We realize that if you still have Easter ham lying around, you should probably not put it on a pizza, and should probably chuck it (unless of course you put it in the freezer).

So anyway, disclaimer aside, this pizza grew from our love of using up leftovers, and also from our love of ham.  On our first date, we actually had a discussion about favorite types of ham.  We both agreed that spiral cut is the way to go.

We tried a new technique this week, based on that used at Joe Squared in Baltimore: we used a mesh screen to bake the crust on.  We saw these disposable grill liners at Wegman’s the other night, and decided to give it a try.  We put the crust right onto it, and then put it directly on our pizza stone.  We didn’t see a huge difference in the amount of char on the bottom of the crust, but it did leave some funky marks on the underside that looked pretty cool.  Also, it was easier to handle than parchment, and reusable, so… why not?

If you can find fontinella cheese, definitely give it a try.  It’s tangier and more robust than regular fontinella, which goes perfectly with the honey.  And drizzled honey on pizza?  It is amazing.

Toppings: Caramelized Onions, fontinella cheese, chopped rosemary, diced ham, honey drizzle

Sauce: None

Dough:  Trader Joe’s Fresh Pizza Dough

Technique:

• Remove the crust from the fridge 2 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.
• Using a mandolin slicer or a sharp knife, thinly slice a peeled onion into rings.  Heat a little oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add your onions, and cook them down until they’re brown and soft.  If they look like they’re burning, or spattering a ton of oil, reduce the heat a bit. When they’re finished, strain the oil off of the onions.
• Dice up your ham slices into manageable chunks.  Chop up the leaves of a sprig of fresh rosemary (scissors come in handy here).
• Grate up a chunk of fontinella cheese, or other soft yet tangy cheese.
• Stretch your crust to fit your disposable grill liner, or parchment, or pizza pan.  Spread it with ham.  Add the rosemary and cheese on top.
• Team-lift the pizza into the oven and bake it until the crust is brown.  Remove from the oven, and drizzle with honey and sprinkle with black pepper.

Laurynn:  Great pizza.  The salty ham and sweet honey, along with the heavy pull of rosemary and tangy cheese gave this pizza real dimension.  This is the kind of pizza I expect to see among the pizza options at restaurants.

Nikc:  Since I’ve been eating local honey by the spoonful to help with allergies, it’s nice to actually incorporate it into a dish. This might be my favorite pizza that we’ve made of this series so far. The honey and the ham mesh well together, in a way that doesn’t seem like you just threw some honey on top of a pizza. And fontinella cheese is a great addition to our repertoire. We had a discussion about picking up a new unknown cheese each week to try their versatility on pizza. While that may be a disaster waiting to happen, hopefully we will be pleasantly surprised again.

Laurynn’s Dad: I don’t know.  I like sauce on my pizza.  This crust isn’t done in spots (*smells crust*).

Our inspiration for this pizza was the huge bag of kale my mom gave us that she grew in her yard over the winter.  And possibly the Canadian bacon lingering in our fridge from last weekend’s breakfast pig-out.

We also wanted to settle a dispute about pizza sauce vs. spaghetti sauce on pizza.  I’ve always been on the side of spaghetti sauce, as I generally find store-bought pizza sauce to be much too sweet. But I don’t know, maybe it was the Swiss cheese, maybe it was the Don Pepino brand… it was great.  It could have even been a little sweeter.  I never thought I’d say that.

After last week’s dough massacre, this week was smooth sailing.  The dough was super-stretchy, so we took advantage of that, going super thin with our crust (when you eat pizza on a weekly basis, you’re prone to dough overload).  The crust was perfect.

Toppings: Sautéed kale, diced Canadian bacon, grated Swiss cheese

Sauce: Don Pepino’s

Dough:  Bon Appétit/Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough

Technique:

• Remove the crust from the fridge 3 2 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.  (We took ours out about 2 hours before baking, and everything was fine).
• Dice up your Canadian bacon slices into manageable pieces.  Cook them in a skillet over medium heat to crisp them up a bit.  Remove bacon from the skillet; leave the drippings if you’d like to cook your kale in them.
• Roughly chop the kale into 1” pieces, removing thick stems if you don’t like eating them.  Put a little oil in your skillet (or use the bacon drippings) and sauté your kale over medium-high heat until it’s soft as you like it.  Remember, it cooks a bit more in the oven.
• Strain your sauce, giving it 10 minutes to release some not too flavorful liquid.  You don’t want that on your pizza.
• Roll and stretch out the crust on a sheet of parchment or a pizza pan.  Spread it with sauce.  Add the cheese, Canadian bacon, and kale in your order of preference (Nikc prefers toppings on top of cheese.  I usually do things the other way).  If your kale is on top, spritz a little olive oil on it to crisp it up.
• Team-lift the pizza into the oven and bake it until the crust is brown.

