We don’t know about you, but as soon as the weather starts to change, we start craving pot roast, casseroles, and other dishes that really stick to the ribs.  The trouble is that most of those meals require hours of slow cooking, and we’re usually too short on time.

So how can you prepare a hearty supper that satisfies your fall cravings but doesn’t take hours to make? With a pizza, of course.

The right pizza toppings can create a one-dish wonder that’s perfect for a rainy fall evening in front of the fire.  Add a salad and a glass of Chianti and you’re all set.

Sausage Arugula Goat Cheese Pizza

If you love Chicken Cacciatore, try making it as a pizza instead.  If you’re using a pre-baked pizza crust, slice a garlic clove and rub it all over the crust.  Add some dry red wine to your favorite marinara from a jar, and use that as your pizza sauce.

Sauté some mushrooms, onions, and peppers.  Then top your pizza with a little mozzarella cheese, the vegetables, some leftover or rotisserie chicken, kalamata olives, and lots of fresh or dried herbs, especially oregano.   Delicious.

Fall is mushroom season and woody Chanterelles make a wonderful gourmet pizza, especially sautéed in a little butter and white wine.  Combine them with a nutty cheese like Fontina or Gruyere, pancetta or bacon, and fresh thyme.

For something different, swap out the mushrooms for slices of ripe pear or Granny Smith apple, and add some crumbled Gorgonzola.   For an easy appetizer, slice into small squares and serve at your next cocktail party.

If chili is one of your weaknesses, brown ground beef, onions, and garlic with chili powder, cumin, black, and red pepper to taste.  Or use a packet of chili seasoning mix.  Add a can of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce and reduce.

Top your pizza crust with the ground beef mixture, then add all your favorite chili ingredients – Cheddar cheese, green onions, and crushed tortilla chips.  When it comes out of the oven, drizzle with sour cream.

Caramelized onions are one of the most delicious pizza topping.  Their subtle sweetness goes especially well with smoked meats and bacon.  They can be overpowered by tomato sauce, so use them on a white pizza with fresh mozzarella and ricotta.

Another popular fall dish is beans and greens – sautéed escarole and cannellini beans.  To pizzify this Northeast favorite, start with Italian sausage, bacon, or pancetta.  Render the meat in a large sauté pan, then drain most of the drippings and sauté some minced garlic for about a minute.  Add a pound of escarole, arugula, or Swiss chard, and some chicken stock and cook until all the liquid has evaporated.

Spray your crust with olive oil, spread with ricotta cheese, and sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan.  Squeeze any remaining moisture from the escarole, and top your pizza with the greens.  Add drained cannellini beans if you like, and some crushed red pepper flakes.   Odd as it seems, it may turn out to be one of your favorite pizza recipes.

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The first topping for any pizza is the sauce.  Depending on what you choose, the sauce can either be the predominant flavor of your pizza or a more well-balanced accent.

In Naples – the spiritual home of all good pizza – crushed San Marzano tomatoes are spread over the crust.  You can buy canned San Marzanos at good grocery stores.  Grown in the ashy soil on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, they’re expensive but have wonderful flavor.

Just be sure you drain them thoroughly before using them so your crust doesn’t get soggy.

For a more American pie, you can use your favorite marinara sauce, or ready-made pizza sauce from a can or jar.  Tomato sauce stands up well to bold flavors like cured meats, olives, and artichokes.   And it’s great with Italian cheeses.

A “white pizza” is made without a sauce in the conventional sense.  The crust is brushed with olive oil and maybe a little garlic before the cheese and other pizza toppings are added.

Although a tomato-based sauce is the traditional favorite, it’s by no means the only choice.   Pesto is a wonderful base for a vegetarian or a chicken pizza.  If you grow your own basil, consider making your own.  You can freeze it in ice cube trays and then just pop out the number of cubes you need.  They’ll thaw in a flash and taste fresher than many of the alternatives.

If you don’t feel like making your own, many grocery stores carry fresh pesto in the refrigerator section, and it’s also available in jars and tubes.  Pesto, ripe tomato, artichoke hearts, and pine nuts make a wonderful combination.  And big, full flavors like these let you reduce the amount of cheese, yielding a healthier pizza.

In addition to basil, there are many other kinds of pesto – sun-dried tomato, artichoke, and walnut, to name a few.  These are all terrific pizza toppings.  When trying to decide which toppings to combine, think of your favorite pasta dishes.  If the flavors blend well in the bowl, they’ll likely complement each other.

A barbecued chicken pizza with barbecue sauce, smoked gouda, red onions, and cilantro is a nice break from the usual.  And enchilada sauce or salsa makes a great base for Mexican pizza toppings like ground beef, chiles, and cheddar.

Non-traditional or “gourmet” pizzas, use sauces from other cuisines to great advantage.  Thai peanut sauce is a wonderful base for chicken, shrimp, or crisp vegetables.  Hoisin or plum sauce – the kind used in mushu pork – is another bright taste that is fantastic with Asian ingredients.

Think outside the box, and you can enjoy pizza every night of the week.

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