Goat Cheese and Arugula Pizza (with Chicken)

While out with some friends in Providence, RI, we had dinner at Union Station Brewery (owned by John Harvard’s Brewery and Ale House).  The food was decent, but one of the dishes, a personal arugula and goat cheese white pizza made me want to try re-creating it at home. I didn’t go with a white pizza though, but instead used tomato sauce because I had some leftover from a meatball experiment that went awry. This pizza came out really well and I even made it again to refine the recipe (below). The best part is that I cut some of the calories by using less pizza dough, but that made for a really thin and crispy crust, which I always enjoy. As a meat lover, I added chicken, but feel free to skip the chicken for a purely veggie option.

Veggie pizza makes 8 slices at: 884 total cal. or 111 cal. per slice
Pizza with chicken makes 8 slices at: 1034 total cal. or 129 cal. per slice

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. (1/2 pound) of raw, unformed, pizza dough – store bought is fine (about 65 cal. per 1/8 piece or 520 cal. total)
• 2 oz. of goat cheese (about 80 cal. per oz. or 160 cal. total)
• 1 oz. shredded asiago cheese (about 110 cal. per oz.)
• 2 cups of arrugula (about 14 calories)
• 1/2 or 3/4 cup of tomato sauce seasoned to taste (about 20 cal. per 1/4 cup or 40 cal. total)
• 1 tsp olive oil (about 40 cal.)
• Optional: 1 or 2 pieces of 5 oz. grilled/sauteed chicken breast (about 150 cal. per piece or 300 cal. total)

Equipment:

• Pizza pan or stone
• Basting brush
• Knife
• Rolling pin

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Spread or brush 1 tsp of olive oil on your pizza pan or stone.
3. If you bought pizza dough, cut it in half (usually store bought raw pizza dough comes in 16 oz. amounts, so only use half of the dough). Then roll out the pizza dough on a flat clean surface (you may want to sprinkle the surface or the rolling pin with flour to keep the dough from sticking) or just use your hands to spread the dough out by working it outwards from the center and rotating the dough in a circular motion.
4. Lay the dough in the pan and try to spread it out so that it is wide enough to reach the edges of the pan without tearing the dough.
5. Place the dough and pan in the oven for 8-10 minutes until the dough is a little firmer or even just about to get a little crispy on the edges. This pre-bake keeps the thin crust from getting too soft after you apply the sauce and allows the dough to puff up slightly.
6. Take the dough out of the oven and spread 1/2 cup of sauce evenly over the dough until about 1/2 inch away from the edge of the crust.
7. Then spread the arugula out over the sauce.
8. Next, cut up the goat cheese into small thin slices (it’s ok if it crumbles) and sprinkle those pieces over the arrugula.
9. Sprinkle the asiago over the goat cheese (at this point, bake the pizza if you want a veggie pizza).
10. Dice up one or two 5 oz. pieces of grilled/sauteed chicken breast into 1/2 inch pieces and spread that on top of the pizza.
11. Bake all of the ingredients on the middle rack of the oven for about 15 – 20 min. or until the cheese melts and the crust is nice and crispy.
12. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before slicing up the pizza into 8 slices to serve.