Asparagus, Cream Cheese and Lemon Pizza

Pizza is a bit of a forte of mine. What I love about it is that you can pretty much throw anything you want onto it.  When there's nothing in the fridge you can knock up a simple pizza margarita with just tomato, herbs, and cheese.


This was an off the cuff invention, trying to make the most of asparagus before it goes out of season again.

I combined whole and sliced asparagus with cream cheese, bacon and lemon. It's a fresh, tomato-less pizza, with lemony creamy goodness, and a little salt from the bacon. The bacon was probably unnecessary. But tasty nonetheless. So if you're vege (or just trying to avoid the inevitable weight-gain which a bacon filled diet creates), feel free to omit it.


I always make my own bases, because I truely believe there's no better alternative. Try my recipe for a pretty authentic italian pizza base here. Just make sure you roll it out nice and thin. That's the key. It should be no more than 5mm thick when rolled out. I often first roll it, then pick it up and gently hand stretch it a little, just to get it nice and thin.


Apologies for the half eaten pizza in the photos. I actually wasn't planning on photographing this until after we'd honed into it and realised how good it was.

 Asparagus, Lemon and Cream Cheese Pizza

Asparagus Topping (for ONE pizza - so double or triple the quantities as required)

10 spears of asparagus

One rasher of bacon, chopped into small pieces

Zest of half a lemon

1T fresh thyme, roughly chopped

100g cream cheese

Parmesan for the top, to taste
Salt and pepper
Oil

Prep 8 of the asparagus spears at the base to end up with the top 2/3rds or so. It should break where it's naturally tender. Set aside the whole 8 tops. Finely slice anything you can salvage from the snapped off asparagus pieces (throwing away the woody bottom piece - about 2cm for me) and also the remaining two spears.

Place the whole spears around the pizza, and scatter over the sliced asparagus. Sprinkle over the bacon, lemon, and thyme.

With a teaspoon, drop little chunks of cream cheese around the pizza. Top with as much parmesan you like (I think I used about a 1/4c of grated parmesan). 

Always remember to season the pizza with salt and pepper and drizzle a little olive oil over the pizza before popping it into a 220 C oven for about 15 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the base is golden brown.