1red, orange or yellow bell pepper (or use ½ of two colors), cored, seeded and thinly sliced
⅔cuppizza sauce
1poundshredded fresh mozzarella
½cuphalved pitted olivesany kind
⅔cupartichoke heartsroughly chopped patted dry
6small paper thin slices prosciutto
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakesto serve, optional
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Sauté for about 8 minutes, stirring only occasionally so that the mushrooms get nice color, until the mushroom are cooked through, and nicely browned. Make sure any liquid in the pan has evaporated. Just before they are done, stir in the garlic, and continue to sauté for another minutes until you can really smell the garlic. Stir in the oregano leaves. Turn the mushrooms onto a plate.
Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive in the same pan over medium heat, and add the peppers. Season with salt and pepper and sauté for about 7 minutes until the peppers are tender, then turn those onto another plate.
Roll out each pizza dough out onto a baking sheet. Spread half the pizza sauce on each of the doughs, leaving a ¼-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the sauce, also keeping the borders.
Distribute the peppers over one quarter of each pizza. Distribute the artichoke hearts over another quarter of each. Distribute the olives over another quarter, and the mushrooms over the last quarter.
Bake the pizzas for about 18 to 22 minutes, until the cheese is melted and lightly browned, and the crust is browned around the edges, and also on the bottom (lift it gently with a spatula to check that it’s firm and cooked). You can bake the pizzas one at a time, if that suits your dinner needs better. Transfer the pizzas to cutting boards or pizza peels, and let sit for 2 minutes.
Drape the prosciutto over the quarters of the pizzas with the olives. Serve hot, and cut the pieces into quarters, maintaining the quadrants, then cutting each quadrant into 2 or more pieces. Serve with Parmesan and red pepper flakes on the side as options.
Notes
Pizza Quattro Stagioni literally means four seasons pizza. It is typically divided into quadrants, with the toppings on each quarter representing each of the four seasons. The artichokes represent spring, the peppers Summer, the mushrooms Fall, and the olives and prosciutto speak to Winter.