on hand! BUT if you had to buy a small amount it might cost you $0.10.
—–>>>>> We have a post coming up on how to keep herbs fresh for WEEKS!
Italian Genoa salami – we buy big logs and slice it super thinly.
I weighed the 15 slices I used for this recipe and they were a bit less than 50 grams. The whole 600 gram log cost $8 so 50 grams = $0.67.
I did the same with the blue cheese:
The whole package cost $12 (you could probably find it cheaper somewhere like Costco but we are very far from there at the moment). I cut each wedge into 25 gram pieces for a total of 14 pieces, and used one piece for this pizza (and honestly, less would have been okay too!).
Dough: Was costed out with our No Yeast Pizza Dough recipe. One whole batch cost me $0.68, but I only used half of a batch for this pizza.
What Toppings to Put on a Gourmet Pizza
If you like the sound of this pizza but don’t have the exact ingredients to make it, think of it as a formula:
Thin crust + garlic olive oil + mozzarella cheese + meat (could be Italian salami, bacon, seasoned chicken, etc) + thin slices of fruit (I’ve used apples, pears and peaches with great success) + creamy cheese (goat cheese, blue cheese or brie) + something green after cooking (parsley, basil, arugula, etc).
I honestly think it would be hard to go wrong with this formula and I can think of (and we’ve tried) countless different combinations of these ingredients.
There are, of course, many other amazing combinations you can try, but this is a great starting point.
Related: Homemade Freezer Pizza
Spicy Italian salami pizza with apples, blue cheese (or goat cheese) – Step-by-Step Instructions
Ingredients for Italian Salami, Apple and Blue Cheese Pizza
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine minced garlic and olive oil in a small dish. Set aside.
Spray pizza pan with cooking spray or coat with olive oil to prevent crust from sticking while cooking.
Using fingers, gently spread dough to edges of the pan. I used HALF of a batch of our No Yeast Pizza Dough .
Tip: If you fuss with the dough too much it will tighten up due to the gluten in flour and become very hard to spread. You’ll have to leave it alone to relax for a few minutes before you try again.
I usually start with the ball in the centre of the oiled pan and use the heels of my hands to make a thick cylinder, then use my fingers to gently push the dough outward toward the centre of the pan, thinning it as I go.
Prep other ingredients (shred mozzarella cheese, thinly slice apple).
Tip: slice apple very thinly, and remove peeling if it is tough
Tip: Before spreading the oil on dough, gently push it back to edges of the pan if it has relaxed away from them.
Spread garlic oil over dough.
Top with mozzarella cheese, spicy salami (or regular salami if using, but I highly recommend the Italian Genoa style), thinly sliced apple and dot with blue cheese.
Bake in preheated oven until crust is cooked. For my oven, this took 11 minutes, but times can vary depending on your oven and how thin your crust is.
Top with minced (fresh, if possible) parsley, and enjoy! 🙂
Italian Salami, Apple and Blue Cheese Pizza - a Gourmet Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 batch No Yeast Pizza Dough (or your favourite thin crust dough)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 15 slices spicy Italian cacciatore (salami) thinly sliced
- 1/4 apple thinly sliced, peel removed if tough
- 2 tbsp blue cheese or goat cheese
- 1 tbsp parsley fresh, if possible, chopped
- cooking spray
- flour for spreading crust
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Combine olive oil and garlic, set aside.
- Spray pizza pan with cooking spray or oil with olive oil.
- Spread dough on pan, using a little flour on any sticky spots and hands.
- Spread garlic oil over dough. Top with mozzarella cheese, spicy meat, apple slices and spread small pieces of blue cheese (or goat cheese) around.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. My oven took 11 minutes, but ovens vary in temperature.
- Remove from pan, sprinkle with chopped parsley and enjoy 🙂
Notes
* Spreading homemade pizza dough can be tricky but with a bit of practice your results can be fantastic. I prefer to spread the dough with my hands because rolling can make it a little dense.
Make sure hands are well floured and use a dusting of flour on top of the dough before gently pressing the ball of dough into a larger cylinder. Use fingers to press dough out toward the edges of the pan.
The gluten in the dough will make it spring back and resist being stretched. If it gets really uncooperative, leave it to rest for a few minutes so that the gluten can relax and then try again.
I like to spread the dough, then prep my ingredients, giving it resting time, and then gently spread any parts that need to be re-stretched before topping.
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