Red Onion Pizza Base and Decorative Pickled Onions

This is a two-part topping project that comes together into one striking pizza: a creamy red onion base, and a batch of decorative pickled onions to scatter on top. The base is built around a chutney-style cooked onion blended with plain cream cheese, and the pickle adds colour, crunch, and a bright acidic lift. Let us make both.

The Red Onion Base

This base is essentially a soft onion chutney enriched with cream cheese. Here is what you need:

- 2 medium red onions, or one large one - A very small amount of olive oil - Salt and pepper - 1 tablespoon of honey - About 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar - 100 g cream cheese - A food processor

Peel the onions. It does not really matter how you slice them, because they will be chopped down anyway. Take a small pan, add a little olive oil, and head to the stove. Cook the onions gently. After about five minutes of cooking under a lid, let them cool.

Because the plain cream cheese is already lightly salted, go easy on the salt you add to the onions. Once cooled, put the cooked onion into the food processor with the cream cheese. Blend it together, then season at the end if it needs it, just a pinch of salt. If the consistency is too thick, loosen it with a little water. When it is right, you have a beautiful purple base ready for the fridge.

The Decorative Pickled Onions

These are the showpiece. Peel two or three medium onions. Slice the red onion into strips, deliberately mixing thin and thick cuts: the thicker pieces stay pleasantly crunchy, while the thin ones go soft. Pull the onion into strands as much as you can.

You will need a clean, sterilised jar; a 580 ml jar works well.

For the pickling liquid, take a saucepan and add:

- 400 g filtered water - 100 g apple cider vinegar (plain wine vinegar works too) - 1 tablespoon of sugar - 2 teaspoons of cooking salt

Put that on the stove to boil. While it heats, pack the jar with the onions and aromatics:

- Bay leaf (fresh from the garden in the video, but dried is fine) - Fresh oregano (or a teaspoon of dried) - A stick of cinnamon

Once the liquid comes to a boil, pour it over the onions in the jar. Let it cool, then move it to the fridge. The goal here is not long-term preservation; this batch gets eaten within a week or two. Tomorrow, these pickled onions go straight onto a pizza as a topping.

Bringing It Together

So you end up with two gorgeous components: the deep purple onion base, and the rosy, vinegary pickled onions. Together they make a pizza that is as eye-catching as it is tasty. Once everything has cooled, store both in the fridge until you are ready to build your pizza.

Thanks for following along, and until next time, make lots of pizza.