Laurynn:  The crust/red sauce combo really made this pizza.  This is how pizza should be, in my book.  Swiss cheese on pizza is definitely worth revisiting, but it needs something sweet to offset it.  Maybe Easter ham?  There’s a thought.  Or even roasted squash.  Or honey.  Or maybe this is the betis talking?

Nikc: I really love incorporating Don Pepino sauce to a home pizza. Seriously, I eat this stuff from the can. And rumor has it that it is actually the sauce of choice at a local pizza chain. As for the topping combo, kale brings more flavor than you would think while Canadian bacon brings less. Overall they balance each other out quite nicely. In the pan, I just heated up the Canadian bacon then quickly sautéed the kale in the leftover juices. We sprayed the pizza with olive oil which made the finished kale turn a little black, but it didn’t affect the final flavor.

We kind of had a bad Pizza Thursday this week.  I mean, the results were great, but getting there was pretty much a hell ride.

For Christmas, I bought a cheese making kit for my mom.  Fun, right?  Well, we just got around to trying it out this week, and you know what?  There’s a difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit, and apparently I don’t recognize that difference.  I overcooked the cheese.  It was supposed to be mozzarella, and it turned into ricotta.  But, it was good ricotta… salty and with a flavor like mozzarella.  It didn’t hurt that we used awesome whole milk from a nearby dairy farm, either.

So then, I’m really not sure exactly what happened, but after working the dough for a while, Nikc decided he was having some issues.  I can’t verify this for sure, but it looked to me that the dough had been overworked.  It was dry, tough, and ready to tear at every attempt to stretch and shape it.  So we improvised; Nikc ran to the store for a ball of dough, and I balled up the overworked dough and tossed it onto the pizza stone to attempt Bertucci’s-style bread (because we don’t waste dough, or energy).

We did have one stroke of luck this week, however.  I made a comment last week about produce sucking this time of year, and it was almost as if Wegman’s heard me say that.  We found broccolini!  It’s pretty awesome on pizza.

Toppings: Broccolini, sliced garlic, crushed red peppers

Sauce: Mozzi-cotta

Dough:  Bon Appétit/Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough Stefano’s raw pizza dough

Technique:

• Remove the crust from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.
• Boil some water.  Meanwhile, wash and chop your broccolini into 1-inch pieces.  Throw them into the boiling water with some salt.  Cook them for 2 minutes – remember, they’ll cook more in the oven.
• Pre-heat your oven and pizza stone until it’s as hot as can be.
• Roll and stretch out the crust on a sheet of parchment or a pizza pan.  Spread it with mozzi-cotta (a mixture of ricotta and fresh mozzarella would be awesome).  Throw on the sliced garlic (2-3 cloves) and cover it with broccolini.  Drizzle a little olive oil on top.
• Team-lift the pizza into the oven and bake it until the crust is brown.
• Remove from the oven; sprinkle liberally with crushed red peppers.

Laurynn:  This was a really great result but definitely not worth the struggle.  Buy your cheese, people!  Or at least pay attention if you try to make some.  I didn’t really love the Weis dough (it was too much dough and really overwhelming).  That said, broccolini is freaking great on pizza, as is sliced garlic.  And this pizza can handle a ton of crushed red pepper – do it up!

Oh, and about the Bertucci-roll we made: yup.  Just like Bertucci’s.

Nikc: Yes, I messed up the crust. And I imagine it will be quite some time until I’m so comfortable with pizza dough that I’m flinging it in the air like I just don’t care. But with these mistakes you catch pleasant glimpses of uncharted pizza territory like caveman cheese and a Bertucci’s regret roll. Life is good.

Pizza by Elizabeth’s; one of those places filed deep in the recesses of my brain, for an occasion in which I’d find myself in Delaware.  We happened to be in the area on Saturday, and since we have a pizza blog now, we knew the time had come.

The concept behind the restaurant is that each pizza is named after a famous Elizabeth; the Claiborne, for instance, has pesto, fresh mozzarella, and fresh tomatoes.  The Taylor features goat cheese, rosemary onion sauté, sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan, basil, and black olives.

