Sunday night was the 90210 High School Reunion. It had been so long since I'd had anything 90210 related to look forward to, and it was terribly exciting. I got together with some girlfriends and made pizza and fruity drinks. The caramelized onion, prosciutto, and lemon pepper cream sauce is one of my favorite things in the world- I adapted it from a pizza they make at Bertucci's back in Boston, and when I make it, I occasionally miss Boston a little bit less.

Pizza With Caramelized Onions, Prosciutto, and Lemon Pepper Cream Sauce

- Dough:
I use the dough from Sally Schneider's

A New Way to Cook, a book I cannot recommend enough. You can always buy premade dough, too, but I find the kneading comforting. (Or so I tell myself when I am 7 minutes into it and wishing I had a Kitchenaid.

- 1 cup lukewarm water
- pinch of sugar
- One 1/4 oz package of yeast
- 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 and 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
plus extra flour and oil

Start by making a sponge. Put the yeast, 1/2 cup of the water, the sugar, and 1/4 cup of the flour into a medium sized bowl. Stir and cover. Let it sit for an hour or so- it'll get all foamy and double in size.

After that, in a large mixing bowl, pour in the remaining 2 and 3/4 cups of flour and the salt and stir in the sponge, the olive oil, and the other 1/2 cup of water. Stir together until the flour is all blended in. Then you turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface and knead for at least 10 minutes (I usually peter out around 12). The dough should be smooth and when you push on it, it should spring right back.

Shape the bowl into a ball and put in a lightly oiled bowl. Brush some oil over the top of it, and then cover with a damp tea towel. You can let this rise in a warm place (I left it in the back of my car while playing croquet in Santa Monica yesterday, for instance) for 2 or 3 hours, or a less warm place (I remember my mother used to leave hers in the laundry room) for 4 or 5 hours, or in the refrigerator for 24 hours. After that (it should almost double in size) I punch it down and let it rise again for another hour, but that's optional. This will make enough dough for 4 thin crust individual pizzas, or 3 thick crust individual pizzas. If you have more than you need, just divide it and freeze the extra.

Caramelized Onions

I start these around the same time I turn on the oven- you'll need to preheat it at 450 for at least 30 minutes, with the pizza stone or cookie sheet or whatever you cook your pizzas on in the oven also heating. This is also my by memory fudged version of Sally Schneider's "fried" onions.

- one large yellow onion
- one tablespoon butter
- one teaspoon sugar
Salt.

Slice the onion into slivers. Melt the butter on low, then add the sliced onion. Cover and let it cook on low for 10 minutes or longer, until the onions have released a ton of liquid. Then take the lid off and sprinkle on some salt. Cook on medium-low for another ten minutes or so. Once all the liquid is gone, increase the heat even more, add the sugar, and stir until they get brown and crispy and delicious. Remove from heat.

(Note: I usually shape the pizza dough right after uncovering the onions. I roll it out (for a thin crust) or pull and shape by hand (for a thicker crust). Then I put it on a floured surface (those plastic flexible cutting boards are great for this, the pizza slides right off) and brush with olive oil again and prick it with a fork. You can cover it with saran wrap or just leave it there to rise even a little bit more.)

Lemon pepper cream sauce

This I do at the last minute, right before putting the pizza in the oven.

- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- heavy cream
- juice of one lemon
- freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter on low heat. Slowly whisk in the flour to make a roux. Once the roux browns a little bit, add some cream bit by bit. Add it slowly and continue to whisk until you have the right consistency (and then, if you're me, you'll keep whisking and it'll thicken too much and you'll have to add a bit more.) Then add lemon juice to taste and pepper also to taste. It should be just thicker than runny, if that makes sense.

Pizza

- dough
- lemon pepper cream sauce
- caramelized onions
- prosciutto
- shredded mozzarella.

Spread the lemon pepper cream sauce over the dough. Sprinkle with cheese. Add the onions and prosciutto on top and cook at 450 for 9-12 minutes, or until golden brown.


This pizza is also delicious cold, so you may want to make two.