Pizza Night

In the winter we like to make homemade pizza every few weeks, usually on Sunday evenings. I always make the dough and get the toppings ready, and then Dan rolls out the dough, puts on the toppings, and bakes them on our pizza stone. The kids like to watch Daddy put the pizzas together.

This last time we made pizza, we got inspired to be more creative. We have James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza cookbook and we adapted a couple of recipes from there. Pictured above is the Roman-Style Spinach Pizza. It was so good I was lucky to get a picture at all before it was gone. All of the kids but Catherine liked it. I knew I had better blog about it so I could remember what we did the next time we want to make it. This was enough to make one small pizza.

1 small bunch of spinach, stems chopped off - washed well and drained somewhat

1 clove garlic, pressed or finely minced

Some pine nuts, I think I used about 2 Tbls.

2 Tbls. unsalted butter, melted

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Ground Italian sausage, browned and drained

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Put damp spinach in skillet and cook on high, stirring often until the spinach wilts and turns bright green. This only took a few minutes. Drain and squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then mix spinach with garlic, pine nuts, and melted butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Roll out pizza dough and brush top with extra-virgin olive oil. Put on spinach mixture, then sausage, then top with cheese. Transfer pizza to pizza stone in hot oven (we bake them at 550) and bake until done. Mmmm!

This one is the Olive Paste Pizza. I adapted the recipe a lot so I could use what ingredients we had, and it tasted very good. And the smell! Heavenly! This made enough for 2 small pizzas.

1 can black olives

1-2 Tbls. capers, rinsed and well drained

1-2 tsp. basil (it called for 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, but I didn't have any)

1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped

1/8-1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1-2 Tbls. lemon juice, fresh if you have it

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Ground Italian sausage, browned and drained

Bacon, fried til well done and broken into small pieces

Mozzarella cheese

Put olives, capers, basil, and garlic in food processor and process. Add olive oil and process until smooth. Then add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Roll out pizza dough and brush top with extra-virgin olive oil. Spread olive paste on the top, then top with sausage and/or bacon, and finally the cheese. Transfer to hot pizza stone in oven (550) and bake until done. Yummy!