The Cheesy Kitchen

My new favorite.

To set the scene:  It was a Sunday afternoon.  Ty and I had spent several hours cleaning out closets and piling up clothes for Goodwill.  Around 5:30, we realized we were starving.

I remembered that we had a pile of freshly picked asparagus on the counter–the perk of a long-ago-planted asparagus patch in our backyard.

20 minutes later, this pizza was in the oven.

15 minutes later, it was being devoured.

Just do it!

Shaved Asparagus Pizza
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen (with some adjustments)

What you need:

• one refrigerated thin pizza dough
• medium bunch of asparagus
• 1/4 cup grated or shaved Parmesan
• 2 cups low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
• roughly two tablespoons of olive oil
• dash of sea salt and black pepper
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 lemon (optional)
• dash of red pepper flakes (optional)
• 2-3 minced garlic cloves (optional)

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Rinse and dry your asparagus.  Holding the thick end of the asparagus, shave long, thin strips using a peeler.  There is no perfect way to do this, and it doesn’t really matter if the sizes or thickness of your pieces are uneven.

Place the strips in a bowl and toss with the drizzle of olive oil and dash of sea salt and black pepper.  I also added a sprinkling of red pepper flakes for a little kick.

Set aside the bowl momentarily.  Time to stretch out and prepare your pizza dough.

I used dough from Trader Joe’s.  When I prepare it, I stretch it out on a lightly floured cutting board.  Then I transfer the dough to a cookie sheet that I have drizzled with olive oil.

Once the dough is ready, spread the Parmesan cheese evenly.  Then, spread the Mozzarella cheese.

Layer your shaved asparagus on top.  If you are choosing to add garlic (and why would you not!?!) now is the time to sprinkle on the minced garlic.

Quick close up!

Put the pizza in the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.  As soon as you take it out of the oven, sprinkle on your sliced green onion.  I squeezed the juice of half a lemon on top for added flavor.

Admire it for a second, then slice & eat!

We ate this so fast that I thought it was a dream.  Luckily I have these photos.

CLOSE UP ACTION.