Another FABULOUS Pizza

Oh my, Friday night I made another incredibly fabulous pizza!  It was a pumpkin pizza with caramelized shallots, mozzarella cheese, arugula, balsamic vinegar, and this simple pumpkin sauce.  While the pizza was cooking I thought that adding some crispy cooked bacon would be pretty tasty on there too.  Jaime said, "Well, yeah, bacon tastes great on everything!"  Next time :)
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the pizza making process or even one of the final baked pizza, just a quick shot of the couple of pieces that were left after Jaime and I finished eating and it turned out to not even really be worthy of putting on here.  Just trust me, this pizza is awesome!
The recipe I started with can be found here.

Pumpkin&Caramelized Shallots Pizza

Ingredients
1 batch bread dough** or pizza crust
6-8 shallots, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons Olive oil
1 15oz can pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or 1-2 teaspoons dried rosemary)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1-2 tablespoons maple syrup
kosher salt
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded*
1-2 cups arugula
Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
**if making the bread dough, make dough, let rise 1 hour, then spread it in a rectangle on a greased baking sheet, let rest about 20 minutes.
*to make it dairy free, use Daiya mozzarella cheese. to make it gluten free, you can make/buy a gluten free crust or make individual pizzas on toasted slices of GF bread (did the quick bread trick for the kiddos).
Directions
Heat oven to 450 degrees then bake pizza crust for 3-5 minutes.  While it's baking, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium to medium-low heat, add sliced shallots and stir occasionally.  The shallots will whiten some and then start browning...this is the caramelizing and tastes incredible.  Keep an eye on them and stir so that they don't burn.  This can take 15-20minutes. (Caramelizing the shallots can be done ahead of time if desired.)
In a small pot, combine pumpkin, 1 cup water, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup (I used 2 tablespoons and we decided it was a little too sweet) and rosemary.  Heat to a boil while stirring then reduce heat to simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool a bit.
Spread about half of the pumpkin sauce on the pizza crust, top with the caramelized shallots, then sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top.
Return pizza to the oven to bake for about 10-12 minutes.  Remove pizza from oven, top with the arugula.  Let cool for a couple of minutes then slice.  Drizzle some of the Balsamic Salad Dressing over individual servings and enjoy.  (Top with cooked bacon too if desired!)
It sounds like this pizza takes a long time, but the shallots don't require much hands on time so get those started then make the sauce and shred the cheese.  It comes together pretty quickly and truly is worth it!
The extra pumpkin sauce can be used on a second pizza or tastes great tossed with pasta, some blue cheese and the Balsamic Vinegar Dressing (and bacon if you have any!)  Yes, Jaime and I had this pasta for lunch yesterday :)
Enjoy!
~Leave me a comment here on the blog and let me know what you think.~