Zesty's Homemade Pizza… Want Some?

Hey everyone!  I had a craving for Pizza last night – however we didn’t have too many pizza ingredients on hand.  Being stubborn, I took a closer look in the fridge and came up with a few toppings that I thought just may do the trick.  The funny part was that they were all left overs from previous posts this week.  That made me smile and think of the LeftOverQueen and all her delicious recipes she shares with us using leftovers. I was excited!

Once digging around in the fridge I found some spinach which I had left over from the Red Pepper Jelly Chicken Sandwiches.  I also rooted around and found some mushrooms left over from the Apricot Pork with Feta and in the meat drawer I found a half of package of bacon left over from the b.

I was totally impressed.  But after that, I realized I had no pizza sauce!!  Oh no what am I going to do?  I ripped apart the freezer and I came up with some Homemade Tomato Sauce.  I thought to myself… this will work. We are ready to make a pizza.

Follow along and let me know what you think of this slightly different leftover pizza.  I guess before I begin, I went ahead and made the dough in the bread maker – however I forgot to capture some pictures of that so just follow along with the instructions.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Teaspoons salt
• 2 Teaspoons sugar
• 4 Cups all-purpose flour or bread machine flour (I would have used Whole Wheat but I ran out)
• 4 Teaspoons fast rise yeast
• 2 Tbsp cornmeal
• 1 Cup Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheese Blend
• 1/4 Cup Feta Cheese
• 1/2 Cup Cooked Bacon Chopped
• 2 Handfuls of Spinach
• 1 Cup of Mushrooms
• 3 Tbsp. Tomato Sauce

Method

1. MEASURE all ingredients except cornmeal into bread pan in order listed; Select dough setting.
2. While the bread maker is working its magic – you can prep your toppings. I chopped up some bacon and started to render that over medium heat.



Zesty Tip: For crispier bacon while frying add a tablespoon of water to the pan when it reaches the high heat.

3. Using a tablespoon of the left over bacon fat I added the mushrooms and sauteed those for 3 minutes over medium heat then added the spinach as well a squeeze of a half of lime (this will brighten up the spinach).



4. ONCE the bread maker is complete – remove dough to lightly floured surface and cover with plastic wrap; Let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
5. SPRINKLE cornmeal on large 16 inch pizza pan or on a pizza stone and press dough into pizza shape; Cover with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes.



6. SPREAD with desired sauce.



7. TOP with some bacon and a light coating of Monterey Jack Cheese.



8. TOP with the mushrooms and spinach.



9. TOP with the Monterey Jack Cheese and then a sprinkle of feta.



10. BAKE at 425F for 20-30 minutes. I like to bake the pizza stone while the oven is pre-heating and then transfer the dough to the hot pizza stone sprinkled with the cornmeal to dress it.



11. Let cool for a couple of minutes, slice to your size liking and ENJOY

As always, zesty wants to know – what are your absolute favorite toppings on your pizza? Tell me the must haves for you!  I hope everyone has a great Thursday… look forward to hearing from you.

Zesty

Tagged as: cheese, mushrooms, pizza, spinach, tomato sauce