Hunk of Meat Monday: Cheese and Bacon Pizza

There is this pizza that I have dreams about. It is at Bazbeaux in Indianapolis, and they have Pizza Alla Quattro Formaggio. Since we live just far enough from Indy, I decided I could make my own at home version.

Since bacon makes every thing better, start by frying up 6 pizza of bacon.

I cut up the bacon before frying it. I think it is easier to fry it up in little pieces than long pieces.

While the bacon is frying get the dough and cheese ready. I am a lover of Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough. I used the thin crust for this pizza. I of course started by drizzling a little extra virgin olive oil and garlic powder over the bottom of my jelly roll pizza stone and wiping it around with a paper towel.

Then spread the crust out in the pan. I would bake the crust for about 7 minutes on 400 degrees at this point. I didn’t do this, but felt the crust was a little doughy still.

Now the hard part. Picking the cheeses. Stressful.

You obviously want mozzarella because what is pizza without it. But, have you tried using fresh mozzarella instead of the harder type?

I start though with using slices of provolone cheese instead of a tomato sauce.

Now it gets tricky. Here are a few recommendations…

You definitely don’t need to use all of them, but feel free to use all of them. I would recommend the Fontina and then the Parm or the Romano. The final cheese, is ricotta. Yes, trust me, you will love it.

Once you have your cheeses shredded, start layering. Begin with slices of provolone.

Then follow with your shredded Fontina, Romano or even cheddar if you don’t have fontina or another Italian cheese. Follow the shredded with slices of fresh mozzarella and then dollops of Romano. Then grab that bacon and sprinkle over the cheeses. I put a bit more Parmesan over top at the end.

Bake the pizza for 10 minutes on 400 degrees if you baked the crust for 7 minutes earlier. If not, bake the pizza for about 15-17 minutes. Watch carefully so you don’t burn the cheese.

Let it set a few minutes before slicing into squares and diving into this cheesy bad boy.

Got a good recipe to share this week? Be sure to link up one of your favorites from this past week.