There are few foods more comforting than pizza—especially when that pizza is made in your very own oven and piled high with your very own homemade toppings. Enter Caramelized Balsamic Onions: A rich reduction of white onions and sugar simmered for hours with tangy balsamic. Add them to burgers, grilled cheese and best of all, pizza.
Start with a recipe for The Ultimate Pizza Dough brushed with garlic-infused olive oil and layered with thick curls of gruyere. Top it all off with a generous heap of your new secret ingredient then send it to the oven. Ten minutes later you’ll be biting into a crispy, cheesy slice of DIY pie without a splatter of marinara sauce or a single cardboard box in sight.
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Ingredients
For Caramelized Balsamic Onions:
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 medium white onions, thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
For Pizza:
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 cups shredded gruyere
- 1 recipe The Ultimate Pizza Dough, or 20 oz. store-bought pizza dough
- Cornmeal, for dusting sheet tray or pizza stone
- Chopped chives, for garnish
Instructions
- Begin by preparing the onions. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes.
- Add the onions, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes until onions are soft.
- Add the sugar and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook the onions, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.
- Add the balsamic vinegar and reduce the heat to low. Continue cooking the onions, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour until they are very soft and dry. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 500ºF.
- Roll out the prepared pizza dough on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly ¼-inch thick.
- Invert a cookie sheet and sprinkle it liberally with cornmeal. Transfer dough to cornmeal-dusted sheet tray. (See Kelly's Notes.)
- Combine the olive oil and garlic and brush it over the dough, leaving a ½-inch border along the edges. Top it with half of the shredded gruyere, then sprinkle on the prepared balsamic onions and top with the remaining cheese.
- Bake pizza for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating half-way through, until crust is fully baked and golden brown.
- Garnish with chopped chives, slice and serve.
Kelly's Notes:
- You can use a pizza stone in place of the inverted cookie sheet.
- Oven temperatures and positions may vary, so make sure you are baking your pizza on the middle rack and check it frequently.
- ★ Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to give it a star rating below!
Nutrition
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I experienced caramelized balsamic onions on a pizza for the first time on vacation last week and now pizza will never be the same again. So I found your recipe and tried it tonight — excellent! Will definitely be making this again and again.
Thrilled you enjoyed the recipe, Kelsey!
This pizza is very flavorful!
Some suggestions: Next time I think I will cut the salt and sugar on the onions in half, at least! When the onions cook down all the way, they are left WAY too potent. Onions also create their own sweetness when they are carmelized, so adding sugar may not even be necessary. All the sugar turned the onions into a big, carmely mass when they cooled, which was hard to spread about the pizza.
It still tasted addictingly good with the sweetness and spiciness, but I could only bring myself to eat one slice, because the onions were too strong.
Next time, I will get it right. Thanks for the great idea!
Made this pizza added roasted potatoes…OH MY …it was soooooo good.
Thanks for great recipe
So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Heather!