Brent's Salmon Pizza

After meeting Cristina, I was forced to step up my food game. I was raised in a family, God bless us, where meals were store bought lasagna or salad. After graduating college, my culinary repertoire consisted of pressing start on the microwave, and following directions on the mac and cheese box. Enter Cristina, the love of my heart and stomach's life. After mastering basics like Picadillo, Sweet Potato Enchiladas, arrays of Pastas (I now know the difference between penne, rigatoni, and farfalle), I felt comfortable stepping out from behind her tutelage and into my own.

This dish features a humble imitation of a Wolfgang Puck salmon pizza. While the concept of salmon on a pizza is the same, not much else is. The main difference is my own unique take on what pizza sauce should be. Pizza sauce is normally a boring cousin of simple marinera. To give it more spunk, I added sun dried tomato pesto, and chopped garlic. Add part skim mozzarella cheese (Cristina's zeal for health comes through here), artichoke hearts, and salmon. Looking at my first attempt at cuisine creativity, I know that I've come a long way from taking rotesserie chicken out from its grocery store warmth and plastic shield. The "yumms!" coming from my foodie simpleton father and chef master wife confirmed my growth. -Brent

On the pizza stone, ready to go in the oven.

Ingredients:
Pizza Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Pizza Dough
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
Salmon
Artichoke Hearts, chopped
Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:
There are no measurements with this pizza. It's pretty simple. Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Roll out the pizza dough. Mix together equal parts pizza sauce and sun-dried tomato pesto. Sprinkle the sauce with the artichoke hearts. Add however much cheese you'd like, and top with salmon. Bake for 12-14 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pizza. If you intend on making is SUPER heavy, like Brent often prefers, consider pre-heating the dough for 2-3 minutes before adding the toppings. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Enjoy!