For as much pizza as we eat (and as few of flavors as I like) we are running out of pizzas to make. I had leftover Italian Semolina Bread dough that I wanted to try as a pizza crust so my original thought was an Italian-inspired pizza. After tossing around thoughts of eating Pizza Margherita or Quattro Formaggio, we decided on Mediterranean style. Yep. Mediterranean. (Italy borders the Mediterranean Sea, right?) It’s the pie Sis always brings home when she buys Papa Murphy’s. So this is our Papa Murphy’s knock-off version of Mediterranean Pizza.
Despite the fact that I don’t really enjoy sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese isn’t exactly my favorite, I thought the flavor of this pizza was plain amazing. I think the feta and the sun-dried tomatoes actually complemented each other. The only reason I didn’t give this recipe five apples is the crust. The edges of the crust were perfect: thin and crispy. However, I didn’t do a great job of distributing the dough in the middle so there were pockets of thicker, chewy spots throughout the middle of the crust. (I believe I’ve given you fair warning as to how you should prepare your crust!)
ingredients.
- ⅓ recipe Italian Semolina Bread dough
- sesame seeds
- olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 7-oz can Hunt’s tomato sauce
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 10 to 12 oz .fresh mozzarella, sliced
- 5 oz spinach leaves – rinsed, drained and stems removed
- 2 to 3 oz sun dried tomatoes, sliced thin
- 6 oz crumbled feta
- parmesan cheese, to taste
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
directions.
- Remove the pizza dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees and sprinkle a 16-inch round pizza pan with sesame seeds.
- Using flour (if necessary), begin to stretch the dough out into as large of a circle as possible. Place on the pizza sheet and work the dough at the edges using the heel of your hand to press and stretch toward the edge of the sheet. This will take a few minutes. Try to make the crust of the pizza as even as possible or you’ll have pockets of thicker chewy crust when the pizza is cooked.
- Once the crust is stretched all the way to the edge of the pan, sprinkle with olive oil and rub the olive oil over the surface of the crust. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Pre-bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Spread the tomato sauce evenly over the pizza crust and sprinkle with minced garlic. You may need to use your spoon to distribute the garlic across the crust o the pizza. Layer with cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach; top with parmesan cheese.
- Place back in the oven. While the pizza is cooking prepare the chicken breast as you desire (we grilled it) and chop into small cubes.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown on top. Remove from oven and top with chicken cubes. Enjoy!
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 