Pita Pizza

Imagine, if you will, two creative individuals with similarly creative careers (aka they work nonstop doing things they enjoy for piddling amounts of money) arriving at home late one evening after their respective gigs. They are a little hungry, a little grumpy and not at all interested in having a pile of dishes to wash. The fridge seems awfully bare and the pickings look slim, until—voilà—one of them notices that the stale pita bread in the bottom of the lefthand fridge drawer strongly resembles a pizza crust. Out comes a crusty-rimmed bottle of pasta sauce, a few soggy mushrooms, the last artichoke hearts floating in the jar, a chunk of leftover cheese. A few minutes in the toaster oven, and the pita pizza is born.

A Guessing Game

WHAT is this ugly turd of a bread substance?

Anyone? Guesses?

Okay, fine, I'll tell you. Continuing the using-leftover-pizza-dough theme of the last post, this blob was originally cut off of a pizza crust to make that crust more attractively round. I smeared the uncooked dough with peanut butter, added a pile of chocolate chips, and obviously did not seal it adequately because the insides exploded out. But however hideous the outside, it was LOVELY on the tastebuds. Next time I would probably brush it with butter and a dusting of powdered sugar to make it even more desserty.

Wrapped-up Pizza

I guess, to most people, the pseudo-pizza below probably resembles a calzone. In fact, it probably IS a calzone, but given its unplanned creation and utter lack of ricotta, I can't justify calling it that. When we're ready to post a calzone recipe, we're going to make some legit calzones and there will be no question as to what they are or what to call them.

However, these pocket/wrap/pie things were a hungry lunchtime attempt to use up some leftover pizza dough without making yet another pizza. So I'm calling it "wrapped-up pizza" because that fairly literal description applies to a broad range of dough-filling constructions. We used what we had on hand, which happened to be sausage and leftover sauteed bell peppers and onions, but I'm quite sure you could take almost any pizza recipe and accomplish something similarly tasty.

Assuming you've already made the dough, stop before the par-baking part of the recipe! Split one of the dough balls in half or even in thirds and roll each chunk out into a thin circle. Add cheeses, veggies, meats (already browned and/or mostly cooked) and just a little bit of sauce (too much will make it soggy) to half of each dough circle.

Fold the other half of the dough over the toppings and firmly crimp around the edges so that nothing can leak out. Bake on the pizza stone at 450 degrees F for about 10 minutes, or until the crust is nicely golden.

Serve with some extra tomato sauce for dipping. Ours didn't turn out as gooey and full as a true calzone, but it sure made for a tasty lunch.

French Bread Pizza

One of the especially great things about pizza is the ability to combine leftovers in a way that is tasty and fun. Take this French bread pizza for example. We had purchased a huge loaf of bread to accompany our romantic cook-in Valentine's dinner (which was NOT pizza, by the way) and then had way more remaining than we could possibly use before it would go stale. The solution? Cut it in half, top it with similarly leftover veggies and pop it in the toaster oven until the cheese melted and the edges of the bread were crispy. Voila! A quick and delicious dinner!

The ingredients:

1. Leftover crusty bread, sliced in half and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and garlic powder
2. Sprinkle of grated mozzarella
3. Sliced bell peppers, tomatoes, baby bella mushrooms, parsley and scallions
4. Dusting of grated Parmesan on the top

The toppings also contributed to a nice side salad with spring greens and balsamic vinaigrette. Mmmm.

Pesto Pizza

Not every pizza can be perfect, right? Especially when we're using whatever old ingredients we have lying around, whenever we suddenly feel the urge to make pizza.

First, there was the shape:

ML decided he would rather make a larger pizza with a weirdly shaped crust than aim for a perfectly round pizza that would inevitably be smaller. Unfortunately it doesn't make for attractive photos.

But we are making REAL pizza here.

Then we gathered miscellaneous toppings for our whole-wheat crust:

1. A spread of pesto (homemade last summer and frozen in ice cube trays for use through the winter)
2. Grated Parmesan
3. Slices of fresh mozzarella
4. Sliced baby bella mushrooms
5. Chunks of roasted garlic (left over from a baked chicken and garlic dish last week)
6. Roasted red peppers
7. Pieces of bacon (mostly cooked)

Here's how it looked before baking:

And after:

Meet the sinister guardians of the pizza:

In the end, we gave this one 3 out of 5 stars. The pesto was tasty, but with everything chopped so small, the flavors didn't fully mesh. And call me shallow, but it just wasn't that pretty. Next time, we would use prosciutto instead of bacon for a broader covering of salty meat; leave the peppers as long, dramatic strips; and add some sliced fresh tomatoes. A dusting of garlic powder and hot peppers would also add a nice kick.

Nacho Pizza

The pizza that started it all ... or at least inspired this blog.

Ever since we discovered an amazing pizza crust recipe, we've been making a lot of pizza. A LOT. Roasted red peppers and sausage. Shrimp and clam sauce. Potato, leek and goat cheese.

Then tonight, snowed in with one crust and no typical pizza-making ingredients, we expanded our pizza horizons even farther: we made nacho pizza.  From the ground up it went something like this:

1. Thinly rolled, par-baked crust
2. Layer of salsa verde
3. Black beans tossed with a variety of herbs & spices (cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil, dried oregano, dried parsley, salt, pepper)
4. Chopped tomatoes
5. Grated cheddar cheese
6. Jalapeño slices

A few minutes in the oven on the pizza stone, and BAM, this deeelicious nacho pizza emerged.

I said, "You know, we should start a blog about our pizzas. What would we call it?" And ML, for reasons unknown, responded "Pizza your face!"

(Next step: streamline the picture-taking so we can get the pizza in to our mouths sooner.)