Escarole and Goat Cheese Pizza with Honey Toasted Walnuts

Preheat oven to 475ºF with a pizza stone, if you have one.

Start by adding a bit of cornmeal onto a pizza paddle. This assists with sliding the pizza onto your preheated pizza stone.

Shape your dough into about a 12-14 inch circle. Shower the dough with a bit of salt and pepper, then drizzle with the olive oil. Place the dough into the preheated oven, and onto the preheated pizza stone.

Next, add the walnuts to a small skillet and place on medium heat. Add in the brown sugar and let that begin to caramelize, keeping an eye on the walnuts as you do not want them to burn. Add in 1 tablespoon of the honey.

Once the sugar begins to melt, add in the water, lower the heat, and mix.

Check on the pizza dough. If it begins to form some crazy air bubbles, simply use a fork to poke through, the press it down. Cook the dough for about 15 minutes, or until it is golden brown.

Once the dough is browned, slide it onto a pizza sheet, and spread the goat cheese onto the entire pizza. Drizzle half of the remaining honey onto the pizza, and place it back into the oven for about 4 minutes to warm everything through.

Remove the pizza from the oven, place back onto the pizza sheet, and scatter the lettuce on top of the pizza. Use a spoon and scatter the candied walnuts over the pizza. Drizzle the remaining honey all over the lettuce and walnuts.

Slice and serve.

You will be amazed at the flavors of this pizza. I am not a “sweets” kind of guy, and I’m not saying this pizza is overly sweet, but that honey, when paired with the goat cheese and some of the bitterness from the escarole, is really freaking amazing. My wife and I had a slice for lunch and she was shocked at how spot on I got those flavors! We let the pizza sit out for the afternoon and it was actually a great snack throughout the day as well. I hope you enjoy!