Caramelized Onion & Pulled Pork Pizza

Remember the Root Beer Pork Tenderloin from earlier this week? It makes its second appearance tonight as a topping for this pizza. Whenever I have any leftover meat, such as a slow cooker meat or a rotisserie chicken, I always use the leftovers to create another dinner. This not only ensures that the leftovers do not go to waste, often times being relegated to the back of the refrigerator with the other "unidentifiables" that get tossed on 'fridge clean out day, but also stretches your weekly grocery bucks. I ended up getting 2 dinners and 2 lunches, for example, out of this pork tenderloin (the lunches were pork tenderloin hot brown sandwiches; I just topped a piece of multi-grain bread with the shredded pork, and a piece of the provolone cheese from the pear-stuffed chicken dish earlier in the week, browned it in the toaster oven and served with kale chips!)

Caramelized Onion & Pulled Pork Pizza

1 piece whole pizza dough (I buy this frozen at Whole Foods, you can also purchase from your local pizzeria and freeze)

Homemade Marinara (see my recipe here; or you can use store bought, but it is no where near as good)

1-2 cups shredded pork (depending on how meaty you like your pizza)

1 large onion, sliced + 1 T canola oil

8 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded

olive oil and oregano for dough seasoning

If you have made marinara previously and freeze it, as I do, heat up the marinara and set aside. If you are making it fresh for this pizza, try to leave yourself at least an hour before you want to assemble the pizza to make and simmer the marinara, as described here. I always make enough marinara for at least 2 pizzas if I am going to go through the trouble of making it, that way I can freeze some and easily thaw it on a night like tonight where basically I just have to assemble the pizza. 

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and add oil. Toss onion slices and a few pinches of kosher salt into the pan and stir occasionally. Once the onions become translucent, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onions become soft and light brown in color (caramelized).  Remove from heat and set aside.  

Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Make sure the dough is completely thawed; roll out and form into a 12" pizza. Drizzle with olive oil and spread around, a little heavier on the edges. Sprinkle crust with dried oregano, a little heavier on the edges. Evenly spread marinara over the dough (depending on your dough, you may want to prick it with a fork all over first to keep large air bubbles from forming). Top with shredded pork, caramelized onions and cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes or until cheese is just bubbling. Let the pizza rest for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving.