Personal Pizzas

Who doesn't love pizza? Living in the NYC area, I've grown up with pizza. Pizza is one of our comfort foods. "Has it been a long day?" Let's order a pizza. "Don't feel like cooking?" Let's order a pizza. Pizza. Pizza. Pizza.

This week coming up was the last week before spring break, and to get me through...well, I needed some comfort food.

On Sunday nights, we usually concoct a big batch of food to last us the week. But we were at a loss on what to make, until I saw that my coworker was having a pizza party. Clearly, I decided, this was the best way to power through until break.

These pizzas turned out to be very simple. The only trick was deciding what pizzas to make. Our list was (perhaps not so surprisingly) long. There are a lot of good options out there. 

Here were the ingredients we narrowed it down to:

Our list of pizzas ended up being:

-faux margarita (with shredded mozzarella and pesto instead of basil)

-white pizza

-classic mushroom

-goat cheese and onion

-eggplant pesto

-buffalo chicken (last sinful delight, not pictured)

One thing I have to admit is that this experience changed my view of whole wheat dough. It is SO much better than regular dough. Prepare for a whole wheat rant: Its flavor added to the pizza rather than acting solely as a vehicle to move tomato and cheese into my mouth. The crust was soft and edible, unlike the hard, chewy regular dough. It was more structurally sound than the regular dough, which ended up being floppy. And, it took less time to cook! Okay, I'm done. I hope I convinced you.

Anyway, here are our ad hoc recipes for this delicious comfort food. Enjoy!

 Ingredients

-1 jar pesto sauce

-1 head of broccoli, finely chopped

-1 red onion, chopped

-1 package of mushrooms, chopped

-1 eggplant, sliced thin

-5 bags of pizza dough (found near shredded cheese section)

-1 can 28oz crushed tomatoes

-1 can 14.5oz stewed tomatoes

-1 12oz low fat ricotta cheese (I used frozen leftovers...they freeze well!)

-1 package goat cheese

-1 package shredded 4 cheese

-1 package shredded mozzarella

-frozen chicken fingers

-hot sauce

-parchment paper

 Instructions

Begin by chopping/slicing your broccoli,  onion, mushrooms, and eggplant. As you finish chopping one, put it in a skillet with a little olive oil. Let it cook on medium heat for a few minutes. (The eggplant first needs to be salted. Let it sit for a 1/2 hour to an hour so the bitter juices come out. Wash the eggplant slices and then dry them. Now they are ready to be cooked.) Once all of the vegetables are cooked, store them in individual containers. You can make pizza at any time!

Heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Remove dough from packaging and dust with flour. Cut dough in half to make smaller, personal pizzas. Roll out dough using hands and place on parchment paper. (The parchment paper is crucial for it not to stick to the pan while cooking.)

Add your toppings!

-faux margarita: sprinkle mozzarella cheese, blob pesto (yes, blob), add stewed tomatoes

-classic mushroom: spread crushed tomatoes, sprinkle 4 cheese, spread mushrooms evenly

-white pizza: coat with olive oil & garlic, spread ricotta, sprinkle 4 cheese, add broccoli

-goat cheese and onion: coat with olive oil, crumble goat cheese, spread onions evenly

-eggplant pesto: spread crushed tomatoes, add eggplant, blob pesto, sprinkle 4 cheese

-buffalo chicken: coat with hot sauce, add mozzarella, add chopped chicken with hot sauce

Then cook for about 13 minutes (with wheat dough) or about 23 minutes (with regular dough). Let it cool down, and enjoy!