Caramelized Onion, Fresh Tomato and Prosciutto Pizza

In the dead of winter, I really start missing our nights out for pizza down at the shore. Whenever we’re in Ocean City, we stop in for dinner at Piccini, a wood fired brick oven pizzeria. Their gourmet pizzas always hit the spot.

Since I’m not in Ocean City and we’re only halfway through winter, I decided to get my pizza fix here at home. Inspired by my favorite pizza at Piccini, the Pomadoro Romano, I put together this yummy creation for my family.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 pound pizza dough (room temperature)
1 large onion
1-2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup tomato sauce
8 slices provolone cheese
10 ounces fresh mozzarella
3-4 plum tomatoes
1/4 pound thinly sliced prosciutto
1/2 cup grated or shredded Romano cheese
olive oil as needed

First, prepare the caramelized onions. Cut the onion into thin slices. Wipe away tears and remember that caramelized onions are so worth a few minutes of burning eyes.


Heat olive oil in a frying pan with medium-high heat. Add the onion slices with salt and pepper and sweat the onions until they are soft. Stir them occasionally to make sure they don’t burn.

When they’ve softened up, add in the sugar with the onions. You can add as little sugar as you like, but I like my onions to be very sweet so I throw a couple tablespoons.


After mixing in the sugar, turn back the heat and cook the onions slowly. And I mean slowly, like 40 minutes. The secret to perfect caramelized onions is cooking them a long time. Good things come to those who wait, my friends.

Remember to stir them every few minutes so they cook evenly. They should be a deep dark brown.

While the onions are doing their thing on the stove, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. You need a hot oven for a crispy pizza!

Slice the tomatoes.

And slice the mozzarella. Yum. Fresh mozzarella always makes a good pizza.

Stretch out the pizza dough. Depending on your dough, this might take some time and effort. Just keep stretching. The goal is to stretch it very thin, about a 1/4 inch. Put the dough on a large baking sheet drizzled with olive oil.

Coat the unbaked pizza crust lightly with tomato sauce.

Lay the provolone cheese slices evenly over the tomato sauce and sprinkle with the caramelized onions.

Then top with the mozzarella and tomato slices.

Tear the prosciutto into pieces and scatter across the pizza. Then sprinkle the grated or shredded Romano cheese evenly over the top.


Hmmmm. It looks good enough to eat and it’s not even baked yet.


Put your pizza in the hot oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes, depending on how thick your crust is. It’s ready when the crust is golden brown.

That’s one pan of heaven right there.


Not quite Piccini’s, but pretty darn close. Excuse me while I bite into this, close my eyes, and pretend the ocean is a few blocks away.