All I want is you!

Oh Homegrown Gourmet, I came so close to missing the deadline this month. Which would have been a travesty because you are one of my all time favorite blogging events. It would have been especially tragic because this month the theme is pizza - PIZZA!

A brief history of Pizza:

• Pizza originated in Naples in the 18th century. It consisted of tomatoes on flat bread.
• Pizza was perfected in the 20th century in New York, New York. It consisted of huge thin slices loaded with cheese, light on the sauce and meant to be eaten folded in half.
• Never one to let a good thing alone, those weirdo hippies in California decided to change pizza up a bit. They made the pies personal sized and topped them with as many gourmet and unusual toppings as they could find. Thanks to Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, and Ed Ladou toppings such as barbeque chicken, goat cheese and veggies, and chicken with artichoke have become common pizza choices. In California you can find a gourmet pizza shop on almost every corner: California Pizza Kitchen, Wolfgang Puck's, Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, Z Pizza, Pizza A-Go-Go.........

So it was very easy for me to join in this homegrown gourmet because all I had to do was make a small pizza topped with my favorite things! We went sauceless, because really in my opinion sauce isn't really a pizza necessity. Especially when the pizza is loaded with cheese. Four cheeses to be exact. And not your boring old Romano/Parm/Mozzarella mix - instead I used Fontinella, Parm, Mozzarella, and gorgonzola. I love gorgonzola on my pizza. Gorgonzola and pear - yum! (wow I have definitely been in California too long). I have my favorite cheese store to pick up fresh cheese and I highly recommend you find yourself a favorite. And make friends with the owner, you won't regret it. Thatboy loves garlic on his pizza so I cut up a couple cloves and threw those on too. And we both go ga ga for artichoke on our pizza. For a final "neiner neiner" (technical cooking term) I pulled out the baby bella mushrooms, sliced them and added them too. Totally gourmet, totally California, dude.

Four Cheese Pizza with Portobello Mushrooms and Artichokes

• 2/3 cup fontinella cheese, grated
  
• 2/3 cup fresh mozzarella, grated
• 1/4 cup parmesean cheese, grated
• 1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 recipe pizza dough
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 can quartered artichoke hearts
• 2 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• fresh rosemary
• olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 500. Spray pizza pan with cooking spray. Combine cheeses in a bowl.
   
2. Divide dough in half and roll each half into an 8 inch disc. Place on pizza pan.
   
3. Top with cheese mixture, garlic, artichokes, and mushrooms, leaving 1 inch border. Bake 13 minutes, or until crust is golden.
4. Sprinkle fresh rosemary on top and brush edges with olive oil.

Serves 2.
Each serving has:

Calories		481.9
Total Fat		28.0 g
Cholesterol		83.0 mg
Sodium		1,273.1 mg
Potassium		72.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate		29.8 g
Protein		29.0 g