Studded Cherry-Tomato, Bacon & Blue Cheese Pizza
Tomato Bacon Pizza
Dear Friends, this pizza is very special. So special that we had to make it and eat it twice to make sure it was good enough for you all. *happy face* There are some things in life that you can’t have too much of. As of late, one of those things are Sweet Million Cherry tomatoes. Maybe our plant didn’t exactly deliver one million cherry tomatoes, but these are certainly one of the sweetest varieties we’ve ever grown. Though we’ve grown other varieties of red cherry tomatoes, these sweet million are at the very top of our red cherry list.
True to it’s name, this variety is abundant when it comes to producing sweet, juicy cherry tomatoes. Their long clusters of red cherries are gorgeous and their thin skins make them super edible and sweet like candy. The best reward is when these tomatoes are left to ripen on the vines till they’re about ready to drop. At this point, they’re like candy!
Sweet Garden Tomatoes
Though it might seem like it would be hard to keep up with eating them all, we never had a problem with excess. At a recent garden party, our friends politely helped themselves to a few bag fulls to take home. Before we knew it, the plant was stripped of all their red cherries! But within a few days of extra sunshine and heat, the plant pumped back double the amount of ripe clusters for us to add to almost every dish we ate throughout the day.
Since out last post about having too many tomatoes, we threw together a quick pizza lunch with a huge handful of these sweet millions. Paired with some blue cheese, bacon, fresh basil and sweet cherry tomatoes, how could this pizza go wrong? This pizza pie is hearty and rich, but when the sweet cherry tomatoes are loaded on, the pairing becomes fresh and alive again.
Our store is almost finished! It’s been a crazy busy summer for us, so to be able to be home to enjoy all these tomatoes has been a special treat. The most exciting recent update is that our online photo store is finally, almost finished! This has been a project we’ve been working on for over a year and it feels so great to see it finally come to fruition.
We’re still adding photo products, stock images, prints, handmade cards and some fun one of a kind props that we’ve been able to score during our travels. Many of you ask us where we find our food photography props, so we decided to buy extra pieces and then we can share them in our prop marketplace. So stay tuned for this launch in about 2 weeks!
Have a great weekend everyone,
diane and todd
grab a slice and glass of wine
Tomato, Bacon, & Blue Cheese Pizza
Ingredients
- 10 oz. (285 g) Pizza dough
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Cherry Tomatoes , sliced in half
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Olive Oil
- 4 slices thick cut Bacon
- 1/4 cups (60 ml) Tomato Sauce
- 1/4 cups (30 g) crumbled Blue Cheese
- 1/2 cups (55 g) grated Provolone , or cheese of choice
- Olive Oil for brushing edge of crust
- 8-10 fresh Basil leaves , tearing larger leaves into 1/2 or 1/4's
Instructions
- For best results, use a baking stone. Preheated oven and baking stone at 550°F for 20-30 minutes.
- If dough is coming out of the fridge, pinch off a ball of dough approx. 10 oz in weight (or somewhere in between a baseball and softball size). On a floured surface, shape ball into disk approx. 1 1/2" thick. Set dough aside on floured surface to relax and warm up for 20 minutes as you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Combine sliced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil in a small bowl. Gently toss tomatoes to completely coat then set aside to marinate while you prep the rest of the toppings.
- Cook bacon in a saute pan until light golden on each side. Blot on paper towels and after it cools enough to handle, slice into 1" long pieces. Set aside.
- Pizza dough should now be soft and pillowy. On a floured surface, flour both sides of dough disk, then using your fingers rotate and push out the dough from the center to stretch it, leaving the outer rim untouched. Stretch to about a 7-8" circle.
- Resting the dough on the tops of your hands, continue to circle and and gently stretch dough to finish stretching crust to about 10". Make sure to keep the rim thicker than the center. (If dough starts to toughen and spring back too much while working it, allow it to rest for a few minutes so the dough will relax and soften.)
- Brush top and edges of the pizza dough with a light coat of olive oil. Place on a floured pizza peel (or on a lightly oiled sheet pan if not cooking on a baking stone) and adjust shape back to a circle.
- Gently spread a light layer of tomato sauce over dough circle, leaving outer 3/4" untouched. Layer on bacon. Spread on cheeses. (Occasionally as you add toppings, give pizza peel a little shake to make sure dough isn't sticking to it. If it is, gently lift edges, toss a little flour underneath, and shake peel until dough is floating again.)
- Layer tomato halves, cut side up (so center juices will bake into the tomato and not into your crust, making the pizza crust too wet). Keep balsamic mix to sprinkle on pizza after baking.
- Slide pizza onto baking stone and bake for 8-10 minutes or until crust is golden and a touch charred in places. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Drizzle a bit of the balsamic mix over pizza. Sprinkle basil leaves over pizza. Slice and serve.
And congrats on your book!
Hey, this is such a beautiful post. I was traveling so much this summer I missed it completely. Thanks so much for using our dough in this gorgeous pizza. Jeff Hertzberg
Fancy pants pizza! Tomato, bacon, and blue cheese: http://t.co/QW2dCS4t
This bacon pizza looks awesome!
with a glass of my cold white wine this pizza is perfect! stunning!
