Meyer Lemon, Spinach & Chèvre Pizza


I had some goat cheese & spinach to use up and instead of going my usual omelette route (which is delicious, by the way), I decided to try something new this time around. I came across a recipe using meyer lemon slices, rind and all, in a pizza and I was intrigued. I love the flavor of lemon rinds in marmalades with the balance between sweet, sour and bitter and wanted to see how it would work in a savory situation. I'm happy to report, it works great!


I even took a shortcut and made it with pre-made pizza crust and the whole meal was a cinch to make. Even I have my limit on how much time I'm willing to spend in the kitchen cooking (and the resulting cleanup after!). I didn't want to have to deal with extra dishes from making pizza dough and having to start the dough a couple hours before I start lunch, so I got some pre-made good quality pizza dough instead. This meant I just needed to start everything 30-45 minutes before we wanted to eat and it saved me enough time to catch up on some TV shows ;)

Recipe adapted from Williams Sonoma 
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
4 tbsp olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, sliced
8 oz baby spinach leaves
scant 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 meyer lemon, ends cut off and rest thinly sliced
2 fat garlic cloves, minced
1 lb pizza dough (your favorite or store bought)
1/4 cup flour for dusting
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1 tsp chile peppers


Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 500 F with a pizza stone on the bottom rack. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil a wide saucepan on medium high and saute the onions lies till light brown on edges, about 4-5 minutes. Add spinach by the handfuls and cook till wilted. Season with scant 1/2 tsp sea salt and set aside to cool. Mix the meyer lemon slices with 1/2 tbsp oil in a small bowl and set aside. Mix minced garlic with 1 tbsp olive oil in another bowl and set aside. Cut the dough into half and roll out each half of the pizza dough on a well floured surface into a 10" round. Spread the garlic oil on each round equally and scatter the spinach mixture over each equally as well. Divide the lemon slices between the two pizzas and sprinkle the goat cheese on both rounds. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp chile flakes on each of the pizza. Bake the pizzas for 11 minutes (or 10-12 minutes depending on your oven) till a little brown on the edges and a little crispy. Enjoy hot with a salad.


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