Bacon, Spinach & Tomato Pizza

This killer pizza recipe from Pizza Taste Tester, Chris Macartney, puts a fresh spin on the classic BLT sandwich. Swap the lettuce out for baby spinach paired and candy some bacon for plenty of crunch.

Ingredients

Makes one 12” pizza

For the garlic olive oil:
18 cloves of garlic, peeled
235g (8oz) olive oil
½ tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp red pepper, crushed
2 tsp oregano

For the candied bacon:
192g (6.7oz) bacon lardons
1 tbsp molasses
½ tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt

For the pizza:
160g (5.6oz) Classic Pizza Dough ball (see note below)
3 tbsp garlic olive oil
50g (2oz) mozzarella, shredded
Handful of baby spinach
50g (2oz) candied bacon
20g (1oz) roma tomato, diced

Method
Prepare your pizza dough ahead of time. To make a 12" pizza, we recommend preparing pizza dough balls that are 160g (5.6oz) each – our guide to making the perfect Classic Pizza Dough covers everything you need to know.

Fire up your Ooni pizza oven. Aim for 175˚C (350˚F) on the stone baking board inside. You can check the temperature inside your oven quickly and easily using the Ooni Infrared Thermometer.

Prepare your garlic olive oil. Add 15 of the garlic cloves to your Ooni Skillet with the olive oil.

Warm the oil in the pan in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the oil is fragrant and the cloves have turned a light brown colour. Stir occasionally to prevent the garlic from burning.

Remove from the oven, cool and blend with the remaining garlic cloves, lemon juice, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper and oregano for 2 minutes or until all garlic pieces are finely chopped. Transfer into a bottle for easy pouring and store in the fridge. This will make enough garlic olive oil to use on six 12” pizzas.

Next, prepare the candied bacon. Put the bacon lardons into a bowl along with the molasses, sugar, and salt and mix thoroughly.

In a frying pan on your hob (stovetop), cook the bacon on low-medium heat for 5 minutes or until the fa has rendered from the bacon and it's beginning to turn crispy.

Increase the heat of your pizza oven, aiming for 500˚C (932˚F) on the stone baking board inside.

Using a small amount of flour, dust your Ooni pizza peel. Stretch the pizza dough ball out to 12 inches and lay it out on your pizza peel. Drizzle a little garlic olive oil over the pizza base – spread the oil using the back of a spoon to create an even, light layer of oil. Top with the mozzarella, spinach, candied bacon and diced tomato.

Slide the pizza off the peel and into your Ooni pizza oven, making sure to rotate the pizza regularly.

Once cooked, remove the pizza from the oven. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve right away.