Grilled pizza - sausage and pepper

Not the most exciting of recipes, but its been a while since I posted. 

We did the grilled pizza thing for gratuitous food Sunday. Mine was delicious - slices of grilled chicken sausage with chopped up farmers market peppers and slices of tomatoes from our garden topped off with a little pizza blend and some ricotta. It was a nice departure from my normal pizza   marguerite (although I've for some delicious smoked mozzarella that I'm looking forward to using later this week).  We enjoyed with some of Pennsylvania's finest table wine :)

I love pizza and I love summer eating. 

White Pizza with Peppered Salami

Last weekend was game time.  What better food for the game than pizza?  Seriously, as if I need ANY Excuse to eat pizza?  It is probably one of my favorite foods in the world.  I wanted to make something pizza-y, and wanted it homemade.  I started flipping through cookbooks and ran accross a White Pizza Recipe in Claire Robinson's 5 Ingredient Fix.  My baby brother bought me this cookbook forever ago, and I really love it.  I've barely made anything out of it, but intend to change that in the coming months.

So back to pizza.  yeah.  I heart it.  totally.  Guilty Pleasure.  But I'm also picky about it... and there is no rhyme or reason to my pickiness.  I gave it a whirl... I used Claire's recipe as a starter and modified as I saw fit. 

Ingredients
1 package Trader Joe's pizza crust dough
a little flour(for rolling out dough)
garlic infused olive oil.
2-2.5 cups mozzarella cheese
1/2 small package of ricotta
oregano
salami

After preheating the oven to 400F, I started by tossing a little flour on the counter and rolling out the dough until it was nice and thin (I like my crust skinny thin or super deep dish, told you I'm picky).  I gave the pizza pan a  quick spray with the olive oil and spread the crust on the pan.  To keep the pizza white I took some tuscan herb/garlic olive oil blend and spread it over the top of the crust.  I spread the mozzarella evenly over the surface.  Then I dropped ricotta randomly over the surface and topped generously with oregano.

The final, special, ending involved 5 strategically placed slices of the really good, peppered salami.  Bake for 25 min and enjoy.

A--maaaa--zing.  Seriously, I really enjoyed this pizza.  The salami and ricotta brought some good salty flavors together.  It was so simple, and tasty.  Plus, I really enjoyed using the garlic oil to get the flavor without using actual chunks of garlic on the pizza.  This is definitely a keeper.  I had intended to make a second one using spinach rather than salami, but decided we didn't need more food. I'll keep that one in mind for next time.  

Seriously, TJ's, I also love you, although not as much as I love pizza.  I'm so glad you are in the south hills now.  I've used the dough several times over, making pizzas or for super calzones.  TJ's, you made this all possible.  Between your pizza dough and varietals of hummus and your close location to my future home, I see this as a long term relationship.

Veggie Pizza

 Ingredients
1 tube frozen pizza dough
olive/canola oil/spray
~1.5 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
tomatoes
spinach
mushrooms
balsamic vinegar
italian seasonings

Method
First I preheated the oven according to the directions on the pizza dough.  I spread the dough out on a baking sheet that was prepared with a little bit of oil.  I added a light sprinkling of the shredded cheese and baked for 7 minutes.

 


Meanwhile, I chopped up two tomatoes, sliced half a package of mushrooms, and grabbed a couple of handfuls of spinach. I tossed these with a little bit of balsamic vinegar.  Take the vegetable mix and top the pizza with the veggies and sprinkle with italian seasonings.  Bake for 7-10 minutes longer until the crust is baked and the veggies are heated up.  Slice and enjoy!

Verdict
Win.  Pizza is one of my favorite foods in the world.  This was a semi healthy version of it.  It makes me happy :)

024 -- Spanakopizza

The weekends are pizza time at my house. It harks back to childhood and growing up in Chicago. I had some feta cheese left over from last week's lentils, so I decided I wanted to do something with them. I had been reading some recipes on the web and decided to make a Greek spanakopita inspired pizza. MMMM pizza and spanakopita -- a combination that can't go wrong, right? I feel so Rachel Ray in naming my dish :)

Materials
Olive oil spray
1 Can refrigerator pizza dough
3 Cloves garlic, minced
1 Green pepper, chopped
1/4-1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Spinach
Feta cheese
Oregano
Dill
Salt
Pepper
1 Lemon


Methods
First, spray the surface of a baking sheet with olive oil. Roll out the pizza dough to the desired thickness and spray the surface with olive oil again. Bake at 400 (or temperature on can) for about 7 minutes.


