Sausage and Red Pepper Calzones March 30, 2010

I actually found this recipe while flipping through the latest Williams-Sonoma catalogue. They had it paired with a really dumb looking calzone maker, that seemed like no one should ever spend 30 dollars to purchase, but hey, the recipe looked good! And it was! The original recipe calls for you to make your own dough, and while I am sure that would have been even more delicious, I was making this on a school night when I was particularly exhausted…truth be told, Mike did most of the work as I was just that tired! He chopped and sautéed, and I rolled out the dough and filled them. What a team we make, huh?! When you aren’t making your own dough, this recipe is really quite simple and doesn’t take too long at all! Here is how I made it:

Sausage and Red Pepper Calzones (based on a recipe from Williams-Sonoma)

1 tbs olive oil + 1/2 tbs for brushing over tops

pizza dough (either get it from the pizza parlor or grocery store, or just use the Pillsbury stuff)

7 oz. mild italian sausage, removed from casing if that’s the kind you could find

1/4 yellow onion, sliced or chopped

1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced or chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. fresh oregano

3 oz. ricotta cheese

12. oz mozzarella, grated (this is what the recipe calls for, but we used less, 12 oz is a LOT o’ cheese!)

6 tbs. tomato sauce (the kind from a jar works well)

flour for dusting

6 tbs. parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

In a small frying pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the sausage, breaking it into small chunks and cook until browned and cooked through, about 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Drain excess fat from pan.

Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for two minutes, then add the bell pepper and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are tender and starting to brown.  Transfer the veggies to a large bowl, add the sausage, oregano, ricotta and mozzarella and sauce, and combine.

Take your dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, carefully stretch the dough out until it is roughly a rectangle the size of your baking sheet. Cut the dough into equal rectangles.

Fill each rectangle on one half with the sausage filling. Pinch the calzone closed all around and place on a greased baking sheet.  Brush the tops of each calzone with oil and sprinkle with some Parmigiano cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 475 degrees. Keep checking often as they can go from looking sad to overdone really fast!

Deep Dish Chicago Pizza February 19, 2010

I made this deep dish pizza from a recipe over at Cooking Light. It was a fun cooking experiment, but eh, not sure I’d make it again. I guess I should back up a bit…I’ve had a TERRIBLE congested head cold for over a week! I’ve been so congested that I ended up having to get mild steroids from my allergist to make everything stop being so inflamed and awful. But, I’ve been so congested that I can’t overly taste anything either.

So, back to the pizza. I saw this recipe for a low fat version of deep dish on my fav. low fat cooking site, Cooking Light and thought, hey, why not!? It was a bit involved: you have to make the dough from scratch, meaning take the yeast, mix it with water, let it sit…add flour and oil and etc, roll and kneed it, let it sit til it doubles, punch it down, etc. etc. So I saved it for this week as I’ve got off from school and no life, so plenty of time for pizza making!

The dough part was actually a LOT of fun and rather nice stress relief. I enjoyed it so much, I think I’m going to try my hand at home-made pecan rolls or something soon. I just read an awesome book all about a woman who quits her job in Hollywood and opens up a bakery in Vermont, and she put recipes from her bakery at the end of each chapter! One of them is for the pecan rolls and so I must make them! But, I digress. Back to the pizza!

I’m not going to put the whole recipe here, you can just click on the link already posted. Its really long and wordy and well, here is the gist of it:

Make dough. Let it sit. Punch it down. Roll it out and push it into a baking dish, making sure it goes up the sides. Chop up chicken sausage and bell peppers (they also tell you to add mushrooms but I did not do this), layer cheese, meat, veggies and top with chopped up roma tomatoes outta the can. Top with extra cheese and some italian spices and bake for about 20 minutes.

The result as I said before, were okay for me. Mike liked it a lot so I can’t tell if it just seemed bland due to my illness or he just didn’t mind that it was bland? If I made it again I think I’d want to add some garlic salt and parmesean cheese and maybe another type of meat, but I guess then it wouldn’t be quite so low fat, eh? Oh well, perhaps some things are just meant to go FULL FAT!

At least it looked pretty!

Greek Chicken Pizza! February 3, 2010

I’m the stage crew director of the school play, and the performances are next week! This means late night at school and not too much time for dinner! Don’t worry, I’ve still got it covered. I saw this recipe for greek pizza and added some of my own ingredients, so it’s a bit of a hybrid: me vs Robin Miller. Her stuff is so yummy and healthy too, hooray! Anyway, this is more a method than a recipe but I’ll try to list the ingredients, it’s just not an exact science! Oh and it takes you like 10 minutes to prep and pop in the oven! What’s better than that?!

Greek Chicken Pizza

cooked chicken, diced or shredded (about one or two cups)

Greek salad dressing

black olives, chopped into rings and pitted (as many as you want)

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

cherry tomatoes, cut in half (as many as you want)

crumbled feta cheese (as much as you like)

oregano

garlic powder

Boboli crust or regular pizza crust

Method:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

On pizza crust layer mozzarella, chicken, olives, tomatoes. Sprinkle around some dressing. Top with feta cheese and oregano. Pop in the oven for about ten minutes, or until the cheese is browned and bubbly. Take out and eat it all up! Instant delicious dinner! Next time I might add some red onions as they appear in real greek salad and I love em!  Too bad I didn’t photograph the slices; they looked soo good, but I was too hungry and scarfed them down 🙂

bbq chicken pizza January 26, 2010

OOh I love pizza and I love making it in lots of different ways. This recipe is from Cooking Light, but I did change it a bit. It originally called for lean ground beef, which was yummy, but I thought, “Hey, BBQ chicken is sooo good and it would be even better on this pizza if I used ground chicken, yeah yeah, ground chicken!” And so, deliciousness was born! We eat this one once every month or so and it is really simple to throw together and really filling. Also its relatively low in fat and calories as it uses ground chicken and low fat cheese. Give it a try!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 package of ground chicken (usually about 1 lb. you can do a 1/2 pound very easily though)

1 small red onion, chopped

1/2 c. of chopped carrots (I just take like 10 baby carrots and chop them and call it dinner)

1/3 c. bbq sauce

3 tbsp brown sugar

dash of black pepper

boboli pizza of your choice

1/4 c. of shredded low (or NO) fat provolone or mozzarella/provolone mix

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cook chicken, onion, and carrot in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain well; return meat mixture to pan. Stir in barbecue sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

Place pizza crust (or crusts if you are making minis) on a baking sheet. Divide meat mixture evenly among crusts, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake pizzas at 450° for 12 minutes or until cheese melts.