Walking into the restaurant was a lot like walking into a Rainforest Café.  There’s a deep cave-like terrace, under which fake trees are interspersed with picnic tables and string lights.  Through the heavy glass doors, you’re met by a bright atrium-style room, with a long chic-looking bar and piano lounge area.  Further into the restaurant, you’re met by banquette-style seating, surrounded by crystal lamps, paintings and photographs of famous Elizabeths, and a large ornate fireplace in the center of the dining area.  Towards the back by the restrooms, you can check out their wood-fired oven, which is open to the dining room.

Seated, we were impressed by the flowering orchid on our table.  It was real.  And also, it was real easy to knock over, which we proceeded to do, twice, while trying to snap pizza photos.

Embarrassing, but no harm done.

After some deliberation, including a brief consideration of a DIY pizza with one of their 60+ toppings, we decided to let them do the work for us this week.  We went for two mini pizzas: a Shue and a Queen.

Both arrived really quickly.

Name: Shue (Elizabeth, as in Leaving Las Vegas and Adventures in Babysitting)

Toppings: BBQ chicken, mozzarella, fontina, green onions

Sauce: None

Dough: White dough (they also offer honey wheat)

Laurynn: This was my preference of the two we ordered.  It could have definitely been taken up a notch.  I’d have drizzled this with BBQ sauce straight out of the oven, or used it as sauce.  The BBQ’ed chicken was really bland, like they use pre-cooked chicken and roll it in a bit of BBQ spice… but all I could really taste was nutmeg.  The green onions were fabulous.  Both pizzas had a hearty coating of cornmeal on the bottom, which I really don’t prefer, and both pizzas needed a liberal dose of salt.

Nikc: I enjoyed the crust. But the chicken was somewhat bland and the pizza definitely needed salt. I feel like were undercutting the potential here by getting mini-pies but it’s a legitimate menu item so I guess it’s fair game. So far, okay but not great.

Name: Queen (as in the Queen Mum)

Toppings: Chicken, parmesan, chives

Sauce: Mushroom Duxelles

Dough: White dough (they also offer honey wheat)

Laurynn: The sauce was great – although a duxelles sauce is creamy, this one had so many finely-minced mushroom pieces that it was more mushroom topping than sauce.  Which tasted great.  Again, the chicken was bland, and completely unseasoned.

Nikc: I’m not really sure what we were doing here getting not one but two chicken pizzas. Chicken is, by far, one of my last resorts for toppings but here we got two and once again the chicken is kind of flavorless and not melding at all with the flavor of the pizza. However, the sauce is seriously good. I want to copy it, soon. This was definitely my favorite of the two pizzas but I’d like to see this with bacon, mushrooms, sausage, really anything besides this bland chicken.

Would we go back?  Yes.  Next time I’d like to try one of their fun cocktails or awesome salads… the lady seated next to me had a really delicious looking salad covered in huge shrimp.  As for the pizza… I don’t know.  I really wanted to like it.  But they fell kind of short on character.

Pizza by Elizabeth’s

Address: 3801 Kennett Pike, Greenville, DE

Prices: full-sized pizzas, about $15; mini pizzas, about $11.  Salads about $12 (mini salads, about $9)

Oven:  Wood-fired

A pizza made from pantry ingredients that is really very good and surprisingly fresh.

This was another of our risky pizza attempts.  We didn’t really have a plan in place all week, aside from having some fresh mozzarella bought on sale to use up.  So we came home from work and started looking at what we had.

My first grab was a can of creamed corn that I’d had on hand for at least two years.  Nikc was horrified, but I convinced him if we rinsed and drained it, it’d be just like fresh sweet corn.  We also threw in a can of drained/ crushed San Marzano tomatoes.  In the refrigerator we had some black olives, which we chopped up and threw in, and some leftover Vidalia onions from last week, which we diced.  Nikc added oregano and a little salt to the mixture, which was turning out to be salsa fresco (fresc-a?).

The weather was nice, so we decided to grill the pizza.  We were glad we did.Toppings: Fresh mozzarella

Sauce: Salsa fresco: Crushed San Marzano tomatoes, diced Vidalia onions, strained creamed corn, black beans, black olives, oregano

Dough:  Bon Appétit/Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough

Technique:

• Remove the crust from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.
• Make your salsa: throw in pantry and other on-hand ingredients until it tastes good.  That’s it.  But we highly recommend onions.  Lots and lots of onions.  And straining.  Lots and lots of straining.  Excess liquids are bad.
• Pre-heat your grill until it’s hot-hot.  Clean and oil the grates.
• Roll or stretch out the crust.  It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it does have to fit on your grill.  Throw it on, stretching and shaping as you go.  Close the lid.  Give it a few minutes, checking it regularly.  When the bottom is nicely charred, flip it over.  It should flip really easily.
• Spread on the salsa.  Cover it with shredded fresh mozzarella, or really any cheese you’ve got.
• Close the lid.  Wait nervously for your cheese to melt.  Ours didn’t, and the bottom crust was getting dark… so we threw it in the oven and broiled the top until it melted.