I made this last night, just without the bacon and adding green onions. It was amazing! Thanks for the tip about putting the tomato halves on with the cut side up. Also, I have not used blue cheese on a pizza before, but will definitely be doing that sometimes now. Truly great combination of tastes with this pizza. I think it’s so wonderful you have a garden, and your photos, as always, are beautiful. I will be making this again, thanks!
Just got back from Mexico and decided to see what I’ve missed. Your pizza looks delicious! And I cannot wait to browse your online store! Can’t wait to see what treasures you are going to share from your travels.
Kimberly- welcome back! and sadly our shoot in Atlanta got switched to NH. Will be missing you.
I just melted into a puddle of drool.
What a gorgeous and creative pizza – I’m so intrigued by the combination of flavors. I’m featuring this post in today’s Food Fetish Friday (with a link-back and attribution). I hope you have no objections and I can’t wait to see what you create next…
These posts are so vibrant and summery they made me a bit jealous. End of winter, and I have to admit I have stuffed myself plenty with tubers and roots, ready to take on some serious business with shoots, tomatoes and basil! Can’t wait to try this out in one month or two.
I’ve grown Sweet 100 tomatoes, but not Sweet Million. I must give them a try next season.
What a combination of flavors! I need to make another batch of pizza dough so I can give this recipe a try!
The “print” icon, underneath the thumbnail of the pizza is not working for me. 🙁
Thanks for letting us know Susan. Looks like a recent upgrade messed up the permalinks. All fixed now! You are awesome!
T & D
Printing this! It looks fantastic!
Studded Cherry-Tomato, Bacon & Blue Cheese Pizza http://t.co/5ymsRqpf via @WhiteOnRice
What a combo! I could eat this every day for the rest of my life. Seriously.
This is beautiful and looks absolutely delicious. Brilliant photography!
great looking pizza via @whiteonrice http://t.co/JayzR1JL #pizza #bacon
I can not wait to make this pizza! And, I most certainly can not wait for your online store. Congratulations on such an accomplishment!
For what it’s worth, I wish I lived nearby to attend one of your garden parties! 😉
WOW…this is the first recipe I’m making when my cherry tomatoes are ready…PERFECT!
I planted that very variety last year and it didn’t do well compared with my other plants which were thriving and producing beautiful fruit. So I didn’t plant it this year … darn it. I now wish I would have given it a 2nd chance. Whole Foods has had some wonderful cherry tomatoes which I will be buying for this pizza. Sounds wonderful.
Lea Ann- Last year was a struggle for us and had very little fruit. This year, we cut back on the watering during late Spring and fed the plants more regularly. The results were tremendous.
Drool! I want to skip my rice and curry lunch and make myself a pizza NOW!
Why must you take 3 of my favorite things and put it on a carb? If I didn’t live in a college apartment, I would so be planting a cherry tomato plant.
This pizza looks great! I wish I had found this post earlier – I was looking for some inspirations for today. I’ve made pizza, but with chorizo sausage, mozzarella, basil and arugula. Nest time I’ll try this one, because my husband loves pizza with bacon.
Tomatoes on pizza sound so common until you describe them! Great post as always. Hankering for pizza now.
I am seriously in love and lust and lust and love with that pizza.
The perfect combination of everything I love!
Adore yummy summer pizzas…even better if they’re grilled!
Here’s another fab one that uses bacon if you’re interested: Grilled Pear & Bacon Pizza with Balsamic Reduction http://wp.me/puWta-eG
Bacon on pizza. Two words: YU-UM!
I can’t resist pizza and yours is particularly inviting. Thank you for testing it twice for us! I look forward to your prop marketplace.
You had me at bacon. And then again with blue cheese. Drool.
this sounds soo soo good!! pizza over the weekend for sure!! love the addition of blue cheese!!
A store?!? Maybe you should open a pizza parlor too…
Liz- ha, no pizza parlor anytime soon. But yes, a photo store because for years so many of our readers ask to buy our photo prints. So finally, it took us this long to get the store organized!
Pizza is on the menu for this weekend but I haven’t decided what kind yet. Your version has just made it to the top of my list of options. Gosh, all those cherry tomatoes–I didn’t grow any this year and now I’m really missing them. I can almost taste this pizza!
Looking forward to your online store. 🙂
My kiddos love cherry tomatoes! This pizza is going to be a huge hit!
This pizza makes me so very happy! RT @whiteonrice Studded Pizza http://t.co/oWnkNfLu
YAY for the store!! I’m so excited for y’all!
That pizza looks so good! I can’t wait to get back to my house and my kitchen so I can make that.
Loved hugging you last week. Happy Friday, y’all!
Now I want to eat pizza for breakfast! I can’t wait until my cherry tomatoes are ripe.
Katie- that’s exactly what we did with the leftover– breakfast!
Studded Cherry-Tomato, Bacon & Blue Cheese Pizza http://t.co/9vYhK0Sb
Woah…this pizza sounds incredible. I can’t get enough of cherry tomatoes at the moment and love the combo with bacon and blue cheese.
What a beautiful pizza! The colors, the light, the flavors, mmmm, delish!
Thanks for making me crave pizza at 1:01AM. *sigh*