Beef, Bacon and Blue Cheese Flatbread
Try this fun, flavorful twist on pizza night from Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate.
Does your family have a certain night of the week that is designated as “Pizza Night?” We typically do pizza on Friday nights, since we tend to be exhausted from a week of work by Friday night. Since that’s usually
the case, we tend to order out for pizza more than we make our own,
but every now and then we’ll get creative and see what fun topping
combinations we can come up with.
It’s also fun to do flatbreads
instead of pizza, but that brings me to a highly debated question:
What’s the difference between the two, anyway? I’m not really sure what
specifically differentiates a flatbread from a pizza (and after a bit
of research I found that no one really does), but I tend to think of
flatbreads as having a thinner crust, less cheese and no tomato sauce.
So let’s just go with that.
This particular flatbread is a fun
spin for pizza night and is sure to please the meat eaters in your
house, as it’s loaded with slices of flank steak and chopped up
bacon. Not just that, it’s topped with caramelized onions, mozzarella
cheese and blue cheese. There is definitely no lack of flavor going on
here! I also finished ours off with chopped parsley, but you could do
basil, rosemary or even a bit of chopped spinach if you’d like.
This
would be a great use of leftover steak or those few extra pieces of
bacon from breakfast, which would definitely cut down on your prep
time. The piece of this recipe that takes the longest is caramelizing
the onions, but I promise you – it is worth the wait! Caramelizing the
onions really deepens the flavor of the onions and brings out their
sweetness, which is a great complement to the smoky bacon and tangy
blue cheese.
So whatever night of the week you eat pizza and
regardless of your definition of pizza vs. flatbread, this flatbread
will not disappoint!
Beef, Bacon and Blue Cheese Flatbread recipe
makes 2 flatbreads
Ingredients:
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound flank steak
- ½ cup mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup blue cheese
- 2 flatbread or pizza crusts
Directions:
- Cut onion into thin half circle slices.
- Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Add onions and sugar, tossing until coated in butter.
- Cook slowly over medium to medium-low heat, making sure the onions don’t burn or brown too quickly, for 35-45 minutes.
- During the last 10 minutes, add the baking soda, stirring to combine.
- While the onions are cooking, you can also cook the beef and bacon.
- To cook the bacon, you can do this on a separate skillet on the stove, or in the oven.
- For the oven method: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place bacon
on aluminum foil lined baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until
bacon is crisp to your liking. Let cool. - To cook the beef, pat steak dry with paper towel and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat olive oil over medium high heat.
- Once hot, add the steak. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side, or until steak is cooked to your liking.
- Chop bacon and steak into bite-sized pieces.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- To assemble, place half of the caramelized onions on each flatbread crust.
- Divide steak and bacon between each flatbread, laying out evenly.
- Top each flatbread with half of the mozzarella and blue cheese.
- Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.
Note: I used a pre-made flatbread crust. If making your own,
follow the baking instructions from the recipe, and just make sure you
have the toppings on the crust for at least 10 minutes in the oven so
the cheese can melt.