The cookie sheet. A kitchen staple with a pretty straight-forward function – the baking of the cookie. Of course the flat metal surface can be used for many-a-baking need, but did you ever consider the fact that there is a whole other side of the sheet? We here at Blargus Bites don’t believe in simply using an item in the conventional way. We’re all about stretching ingredients and improvising when we don’t actually have the prescribed tools to make our food with. This is exactly what we did to bake our Portabella Mushroom and Red Onion Pizza with Pesto.

Tonight, we wandered into Weshop, not really intending to make anything to Blarg about, but our pizza turned out to be too delicious to not write about. The veggies looked less than satisfactory, so we bypassed the veggie cooler and picked up some pizza dough and fresh mozzarella next door. We tried to get some canned artichoke hearts, but those were out of stock, so we left with just the dough and the cheese. At Cara’s we found some pesto, portabella mushrooms, parmesan cheese, and red onion from the co-op… and that is how our pizza came to be.

Portabella Mushroom and Red Onion Pizza with Pesto

1 bag of pre-made pizza dough (from Weshop)

1 8oz ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced into rounds

1/2 cup of grated parmesan

2 large portabella mushrooms, julienned

1 red onion, julienned

4 cloves of garlic, minced

4 Tablespoons of pesto

1 Tablespoon butter

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

red pepper flakes (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425˚F. If dough is straight out of the refrigerator, let it sit out on top of the stove in the bag so the heat from the oven will make it easier to work with when you roll it out later.

2. Set a skillet over medium-low heat. Once hot, put in butter. As soon as the butter is melted put the onion in. Let this begin to caramelize for a couple of minutes before adding in the mushrooms. Cook for about 4 minutes, or until the mushrooms are almost cooked down. Stir in minced garlic and let cook for another minute. Add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Set aside.

3. Flip a cookie sheet upside-down and sprinkle some flour over it. Roll out the dough over the surface until you get a rectangle as large as the cookie sheet. Drizzle some olive oil over it if you please, and then spread pesto over the dough, leaving about a 1 1/2 inch parameter as the crust. Place the rounds of mozzarella evenly on the pizza dough. Sprinkle half the parm and add the onion and mushroom sauté. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan on the pizza and place this into the oven.

4. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted. If you want, you can broil the pizza for a minute before you take it out for a crispier crust and bubbly cheese.

About Jenn So

Jenn So is a senior Film Studies major who hails from a quaint town nestled among the pine trees of Maine. On campus, she is one of the head house managers of the Wesleyan Film Series. In Maine, she grew up eating her mother’s traditional Cantonese cooking and worked at her parents’ restaurant. This ignited her love for all things food and restaurant related. She has worked as a pantry chef in a French bistro and loves to travel and try exciting new dishes food from all over the world. In the recent past, she has tasted the cuisines in Australia, Thailand and China. After graduation, she hopes to roam the globe in search of even more delicious adventures.