Hamburger Pizza

 Pizza is such a delicious dish that is just begging for a little creativity. Don't get me wrong, I love a good pepperoni pizza. Sometimes it is just nice to break out of the mold and try something new and exciting. Hamburger pizza is just the new and exciting I was looking for tonight.

The dish started out with store bought pizza dough. I'm still on the search for the perfect, hand stretched pizza dough for my creations. I have yet to stumble upon that recipe. So for now (and since I was starving!) I am sticking with my Pillsbury pizza dough. It turns out perfect and delicious every time! Just be sure to poke plenty of holes in the dough with your fork tines to avoid bubbles.

For the hamburger pizza, we chose traditional cheeseburger ingredients to make it taste as hamburger like as possible. Instead of slices, we diced up each of the ingredients for maximum coverage on the top of the pizza. This started with dicing up some red onion.

Then we cooked up the meat. Lean ground beef is what we chose, but don't be afraid to substitute ground turkey or even some tofu if that is more your thing. Anything lean that won't make the pizza soggy will be perfect. We used this delicious spice mix, salt and pepper to make it more flavorful.

When the meat is completely brown and no pink is left, sprinkle the meat all over the dough. We then sprinkled on about 10 slices of dill pickles (diced, of course), the red onions, and 1/2 cup of cheese. I used a four cheese combination. Then pop the pizza into the oven set at 450 degrees for 10  to 12 minutes.

While the meat is cooking, spread about 1/4 cup of ketchup on the pizza dough. If you love ketchup - really pour it on! If you don't - use a lighter hand. I personally love ketchup so I not only put more on but I had some on the side of my pizza too!

Then throw the ground meat right into the pan. This is about 1 pound of ground beef, but we only ended up using about 2/3 of a pound. Just brown up the meat in the pan and then drain off any excess fat.

When the pizza comes out of the oven, top it with a bit lettuce, tomato, and mustard. Leaving it until after the cooking is done makes sure the lettuce stays crisp and the tomatoes remain red and juicy.

What a delicious treat! Perfect with an ice cold pop to really celebrate the end of summer. Do you have any creative pizza recipes that I should try?