posted by Archana on Cheese, Dinner, Pizza, Vegging In

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I had a pretty terrible experience making my own pizza dough a couple of months ago (we don’t need to go all visual on this; it wasn’t pretty), so I took a shortcut while making this particular pizza by buying premade, whole-wheat dough from Trader Joe’s.

But even though it makes things easier by about 1,000,000 percent, next time I think I’ll go for white bread crust because this whole wheat base tasted a bit too tough for my taste.

As for the toppings, I went a bit left field, using asparagus and artichoke hearts, and threw on a few mushrooms to round things out.

What you need:

• one pack of pre-made pizza dough
• 14 oz. of crushed tomatoes (I added about 3 tbsp. of ready-made pizza sauce to this because TJ’s was out of tomato paste, a common ingredient in pizza sauces)
• 4 tbsp. olive oil
• 4 oz. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces
• Artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• Mushrooms, sliced
• Crumbled or shaved Gorgonzola to taste
• Rosemary for garnish

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Lightly flour dough and roll dough into a ball.

2. Spray nonstick baking pan with non stick spray (for extra protection) and spread dough to fit pan. Lightly brush with olive oil and set aside.

3. Cook asparagus al dente in a steamer, then combine in a bowl with artichoke hearts and mushrooms.

4. Spread all of the sauce on dough and cover with half of vegetables and half of cheese. Repeat.

5. Sprinkle Gorgonzola and rosemary.

6. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until crust has browned and cheese bubbles.

Serves 3-4