New classic combos

Today was a momentous day in our household. My 6-year old attended his final day of kindergarten today, so as a result I decided to make one of his favorite specialty pizzas for him. I also saw a "throwback" on my Facebook feed that reminded me of an absolutely tasty pizza that I had made last year that I just had to make again.

For my son, I made him macaroni and cheese pizza. Well, he only wanted half to have macaroni on it, so I was happy to oblige and cook it how he wanted. I used macaroni and cheese from a box because it was much easier to do with the kids around. I sprinkled the macaroni with a little mozzarella cheese, and then covered the remainder of the pizza with the mozzarella to make it a plain pizza.

Completed half macaroni half plain pizza

For the other pizza, I made one of my favorite brainstorm pizzas ever. My (in)famous cheeseburger pizza. About a year ago I was trying to get out of a rut with my pizza toppings. Sure peppers and onions are tasty and easy to do, but what about something TRULY diabolical? This was my lightbulb moment - when I decided to see if I could make a piece of pizza taste like a cheeseburger.

It starts with the beef

To start off with I cook up about a half pound of 80/20 ground beef until it is brown all the way through. This is seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, kosher salt, black pepper and a hint of garlic powder.  Drain the fat and set aside to cool. The next thing I do is chop a half an onion, and then let it sit in some warm water for about a half hour or so. This pulls out some of the pungent compounds from the onion and makes it milder, especially if you aren't going to cook it until it is caramelized in a skillet.

Cheeseburger pizza in process

The next step is to form the pizza dough into the pan, spread a light layer of pizza sauce, and spread around the beef and the onion. Then add some dill pickles (drained of the brine) to the pie. For these I used my own homemade pickles, but you can certainly use store-bought if you have a favorite brand. This all gets topped with sharp yellow cheddar cheese, and then baked in the oven as normal. 

Finished cheeseburger pizza

Let me just say that eating a slice of this pizza tastes like eating a hamburger. You get the meat, the bread, the onion, the tomato, the pickle, everything. I am sure that if you wanted to you could even include mustard on the pie too - if your burger would not be complete without mustard as well. I promise you if you go to the trouble to make this pizza you will NOT be disappointed. What is the craziest thing YOU ever put on a pizza? Maybe the craziest pizza you ate while out at a restaurant? Let me know on Facebook or in the comments below!