Cinco de Mayo Inspired Pizza

Pizza is one of those meals that can be eaten any time of the day. Or maybe I'm a complete weirdo for loving to eat it for breakfast, please tell me I’m not the only one! Either way, pizza is delicious and can be made so many different ways.

I decided to make a Cinco De Mayo inspired pizza and after I came across this recipe I knew I had found the one. With caramelized onions, chorizo, spinach and artichoke hearts, I was drooling just thinking about it.

I messed up my first batch of dough, which I still let rise and surprisingly I liked the way it turned out better than the batch done right. I didn’t let the yeast, water and honey sit until foamy in the first batch and went straight in with flour and olive oil. I figured “why waste it?”, and I’m glad I didn’t.

This recipe calls for the onions to sauté for about 20 minutes, but I wanted to let mine caramelize for about an hour and I think it added a ton of extra flavor to the pizza. There’s something so wonderful about caramelized onions…between the way they cook and smell to the way they compliment other flavors. I would put them on everything if I could. I also used my favorite soy chorizo from Trader Joe’s because it has just the right amount of spice to it and I knew it would be a nice addition to the pizza. It already calls for peppers in adobo sauce, so I didn’t want to overpower anything by using with regular chorizo. Instead of using fontina cheese, I used a mozzarella and cojita as a cheese layer and also a sprinkle of manchego on top once the pizzas were done and ready to eat. The manchego gives a nice bite to it!

I put my pizzas on a pizza stone and put them in a smoker to cook instead of baking them in the oven; I've realized it cooks the pizza evenly and gives the crust a little je ne sais quoi. I don’t know how to say that phrase in Spanish, or if there even is an equivalent to it, so you get a little French thrown in, too.

If you want a pizza that is unlike anything you’ve ever tasted, this is the one you want to make!

Enjoy!