Roasted Fennel and Tapenade Pizza
This is definitely for olive lovers only as it uses a generous amount of tapenade for the sauce. Yes, it's a non-traditional pizza but that's what I love about it - you wouldn't think all these different ingredients would taste good together but they do! The saltiness of the tapenade goes so well with the mellow, sweet taste of the roasted fennel and the fresh tasting greens. The first time I made it I used Spinach, and yesterday I used fresh Swiss chard from our garden - both tasted great on it!
- 1/8 tsp Sea salt
- 1/2 tsp Freshly ground Black pepper, divided
- 1/2 tsp Olive oil
- 1 cup sliced Spinach leaves (or Swiss chard), lightly packed
- 1 Fennel bulb
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp dried Rosemary, crushed
- 1 garlic clove, pressed
- 1 recipe Olive Tapenade
- 1/2 Pizza dough recipe
- Prepare pizza dough and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Cut Fennel lengthwise in half. Remove the core and the leaves (you may save the leaves for garnish if you wish). Cut each half into thirds and break apart the segments. Place in an 8 inch round baking pan and sprinkle with salt, 1/4 tsp of pepper and the tablespoon of olive oil. Mix well.
- Bake for 30 minutes, turning the fennel pieces over half way through baking time. The fennel should be soft, golden brown in some places and very dark in others.
- Preheat oven to 450. In a medium bowl, toss spinach with the remaining 1/4 tsp pepper, lemon juice, rosemary, 1/2 tsp olive oil and pressed garlic.
- Remove pizza dough from the fridge and roll or stretch into an 11 or 12 inch circle. Sprinkle a generous amount of cornmeal on your pizza peel and gently put your uncooked pizza on it. Spread the tapenade evenly over the pizza, top with spinach and lastly, the fennel pieces.
- Gently ease your pizza off the peel onto the pizza stone and bake for 12 minutes. Serve hot.