Quick & Easy Pizza

Have you ever gotten home late from work and it’s your night to cook for the family? If you find yourself in this position, and everyone is hungry and ready to eat, these pizzas will take you less than 20 minutes to prepare and bake! No time to stop by the store for ingredients? Well, these are also forgiving…you can use pita bread, naan, flour tortillas (any type of flat bread, really), a loaf of French or Italian bread sliced in half longways or in individual pieces, canned pizza dough, or just plain sliced bread if you don’t have any of the others.

For a sauce, look in your pantry to see what you have. You can use spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce, or a simple can of tomato sauce that you doctor up with a little bit of olive oil and Italian seasoning. If you are out of those then make a white pizza. What is a white pizza? You would think it has a white sauce on it but no, it’s where you slather olive oil and minced garlic on the bread before adding your toppings. You are bound to have one of those in your pantry.

Toppings? Choose whatever you like, the options are limitless. Sliced pepperoni, ham, chicken, meatballs, onions, peppers, mushrooms, pineapple (um, I love pineapple with ham and jalapenos!), etc, etc. If you want it vegetarian just leave off the meat. Any of these can be from leftovers, pre-packaged, or canned, or you can simply just make a cheese pizza. Talking about cheese, mozzarella (did you know that whole milk mozzarella melts better and part skim browns better?) is traditional but these pizzas are good with any cheese you have on hand…Monterey jack, cheddar, swiss, feta, parmesan, cream…think of the bread as a canvas and you are it’s Picasso!

The pizzas below are basic since they were made for my grandkids, that don’t like a lot of veggies on them…but I did serve it with some freshly cut pineapple, so they got some healthy fruit with their lunch 🙂 . For a family meal, add a nice salad, that you can make while the pizza is cooking, and you are set to eat within 20 minutes, start to finish!

You will need:

• 4 pieces of 6-8 inch pita bread (or other flatbread/bread of choice)
• 1/2 cup sauce of choice (unless you like it saucier), see “Notes”
• 28 slices of pepperoni
• 4 ounces of fresh mozzarella, crumbled
• 4 ounces of shredded block mozzarella
• Pepper and Italian seasoning, to taste

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Set your bread on a sheet pan and add a couple tablespoons of your sauce.
3. Top with the pepperoni (or your other ingredients), then with crumbled fresh mozzarella and shredded block mozzarella.
4. Sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper and some Italian seasoning on top, if you like, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cheese is melted and edges of bread are slightly browned.

Notes: If using olive oil with garlic mixture as your base, mix 4 tablespoons of olive oil with 2 large, minced garlic cloves. Then spread 1 tablespoon of mixture per 6-8″ bread piece. If the bread is bigger than make more and add more to lightly coat the bread.

Kali Orexi!