salmon pizza

When I was a kid, one of my favorite family traditions was homemade pizza night. My dad thought it was great fun to spread the sauce and sprinkle the cheese on the pizza and then have my sister and I stand across the kitchen and lob toppings towards the pizza like we were in target practice. Jennifer really enjoyed that action, but I’ve always been far too Type-A. I found it much more satisfying to carefully arrange each topping on the pizza so that every bite contained the exact proportion of ingredients that I liked.

Nowadays, Whitney and I make homemade pizza one or two times per month. We’re creatures of habit, so most of the time we have sausage, mushroom, and onion pizza, however this is one of our favorite alternatives. King salmon (also called Chinook salmon) is the most prized kind of wild Pacific salmon in Alaska – it is tender, flaky, and has a rich flavor. The King salmon makes this pizza decadent but not too heavy.

Salmon Pizza
pizza dough*
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1 yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. avocado oil**
2 cloves garlic
10 oz. fresh wild King salmon
1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
1 bunch chives, sliced into 1/8″ long pieces

Preheat the oven to 435 degrees F.  Cook the pizza dough until it is golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside.

Slice the salmon into pieces about 1/4″ thick. Set aside.

In a medium pot, sauté the diced onions with the oil and butter over medium heat until they are translucent. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for 4-5 more minutes, until right before they begin to caramelize. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.  Add the cream and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and stir in thyme leaves.

Spread the sauce over the cooked pizza crust. Lay the pieces of salmon on the sauce evenly across the pizza. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, until salmon is cooked. Remove from oven and sprinkle with sliced chives.

* You can definitely use Pillsbury pizza dough, but I have found that you can buy a ball of uncooked pizza dough from Whole Foods or your local pizza joint, and it is usually way better.

**Avocado oil has a higher smoke point than olive oil, so I tend to use it for sautéing. You can use olive oil here, but cook the onions over a lower heat.