Meatless Monday - Fantasma Pizza

I apologize for the lack of posts lately!  We're in the middle of spring break here, and even though we've had a continuous helping of snow, I've been enjoying my staycation.  New posts are coming!  Just not today...  Today I want to reshare my recipe for my favorite pizza with white sauce.  I really love this pizza.  It satisfies the garlic monster inside of me. 

I love pizza. And while I like me some pepperoni, 99% of the time I prefer to have my pizza meatless. With two kids in the house and a limited budget, I make pizza at home a lot. Thanks to my breadmaker, I can make a decent whole wheat pizza dough in about an hour.  Because I can choose the quality and quantity of the ingredients, I consider my homemade pizza a healthy food and don't mind making it for my kids.

There's a restaurant in my town that makes divine pizzas.  The crust, the sauce, the ingredients...I love everything about these pizzas! Cafe Ponza has a pizza that is particularly delicious - the Fantasma. This pizza has a white sauce for a base and is topped with roasted garlic, caramelized onions, pancetta, and herbs. For my home version, I left off the pancetta and made a great meatless pizza.

My pizza was very, very good. It takes a bit of time to get all of the ingredients prepared for the pizza, but this is actually a very easy pizza to make. Cafe Ponza doesn't need to worry, though, because my crust doesn't even approach theirs. Still, I'll make this again (and again)!


Fantasma Pizza

pizza dough (my breadmaker dough recipe is at the bottom, but use whatever makes you happy for your dough or crust)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 large head of garlic, roasted
1 cup milk (skim or whatever you have on hand)
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 TBSP of thinly sliced fresh basil (or to taste)
olive oil
parmesan or romano, shredded (splurg on the real deal for this - no Kraft allowed!)

Caramelize the onions: Put the onion in a medium saute pan with a TBSP or so of oil and cook over medium heat until the onion is brown but not burned.

Make the white sauce: Gently heat the milk in a saucepan or in the microwave. Keep warm. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add flour and use a whisk to mix it in. Cook for 1-2 minutes. The flour shouldn't change color (this is a white roux). Slowly whisk the milk into the flour mixture. Cook the mixture, whisking continuously, until the sauce boils and is thickened. Remove from heat and add in 8-10 roasted garlic cloves. Put in a blender or food processor and blend to incorporate the garlic cloves. Stir in 1/2 tsp of dried oregano.

Preheat oven to 425 F. Prepare the pizza dough on a pizza pan. Spread a thin layer of the white sauce on the prepared dough. (You may have some white sauce left over.) Top with caramelized onion and basil. Place roasted garlic cloves liberally around the pizza. Finish with grated parmesan sprinkled over entire pizza - as much or as little you desire.

Bake pizza for 15 min at 425 F. Enjoy!

Breadmaker Pizza Dough
For a 1 lb batch of dough

3/4 cup warm water
1 TBSP olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 1/4 cups flour - can be completely all-purpose or a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat flour (I usually do about 1/2 white whole wheat)
1 tsp yeast

Combine water, oil, sugar and salt in breadmaker pan. Add in flour, and pour yeast on top of the flour. Put in breadmaker on "Pizza Dough" setting or consult your breadmaker's manual for the best setting.