Bacon, Asparagus, and Goat Cheese Pizza

I am a fan of the "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" method of making bread.  I save a lot of time by not even having to read the labels on the back of the bread sacks:)  The best part is how flexible the recipe is.  You can make full on bread, or in a pinch you can pull together pizzas and other flat breads that make a satisfying meal. 

I decided to try this pizza based on the leftovers in the fridge.  This would go best with a soup or salad to round out the meal.

Ingredients:

Grapefruit-size ball of bread dough
Olive Oil
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 Onion, diced
4 pcs bacon
10-12 asparagus spears, cut into 1 inch pieces.
mixture of cheeses to cover pizza (goat cheese, mozarella, cheddar would be good options)
crushed red pepper and dried italian herbs to finish.

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 450 - with a baking stone in if you have one.  Take the fresh dough and roll it out on a floured surface until it is about 1/4" thick.  Transfer to either a baking pan or a pizza peel dusted with cornmeal if using a stone.  Turn up the edges so your toppings don't slide off.  Prick all over with a fork.  Brush on some olive oil over dough.  Slide the crust onto the stone, or put the pan in the oven, for 2-3 minutes to par-bake the crust.  Pop any bubbles that form so your dough stays flat.

2.  Slide the parbaked crust out of the oven.  Set aside.

3.  In a pan over medium high heat, cook the bacon until done.  Drain fat from pan, cut bacon into small diced pieces.  return to pan with onion and asparagus.  Cook until onions are translucent and asparagus is a nice happy bright green.  Set aside.

4.  Squeeze the liquid out of the crushed tomato and scatter over par-baked crust.  Top with a nice dusting of italian herb and crushed pepper.  Scatter the bacon mixture over top.  Top with a mixture of cheese.  Return to oven for 7-10 minutes, or until bubbly and yum looking.

5.  Remove from oven to cool for 10-15 minutes.  Slice and enjoy.

Notes:

How this fabulous sounding recipe earned only two stars:  Well, basically I found it to be too acidic.  I think the tomato, combined with goat cheese, just really threw off the flavor into the overly acidic range.  I think that a smokier, meltier cheese like gruyere would have worked better.  And maybe it is better to err on the side of fewer tomatoes too.  This seemed like an obvious "win" - BLT's taste great, grilled asparagus tastes great, and who doesn't like pizza?  I have to say I definately think it was the cheese that threw it off - if you want to give this a try, I recommend gruyere or cheddar mixed with mozzarella if you want to go a little cheaper.