Pizza in Frances Mayes' Book "Every Day in Tuscany"

I am reading Frances Mayes' new book, Every Day in Tuscany and it is wonderful!  I can't praise it enough - it is beautifully written, and makes me dream of visiting Italy.  In one chapter of the book, Ms. Mayes talks about her outdoor pizza oven, or forno, and describes preparations for a dinner party where pizzas have a starring role. 

Frances Mayes' website doesn't have pizza recipes, but does have several others from her book available for download.

Easter Egg Shaped Brunch Pizza Recipe Link

In yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Sauce column by Margie Shrum mentioned a recipe for "a pizza that looks like an egg" and you know I had to check it out!  The recipe is from Family Fun magazine and is for an Easter Brunch Pizza.   It's a cute and easy idea that you can easily customize to suit your own tastes.

Spinach and Ricotta Cheese Pizza Recipe

This recipe is for a personal size pizza, but you can easily double the ingredients for a full size (12") pizza.

1 prebaked 8" pizza crust
1/4 cup pizza sauce
1/2 cup baby spinach leaves
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
Sprinkle grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place pizza crust on a pizza pan or cookie sheet.  Spread pizza sauce over pizza.  Wash spinach leaves and lay on top on pizza sauce.  Spoon dollops of ricotta cheese on top of spinach leaves in an attractive pattern.  Sprinkle top with about 1 tsp. of grated lemon peel.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes.  Cut into wedges and serve.

Ingredients we used:
Boboli whole wheat pizza crust, one of two in a 10 oz. package
Mids pizza sauce, from Navarre, OH
Lamagna Lite ricotta cheese (they're from Pittsburgh!)
Penzey's powdered grated lemon peel - it's a good substitute if you don't have a fresh lemon

Pizza on Foodtech, the History Channel, Thursday 3/25 9:00 p.m.

The History Channel is showing "Pizza" on a new episode of Food Tech, Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. - the program is hosted by Bobby Bognar and their listing says that they will explore "the fascinating world behind every bite of pizza we take."

Sounds good to me!

Emily Harper's Stuffed Pizza Pretzels Recipe from the 2010 Pillsbury Bakeoff

Emily Harper's recipe for Pizza Pretzels is a finalist in the 44th Annual Pillsbury Bake Off to be held in Orlando, Florida, April 11-13, 2010.  Emily's Pizza Pretzels are Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crust that is cut into portions, then stuffed with traditional pizza toppings (Emily uses pepperoni, sauce and cheese).  She then shapes the portions into pretzel shaped pieces - and the result is excellent! 

The next time I make the Pizza Pretzels, I plan to stuff them with vegetarian ingredients - I'm thinking of mushrooms and hot banana peppers, which are two of my favorite toppings.

Good luck, Emily!

Amy's Organic Spinach Pizza

I expected to enjoy Amy's Organic Spinach Pizza and I was not disappointed!

I tried the personal, or single serve, size and at about 6" in diameter, it was just the right size for a hearty lunch on a cold, rainy day.  The package states that "The light, tender crust made from organic wheat flour and extra virgin olive oil is first topped with ... savory Italian sauce made from organic tomatoes."  They then top it with a mixture of organic spinach blended with feta, with a sprinkle of mozzarella on top.

I followed the package directions for baking in a conventional oven, and baked the pizza at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.  The crust was crisp and flavorful, and the filling had a nice spinach flavor.  I've often eaten Amy's spinach pockets and expected it to be the same, but in a pizza format, but it wasn't - the spinach flavor was milder when complemented by the tomatoes and the mixture of feta and mozzarella cheeses was perfect. 

I think that this was my favorite frozen pizza yet - Amy's makes quite a few varieties and I can't wait to try more.

New York Times Article - 99 Cent Pizza Slices

Earlier this week the New York Times ran an interesting article about the proliferation of pizzerias offering $.99 and $1 pizza slices as an affordable meal option.  Loved the article, but had to think that's something we Pittsburghers have been lucky enough to have available for years!  I was just looking through some pizza menus that I have on hand, and saw many that offer slices in the $1 to $1.50 range - Luigi's, Carol of Casey's, Spartan, DiSalla's, Danny's - and that's just naming a few.