Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Spinach, Tomato, Garlic, and Pine Nut Pizza=AMAZING.

I make homemade pizza a lot. Lets be honest...pizza in Kansas SUCKS. Big time. I miss Gino's, Malnati's, the very best deep dish, or thinnner, still delicious square cut pizza in Chicago. Here, nothing compares, not even a little bit. People here don't know what pizza is. It makes me sick.

Okay, off my rampage. I make homemade pizza...it still doesn't compare, but it is better than wasting my money. I wanted to try some new ingredients tonight, and this is what I came up with...I really LOVED it...so much I ate almost a half of the thing. Kevin liked it too-although I had to put pepperoni on his side, because he cannot have a meal without meat (so silly).

Sorry these directions are terrible! This is what happens when I throw stuff together:)

Ingredients
1 refrigerated pizza crust-I use the Pillsbury Original (I set out and let it rest in some EVOO for a bit)
1/2 block of cream cheese
EVOO, salt and pepper
Pizza Sauce (I use the Contadina, for this recipe I only used about 3/4 a can)
Grated Parmesan Cheese (I like the tub of pre-grated, but not the shaker kind)
Mozzarella Cheese-about a half bag or so...
1 container of grape tomatoes
1/4-1/2 cup of pine nuts, toasted, I used a small bag
Baby Spinach leaves-however much you can pack on:)
5 or 6 cloves of garlic-minced

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. I followed pizza crust directions. Pre-Bake crust like package says, so that your crust won't be soggy. While that bakes, toast pine nuts and remove from heat (just ina dry skillet over a low heat for 5-10 minutes, shaking every few minutes. In a small bowl mix softened cream cheese and a few tablespoons olive oil. In a small skillet, put tomatoes, minced up garlic with EVOO, salt and pepper, and cook until almost tender, I wanted the tomatoes not to burst, but be soft, so I didn't do it too long, and they turned out perfect, and did not burst in the oven either.

When the crust is done, then take out of oven, and spread a thin layer of cream cheese mixture on crust. Then another thin layer of store bought pizza sauce. Then I sprinkled some of each of the cheeses (parm and mozz). Then I placed spinach leaves on top of that in a pretty thick layer. Then some more cheese...then I dumped on the tomato/garlic mixture too. On top of that went the pine nuts. I topped with a bit more cheese...and stuck it back in the oven until all melted and the crust was brown-following pizza crust directions.

Here was the results....

Before it went in the oven (after the pre-bake and ingredients were added)


Fresh out of the oven-notice Kevin's side with the pepperoni...


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

2 comments:

  1. This looks so yummy! I noticed your blog from your facebook. Looks we cook the exact same type of stuff - and its so funny because I have a cooking blog too :) shouldhavebeenachef.blogspot.com

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  2. OMG...yes. I started looking through yours, I will definitely be making some of it..I need to make more salads! Really funny too-fiance, 2 cats...how similar!

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