Pizza for Wine Tasting

FLKeysJen's Note:

Cheese and fruit plates-uh, so 20th century. Impress your guests to this berry-bursting, cheese-oozing taste sensation on your favorite crust or flatbread. Or, surprise your honey with a bottle (or two!) of good wine, romantic movie, candles and this pizza and see what happens. Add grilled chicken or thinly sliced prosciutto and it's filling enough that you won't have to go out for dinner.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 (10 inch) thin pizza crust
• 6 ounces mascarpone cheese
• 4 ounces brie cheese
• 2 tablespoons caviar (optional)

Balsamic Berry Sauce

• ½ cup cherry (fresh preferred but frozen O.K.)
• ½ cup blueberries (fresh preferred but frozen O.K.)
• ¼ cup strawberry preserves
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice cherries in sixths, removing the pits, so they're roughly the same size as the blueberries. Mix together all berry sauce ingredients. Cut brie in thin quarter-inch pieces.
3. Spread mascarpone evenly across pizza crust (using your hands is easiest), then drizzle berry sauce evenly across the top, then place brie slices across the top, evenly-spaced.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until crust starts to turn golden and brie is melted; sprinkle caviar across the top, if desired; cut in thin slivers and serve hot.

Reviews

[TheGrumpyChef]

Fabulous! Took this to a gathering at a friends, a while back and forgot to post the review. Used Substitute for Mascarpone Cheese as a substitute, and did not use the caviar. The ingredients for this pizza are magic. They come together very nicely, and went great with our cocktails. Thanks for posting!

[cookiedog]

Jen, Jen, Jen, Jen, Jen!!!! I needed a meatless dinner tonight and I was tired of the same ol same ol. This pizza rocked my world! I could eat this for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert and wouldn't get tired of it. The balsamic, pepper, berry sauce, and cheeses come together perfectly. I didn't have any fresh berries and used frozen which also worked, just make sure to drain them well. I used the marscapone substitute from this site and light brie. I didn't serve it with wine, that would have taken up too much space in my stomach- I just wanted pizza! Thank you Jen- this should have won :) PAC 09 EDIT: I brought over the left overs (I tried to eat the whole thing ;) ) to my grandmother's house and we enjoyed it with martinis and Manhattans. Everyone raved about it even after being microwaved!

[Kitchen Witch Steph]

The use of contest ingredients is stellar here. Usually, when I think of fruit pizza, I think of those overly sugary ones you get at a buffet but this has forever more changed my thoughts on that. I enjoy balsamic vinegar with fruit and it was beautifully paired with the cheeses and pizza crust here. Fun...not fussy to prepare, sophisticated but casual enough that it doesn't look like you were trying too hard. I used my own whole wheat crust and enjoyed mine with a glass of red wine but I am thinking about how good it would be with a chilled glass of white also. I am jealous of Emmy trying it with the prosciutto, I bet that was GOOD! This one is worth a special the trip to the store and extra cost of ingredients. This is a winner.