Paste tomatoes are best for this recipe, as their meaty fruits won't make your pizza soggy. This unusual pizza marries the best Southwestern seasonings with Italian Basics. It's dynamite!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3 large cloves garlic, pressed, divided
• 1 uncooked 10-inch pizza shell
• 1/3 lb (1 ¼ cups) grated Monterey jack cheese
• 1 to 6 teaspoons minced jalapeno peppers, to taste
• 2 medium paste tomatoes, sliced
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 3 to 4 finely chopped tablespoons of fresh cilantro
• 1/3 teaspoon cumin seeds

To make the Pizza:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a medium fry pan and add the olive oil. Add the onions and two cloves of pressed garlic and sauté over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent, about ten minutes.

Place the pizza shell on a baking sheet. Distribute the cheese evenly over the pizza shell, reserving about ½ cup of cheese for the top. Spread the sauteacute;ed onion and garlic mixture and jalapeno peppers over the cheese. Slice the tomatoes and place on top of the cheese and onions. Grind black pepper over the tomatoes. Mix the chopped cilantro with the remaining clove of pressed garlic and distribute this mixture over the pizza. Sprinkle the cumin seeds and the reserved ½ cup of cheese over the pizza.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is light brown. Cut the pizza into 8 slices and serve immediately. Serves 4.