Six Onion Pizza

This Six Onion Pizza recipe is both sweet and savory at the same time. It's the perfect pizza for your spring onion bounty.

"Six Onion Pizza?" you ask! Yes, six onions: white onions, leeks, shallots, red onions, scallions, and chives, all on a super thin crust and topped with Pecorino cheese.

I seriously love onions, so when my cousin, the urban farmer who gifts all of us with the bounty of her garden, gave me lots of onions and leeks, I knew I had to make this pizza. The only onions I had to buy were the scallions (I actually grew the chives myself, mostly because you pretty much can't kill them even if you try).

This six onion pizza includes both an onion puree and an onion compote. The puree acts as the sauce for the pizza, and the compote is kind of the topping. Think of it as onion sauce topped with caramelized onions. The concentrated sweet flavors are incredible.

The dough for this Six Onion Pizza begins with flour, salt, yeast, some olive oil, a small amount of honey, and warm beer. The dough goes through two rises to develop flavor prior to shaping. The resulting crust is super thin and crispy.

You top the shaped dough with a layer of the puree, then the compote, and then the pecorino. You bake the pizza in a 500 degree F oven, and then top it with scallions and chives, to round out the onion party.

This recipe makes four 12 inch pizzas, perfect for a pizza party! This pizza also makes delicious leftovers.

If you love caramelized onions and thin crispy pizza crusts, you need to make this six onion pizza.

Six Onion Pizza Recipe

Ingredients

For the pizza dough:

• 1 tsp honey
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3/4 cup room temperature beer
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 12 3/4 ounces (3 cups) bread flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt

For the onion puree and onion compote:

• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 12 sprigs of thyme
• 2 large white or yellow onions, thinly sliced, lengthwise
• 1 bay leaf
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 8 ounces leeks, white part only, halved lengthwise, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 8 ounces shallots, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 8 ounces red onions, thinly sliced lengthwise

To finish the pizza:

• 8 ounces grated pecorino cheese
• 10 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 handful of chives, thinly sliced

Instructions

To make the dough:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the honey, yeast, beer, olive oil, flour, and salt, and stir with a dough whisk to form a rough dough.
2. Knead the dough with the dough hook for about 8 minutes, until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 to 2 hours.

To make the onion puree and onion compote:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil, thyme, white onions, bay leaf, and salt and pepper in a large skillet over medium low heat and cook, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. The onions should be soft but not browned. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf and discard.
2. Transfer the onions to a food processor and process until smooth.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in the same skillet over medium head. Add the leeks, season with the salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. Scrape the cooked leeks into a bowl and set aside.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in the skillet, add the shallots and red onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook for about 18 minutes, until lightly browned. Add to the same bowl with the leeks.

To assemble the pizza:

1. When the dough has risen, divide it into 4 pieces, form them into a ball, and set them on a floured baking sheet. Cover them with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 to 2 hours. Place a baking stone, if you have one, on the middle rack of the oven, and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
2. Place a piece of dough onto a lightly floured parchment lined baking sheet, and press it to flatten with your fingertips. Pick it up to stretch it to a 12 inch diameter. Place it back onto the parchment.
3. Spread 1/4 of the onion puree over the surface of the dough, leaving a border of about 3/4 inch wide. Sprinkle the puree with 1/4 of the compote mixture. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the pecorino.
4. If you are using a baking stone, using a pizza peel, transfer the pizza, parchment and all onto the baking stone. If you are using a parchment lined baking sheet, place the pan in the oven.
5. Bake the pizza until golden and crispy, about 12 to 15 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the dough pieces.
6. Sprinkle each pizza with the scallions and chives, slice, and serve.

Yield: 4 pizzas, serves 8

This recipe has been slightly adapted from one of my favorite sources, Saveur: Italian Comfort Food.