Carnitas Pizza

Every now and then, I get a meal idea in my head. It's one where I build my own recipe. Once it's in there, I have to test it out to see if it was a good idea. I had already decided tonight would be a make-your-own pizza night. Then, Dan changed a shift at work, so he had to work tonight. No big deal, making a pizza for one is just as easy. But, a week ago, I decided I wanted a fancier pizza. You know, not your ho-hum pepperoni, or my favorite Hawaiian. I wanted to get creative, but still make it a quick and easy process, since that's what pizza night is all about. Top a crust, bake it and eat it. So, what would this fancy pizza entail?

In college, out at UMass Amherst, there is the greatest pizza place of all time - Antonio's. You could buy almost any imaginable kind of pizza by the slice until 2am, and it was located right in the town center amidst the bars. Talk about the best money-making plan ever! My three favorite kinds of pizza were tortellini, potato bacon, and BBQ steak bacon. They also this steak fajita style pizza with the best shredded steak and drizzled with creme fraiche. For some reason, that slice stuck in my mind, and I decided to make my own fajita-style pizza, except with some carnitas. So, I got to work researching some different ideas, and then building my own. The only recipe I followed was the one to make the carnitas a day ahead, which can be found going here, or by going to my previous post. Yes, this is a two-day recipe for this pizza, but the first day includes a crock pot recipe that took me 5 minutes to prepare, 5 minutes to shred and 3-4 hours to smell the carnitas cooking all afternoon. I'll take the ten-minute total prep I needed to make the carnitas a day ahead of time, because when it came to making the pizza tonight, I spent another 5 minutes. One minutes to take some leftover carnitas and put it on a pan and another 4 minutes to throw it under the broiler to crisp it up ever so slightly.  What else did I do to prep this pizza? Spent another 10 minutes dicing up some shallots and green pepper and sauteing them. All-in-all, this pizza took about 15 minutes from start to finish, with all ingredients prepped and ready to go. Seriously, this pizza is a pre-made crust, some creme fraiche and cheese, a good dose of carnitas, peppers and shallots and some seasoning to give it a little kick. The seasoning is just an adapted version of the seasoning I used when making the carnitas. This is what you get:

Carnitas Pizza
from my brain

1 pre-made pizza crust (such as Boboli)
1/3 cup creme fraiche
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1.5 cups pre-made carnitas (see link to recipe above)
1 green pepper and 1 shallot diced and sauteed until soft
1 cup shredded cheese of any variety (I used a pizza blend)

1. To prep, be sure your veggies are sauteed. Crisp up your pork under the broiler if desired. And mix all spices together in a small bowl.
2. Preheat oven to 450.
3. Spread creme fraiche on pizza crust. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Then, sprinkle half of the seasoning mix over cheese.
4. Top with carnitas, peppers and shallots. Sprinkle remaining seasoning on top of that. Add a little more shredded cheese if desired (I did!).
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

This pizza was delicious. I love the seasoning mix. You get a slight little taste of heat and flavor, but not overpowering. The creme fraiche gives the cheese a little bit of a lighter and fresher taste, and the pork is divine.

**For anyone who has never used creme fraiche, I found it in the specialty cheese section of my grocer. It tastes like sour cream, but with more of a cream cheese texture. When heated, it thins out A LOT. I found that out when I went to heat a good spoonful to drizzle on the pizza. Even 10 seconds in the microwave turned it into complete liquid. So when you bake the pizza, it will seem to liquefy and sort of melt into the crust. It still tastes delicious, just changes texture as it cooks!