Laurynn:  I loved this more than I thought I would, and the flavor was really fresh.  The cheese took on the grill flavor really well, and reminded me of Pizza Hut’s cheese.  Our critical mistake was that we didn’t strain our salsa.  Our pizza turned out floppy, but still delicious.  Don’t make the same mistake – strain your salsa, and I’d recommend straining anything that you put onto a pizza.  Sauce included.  This way you get maximum flavor and minimal sogginess.

Nikc:  When we were reaching for ingredients, the idea of putting creamed corn on a pizza kind of made me sick. But after straining the juice, the corn gave the salsa mixture a nice sweetness that I think would have been lost with a regular ole can’o'corn. With that said, this was a great thrown together pizza. However, I am going to strain, strain, strain every single ingredient  from now on.

At the very end I got the idea to throw some Taco Bell hot sauce on top. I’m not too keen on Taco Bell, but their hot sauce is incredible. So of course it was a great topping.

Outside of those times when we make our own dough, we don’t often use pizza recipes.  It’s pretty intuitive, we like to think.  Or maybe we just like to risk it.

However, a month ago while wandering around a Barnes and Noble, I started leafing through a copy of Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François’ Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.  I put it down, but kept thinking about the recipes I’d seen… and I ended up buying it on Amazon a few days later.

I’d love to review it someday, but since this is our first try at a recipe from it… well, that wouldn’t be fair, would it?  So here’s a look at one of the many recipes from this book.  Why this one?  Well the planets aligned, and we had exactly 3 oz. of pecorino romano in the fridge.  Also, Sicilian pizza is the pizza of my dreams.

Our only modification was to use some of our own pre-made dough… since the recipe called for 2 lbs. (!) and 1/2” thick dough, we doubled up our dough and halved the pan, opting for a half-sized sheet pan.  Who needs all that dough anyway?

Toppings: Sliced Vidalia onions, anchovies

Sauce: Crushed San Marzano tomatoes

Dough:  Bon Appétit/Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough

Technique:

• Remove the crust from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.  An hour before you want to bake, preheat your oven to 500˚.
• Roll or stretch out the crust until it fits snugly into your (olive-oiled) pizza pan.  Per the recipe, the dough should be 1/2” thick.
• Spread 6 oz. of shredded mozzarella over the pizza.  Top with a drained can of crushed San Marzano tomatoes.  Top with 3 oz. of pecorino romano cheese.  Top liberally with a Vidalia onion sliced into thin rings.  Add anchovies if you like (I didn’t; Nikc did.  Glad we only did half).
• Place the pizza in the oven.  Bake for 18-20 minutes for a full-sized pizza (15 if you go our route and do a smaller version).
• Remove from the oven.  Add a drizzle of olive oil.

Laurynn:  This was just a good standard version of Sicilian pizza.  While baking, it filled the house with a really rich irresistible smell, like roasting onions and fresh bread and browned cheese.  Biting into it, I found it to be a bit doughy for my liking in places (there were weird folds/pockets in the crust), and I think more tomatoes or sauce would have helped a lot.  I also wanted more onions.  The edges of the crust were perfect… the cheese ran over and crisped against the pan… like Little Caesar’s pizza, back before they sold those $5 things.  If I could do it again, I’d have used my favorite sauce recipe, and done this up in a richer style more like our favorite local pizza place.  Their Sicilian pizza is the best I’ve ever tried from their amazing meat-infused sauce.

Nikc:  I liked this one the way it came out. It’s very simple, very bready, and really open for a variety of toppings. The recipe called for two whole onions sliced thin. That seemed insane, but really it wouldn’t have been. The onions had such a nice roasted sweet flavor and cooked down so much, that more would have been welcome. As for the anchovies, I think they’re the best pizza topping in the world. But I know that some people have an aversion to salty fish so they’re completely optional.

Last week we discovered a recipe that resulted in our best crust to date.  We decided to try the same process using Trader Joe’s Dough, to see if it made a difference.  It did.

