Pizza with Raspberries, Goat Cheese, and Balsamic Syrup (Pizza Night!)

A savory-sweet combination of raspberries, goat cheese, and balsamic syrup on a tender buttermilk pizza dough.  An excellent light pizza for a summer evening.

Pizza, for me, is a way to incorporate what we've got handy from the farm share into a hand held cheese-topped delivery vehicle.  Since I make pizzas most every Friday night, it's a routine around here.

Marching band season will throw a wrench into this scheme, but we like our pizza too much to let that stop us--I'll keep posting pizzas on Fridays even if we're not eating our newest pizza (and I'm not posting the fresh shots on my FB page on the same day.  The Spirit of the Friday Night Pizza will endure while I'm volunteering at the concession stand doling out . . . ahem . . . Marching Tacos.

[As an aside (can I do an aside within an aside?) I really would not consider myself a Foodie or a food snob (two different terms to me).  I've never tasted truffle oil, or Scharffenberger chocolate, or other high falutin' ingredients I can't think up right now, though if you want to feed me some I'll happily try anything.  

However, I will say that, as an example, a strawberry that is built to cross multiple state lines does not taste like any strawberry I like to eat.  To paraphrase A Chorus Line, Looks 10, Taste . . . well 3 is generous, but I'm feeling generous).  I am more a proponent of fresh local food which invariably tastes better, all falutin'ness aside, and life is too short to eat food that doesn't taste good.  How did I get from 'cheese in a bag' to local food?  Where was I? Pizza.]

I'm still not ready to create a dessert pizza, but I'm leaning towards it with today's pizza.  It's a combination of sweet raspberries and tangy goat cheese, on top of a soft and tangy buttermilk pizza dough, with a sauce of reduced balsamic vinegar syrup because this blog post got me craving it and showed me how to make it.
It's a change of pace for us, a nice light summery pizza, good with a glass of wine on a shady porch.  If you're interested in other fruit-on-pizza options, I've got some suggestions after the recipe.

 Pizza with Raspberries, Goat Cheese, and Balsamic Syrup

1 portion Buttermilk Pizza Dough (or the pizza dough of your choice, but the softness of the dough really adds to the delicate nature of this pizza.  Just sayin')

1/4 to 1/3 cup balsamic syrup (balsamic vinegar + sugar, recipe here)

1 cup crumbled goat cheese

1 cup raspberries, fresh or thawed from frozen, smashed

freshly ground pepper (*see NOTE below)

If you don't have it already, prepare the balsamic syrup as that takes a while to reduce.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and if you've got a baking stone just save us all the trouble and leave it in the oven except when you're cooking a turkey,  'mkay?  Otherwise use a cookie sheet.  On an oiled sheet of parchment paper, stretch the dough out into a better shape than I did (on the left side in the uncooked photo it's all wonky).  Have your wonderful spouse pour balsamic syrup across the crust while your dog photo bombs the shot.  Top with raspberries and goat cheese.  Bake, on the baking stone or cookie sheet, for 5-8 minutes until the crust is ready to take a few toddling steps towards independence, and shimmy it onto the bare stone or sheet.  Bake another 3-5 minutes until the cheese is browned.  Cool on a rack, top with cracked pepper*, slice with the best slicer I've ever bought, and serve (on a porch?  with a glass of wine?).

*Freshly cracked pepper.  This is one area I will fully own the food snob title.  I cannot stand the dry dust that comes in prepackaged salt & pepper shakers so much that I travel with a pepper grinder.  When I say travel, I mean when we move, and our belongings go on crates and float across the ocean (or in boxes on a truck) the weeks/months without freshly cracked pepper got to me and I picked up a second pepper grinder at the thrift shop in Japan.  Now I'll pack one in the box, and take my handy dandy pepper grinder with me to use until I'm reunited with my kitchen stuff again.

So you may remember I took this 30 Days to Better Food Photography Challenge back in April?  Well, I'd visualized the shot I wanted, the evening light was right, I thought I had everything set up.  Then, Simon appeared, looking quizzically at our strange activities in the back yard. D'oh!  Photobombed by the dog!  How rude!

Other pizzas I've done using fruit (huh, apparently it's a habit):
Fresh Pear, Fig Jam, and Goat Cheese Pizza
Sweet Potato Pizza with Dried Cherries
Caramelized Onion, Fresh Pear and Sausage Pizza
Ham and Banana Pizza
Mango, Pepperoni, and Red Onion Pizza
Chicken Blueberry Hummus Pizza
Chicken, Cranberry, and Red Onion on Berry Crust Pizza

This pizza is shared at the From The Farm Blog Hop, the Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up, What's Cookin' Wednesday, and What's In The Box.