Pull the pizza out of the oven and start topping. I put the minced garlic down first, followed by peppers and onions. The spinach took the place as the top veggie. Spread the feta over the spinach. Top with dill, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste. Finally, sprinkle with lemon juice.

Bake for about 8 minutes longer and enjoy!

Verdict

Winner! This was excellent, definitely one to enjoy again. I adore dill and feta, making this a yummy combo! Plus it was pretty darn healthy. I thought that the lemon brought out the dill and oregano and made it pretty darn tasty!! Warning, since there isn't a lot of cheese (its really more of a flatbread...) the toppings like to slide here there and everywhere.

Recipe 14: Pizza Margherita

Growing up, Friday night was pizza night. This Friday was no different in my household. I decided to make a pizza margherita. I also learned that margherita is not italian for a tequila filled drink, but rather italian for daisy! And margherita was a queen of italy in the late 1800's. who knew? That might explain why pizza margherita is one of my favorites! I do have a daisy dog who thinks she is a princess.

Materials
~ 1 refrigerated pizza crust
~ cornmeal
~ olive oil spray
~ 1 clove garlic
~ 4-5 roma tomatoes, sliced thinly
~ 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
~ 1/4-1/2 cup basil
~ salt and pepper to taste
~ olive oil
~ balsamic vinegar

Methods
Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a little oil on the top of a baking sheet. Dust sheet with cornmeal. Spread out the pizza crust. Bake for about 8 minutes and remove from oven.



Spray the surface of the crush lightly with olive oil. Cut garlic clove in half and rub garlic on pizza crust. Arrange the tomatoes on the crust, remaining 1/2 in. clear of the edge of the crust.


Sprinkle cheese evenly across the tomatoes. Slice basil into thin pieces and spread over surface. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil in a small bowl. sprinkle vinaigrette over pizza.. Bake for 12-15 minutes until cheese melts and beings to brown. Slice and enjoy!

Results

Two big thumbs up. I've said it before, pizza is comfort food for me and this totally hit the spot. It was a great Friday night meal. I think next time I'll add even more basil. One of these days I want to make my own dough instead of the prefab stuff. I accidentally forgot to spray my pan before I placed my pizza crust, but because of the cornmeal we had very few sticking issues :)

This will be a million times more yummy come summer when fresh tomatoes and basil are available. Add a little fresh, sliced mozzarella instead of prefab shredded and it would be absolutely amazing. note to self: make pizza margherita this summer. :)

Recipe 10: Bacon and Pineapple Flatbread Pizza

I made this one a while ago, but haven't had time to get it uploaded. For me, pizza is comfort food, serious comfort food. No need to hook me up with grandma's fried chicken, bring me some cheese covered, tomato based goodness. When I think of Fridays during childhood I think of Gus's Pizza, preferably cheese or italian beef. One day I was introduced to bacon pizza (food of the gods perhaps?), and later in life we discovered pineapple and canadian bacon on pizza. My tastes are more mature now, but I still adore pizza. This was my take at a slightly more adult, and slightly less unhealthy version of the good stuff.

Materials
~ 1 large tortilla (I have fallen in love with some tortillas that they sell at the Fresh Market)
~ Olive oil spray
~ tomatoes (roma or grape)
~ 3 slices canadian bacon
~ 1/2 cup fresh pineapple
~ shredded mozzarella
~ shredded Parmesan
~ oregano

Methods
Preheat oven to 350. Place tortilla on a baking sheet and spray lightly with your olive oil spray. Thinly slice the tomatoes and place them in a layer on the tortilla. I prefer the grape because they are bite sized. I used enough tomatoes to fully cover the tortilla. Cover with mozzarella cheese (about 1/4 cup). Chop canadian bacon and pineapple into bite sized pieces. Place bacon and pineapple atop the cheese. Drop a little more mozzarella and some parmesan atop the pizza. Season with salt/pepper/oregano as desired. Bake until the tortilla is crispy and cheese is melted.

Verdict
Obviously not the full-on real-deal, but still pretty darn good! I enjoyed the pizza, particularly the fresh tomatoes rather than a tomato sauce and the fresh pineapple. Fresh is definitely key for the pineapple. The tortilla was a little difficult to cut, but that might be an artifact of the super fiber rich tortillas I'm currently loving on.

Note: I have a picture of this somewhere.... my computer and my camera just don't seem to be very friendly today.