A few months ago, I tried a pizza at Iggie’s in Baltimore that was so uniquely good that I wanted to replicate it.  It had slivers of figs, creamy ricotta cheese, and melted Nutella.  But what took it over the edge was the drizzle of olive oil and sprinkling of sea salt that the chef added just as it came out of the oven.  This is our attempt at that.

Toppings: Mission figs, ricotta, Nutella, sea salt

Sauce: None.

Dough: Trader Joe’s Dough

Technique:

• Remove the crust from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.  An hour before you want to bake, preheat your oven/pizza stone to 500˚.
• In a skillet, pour boiling water over 10-15 dried figs and cover.  They expand as they soak, so keep that in mind.  When they’ve rehydrated, after 1-2 hours, drain them.  If you’re using Mission figs, like we did, remember to cut off that little nib where the stem was… it’s too hard to chew up.  Then quarter the figs.
• Roll out the crust until it’s slightly smaller than your pizza stone, or about the same width as your pizza pan.
• Spread on the ricotta, until it covers the pizza.  This is your sauce and cheese, so apply it liberally.
• Scatter the fig slivers on top.
• Team lift the pizza onto the stone, or place the pan in the oven.  Turn the broiler on high (you may have to turn off the oven first – we did), and broil it.  Broil until the crust looks done.
• Working quickly, remove the pizza and scatter on the Nutella.  We scooped some into a plastic baggie and snipped a corner so we could squeeze it on, but you could also melt it first and drizzle it over.
• Add a sprinkling of sea salt, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Laurynn: Honestly, neither of us went crazy over this pizza fresh from the oven.  I think it was our fault though, as we decided to have it for dinner.  Neither of us are dessert fanatics, but we both agreed that as a dessert, this would be excellent.  As a pizza, this was not our style.  Also?  I would call this PMS food.  It’s got all the elements: carbs, chocolate, salt.  Also?  I really wanted an excuse to have a jar of Nutella around.  So overall, not a terrible idea.  Oh, and it was perfect for lunch the next day at room temperature.  Somehow it brought out more of the savory taste of the ricotta.

This might be crazy, but I think I would try this again, adding some crispy pancetta or ham.

Nikc:  Slightly too sweet to be dinner, slightly too savory to be dessert. Somebody somewhere would enjoy making this pizza but not me. However I would be open to trying it with ham, because everything’s better with ham.

Rating: 5/8

This pizza crust is the real deal.

When this month’s issue of Bon Appétit arrived, featuring pizza on the cover, we knew we had to try it.  I was skeptical; I thought we had this whole pizza crust thing down to a science.  This crust blew our minds.  Not only is it easy, but you need NO tools whatsoever.  No stand mixer/dough hook/dough whisk.  All you need is flour, water, yeast, salt, and a few hours.  It made enough for six pizzas, so we froze the extra.  You’ll see it again.

We even used the technique suggested in the article.  That is, let the dough sit at room temp for 3 hours, preheat the oven/pizza stone for an hour, then switch off the oven and broil the pizza.

I’m squeamish about dumping a pizza into a hot oven, so I ALWAYS use parchment paper.  Assemble the pizza on a generous sheet, then do a team lift into the oven and onto the stone.  The parchment won’t catch fire under the broiler; we know, because we watched it like a hawk.

Toppings: Sautéed spinach, ricotta, mushrooms

Sauce: Marinara (spaghetti sauce, strained for thickness)

Dough: Bon Appétit/Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough

Technique:

• A day or more ahead, make this crust.  No, seriously.  Make it.  It is perfection.  Plus, when you’re finished, you’ll have 5 more crusts!  Pop ‘em in the freezer, you’ll want them again, trust me.
• Roll out the crust until it’s slightly smaller than your pizza stone, or about the same width as your pizza pan.  See my note about parchment above.
• Wilt the spinach: Heat some water in a skillet/pot.  You could also throw in some sliced/chopped/minced garlic.  Toss in some spinach (we prefer standard, non-baby spinach – it stands up to the heat of the broiler better).  Cover with a lid until wilted; drain the spinach well.
• Slather on the sauce (don’t forget to strain it a bit if you’re using spaghetti sauce).  We used Wegman’s chunky tomato basil and it was great.
• Top pizza with little piles of ricotta.  Ditto with the spinach.  Add on some sliced canned mushroom pieces, or pre-cooked fresh mushrooms.
• Team lift the pizza onto the stone, or place the pan in the oven.  Turn the broiler on high (you may have to turn off the oven first – we did), and broil it.  Broil until the look of the crust makes you want to jump around like a crazy person.  Or, you know, until it looks right.

Laurynn: Perfect.  I loved everything about this pizza.  The dough has this great texture to it – airy, chewy, a little gummy on top where the sauce has seeped in – and the char was amazing.  I didn’t know you could get that kind of char in a home oven.  I really think the key here was to let the dough sit out for three hours prior to assembling.  I think it allowed bubbles to form and took more of the chill off, allowing the sauce to become a part of the crust.  Next week I want to try this same technique with our usual Trader Joe’s Dough and see what results we get.

Nikc:  This was another great week. And while this pizza may not be for everyone (it tastes very lasagna-y, which is good or bad depending on your tastes), the real winner this week is the crust. We immediately started talking about all the possibilities for really great pizzas using this crust. It was unlike anything I ever had from home pizza. Enough said.

Rating: 8/8

Toppings: Shredded chicken, sautéed spinach, gruyere

Sauce: Lemon Sauce

Dough: Trader Joe’s Fresh Pizza Dough

Technique:

• Pre-baked crust (spray on olive oil PAM, prick top with a fork to prevent bubbles, bake at 500˚ for 3 minutes).
• Remove crust from oven.
• For the sauce: melt ½ stick of butter, stir in ¼ c flour until smooth and toasty, stir in 1 c chicken stock (I used the bouillon variety) or water, 1 TB white cooking wine, and the juice of ½ a lemon.  Stir constantly, until mixture is smooth and thickened.  Remove from heat, add salt to taste.
• Cook chicken: 1 boneless, skinless breast was plenty.  Cook using method of choice, but I’d recommend poaching or what we did, which is to sauté it in water in a covered pan on the stovetop; is that steaming?  Sauteeing?  Braising?  I don’t know, but it works.
• Wilt the spinach: you can use the same pan you cooked your chicken in, but replace the water.  Drain the spinach well after wilting it.
• Top pizza with lemon sauce; pile on the spinach.  Top with chicken, then finally add a layer of shredded gruyere.  I thought the top cheese layer would help prevent the chicken from drying out.  It did.
• Bake until cheese is melted.
• Remove from oven; top with a few squeezes from the rest of that lemon.

Just throw some spinach on top of the chicken when it's just about done.

Laurynn: Ok, so this was a bit more labor-intensive than previous Pizza Thursdays, but it’s worth it, I promise.  The only thing that could have made this pizza better was to have oiled the pizza pan so the crust didn’t get all stuck in places.  I sprinkled on some crushed red peppers, and it was perfect.  Oh, and I wish I hadn’t eaten four slices, but it was that good.

Nikc: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a little bit more ambitious with recipes on a Thursday. Have another beer and just accept that you might miss the first half hour of trash TV. This pizza was outta control good, but I’m starting to think that any pizza with this type of sauce might be outta control good, which is dangerous.I added Sriracha instead of red pepper flakes and that worked great for me.

One thing about the chicken, it’s important to cook it kind of bland so its flavor doesn’t dominate. Just a little salt, pepper, garlic and you’re good to go, nothing crazy.

Rating: 8/8

• Pre-baked crust (brush on olive oil, prick top with a fork to prevent bubbles, bake at 500˚ for 3-5 minutes)
• Remove crust from oven, brush on olive oil
• Thinly slice brussels sprouts crosswise, tossing with olive oil and salt
• Top pizza with slices of salami, brussels slaw, shredded provolone
• Bake until cheese is melted, and edges of sprouts start to crisp/brown
• Remove from oven; top with a few squeezes of lemon and black pepper

Cuttin it close on that sell-by date.

Laurynn: This is a variation of my favorite pizza.  However, I thought it was too much dough with the Wegman’s crust for these toppings (it needed sauce), and also I didn’t care for provolone – too much bitterness with the sprouts.  We’ve had better results using Trader Joe’s crust and fontina cheese.  The crust this time was dryyyyyy, so next time I’d skip the pre-baking as well.

Nikc: Cooked with a lighter crust and American fontina cheese, this pizza is 100% perfect. The way we did it this time was a little off, but still enjoyable. I still don’t know how Brussels sprouts make such a good pizza topping, I barely like ‘em otherwise. For those vegetarians that won’t go for salami try a smoked cheese, you’ll get the same effect. Oh, and don’t forget the lemon, it’s way more than just a nice touch.

Chillin with a slice of unmentioned Margherita pizza.

Rating: 7/8