Pizza Freak: Spinach Artichoke Pizza; Broccoli, Red Pepper, and Mushroom Pizza; Evita - Guest Starring the Lauden Special & Pepperoni Mushroom Pizzas

We seem to have entered a vegetarian phase in our pizza menus. Thank goodness Paul and Leslie showed up with a pepperoni pizza! No, I'm kidding- I have no problem with vegetarian pizzas. I love them, in fact, but sometimes I just need a good meaty pizza. It's familiar, it's comfort food. And the Dahlens make a great pizza, no matter what the toppings.

They also brought a "Lauden Special". I can't remember where they had this pizza first, but it was at a restaurant. They thought they could replicate it at home, and they have become known for this pizza among my friends and family who have come to pizza night when this has been served. Roger and Jennifer are going to be especially disappointed to learn that they missed this rare showing. The "sauce" was peanut butter. This was covered with jalapenos and cheese, and bacon was draped over the top. As the pizza cooked, the bacon infused the entire pizza with its porky goodness and got nice and crispy on top. The sweet, salty peanut butter contrasted beautifully with the slightly zippy jalapenos. The crisp bacon adds a little crunch and elevates the already delicious combo to a heavenliness.

I had done quite a bit of preparation on Wednesday night. Jeff had left Wednesday morning for the guys' "weekend" up North for fishing opener, so I had no obligations or distractions. I made both dough balls and placed them in the freezer overnight. I sliced onions. I blanched broccoli. I sliced a red pepper. I made the garlic "sauce," which could hardly be called a sauce at all. It was simply olive oil, garlic, and cayenne pepper heated up and cooled back down. I made a mental note to have an edge on the crust for that pizza, so the oil wouldn't leak out all over the bottom of my oven. I had substituted fresh mozzarella for the regular

shredded mozz the Spinach Artichoke Pizza recipe had called for - it was the same reasoning as last week - I had some fresh mozzarella that was threatening not to be so fresh any more. Obviously, there had been a sale, and Jeff had hit that deal a couple of times. So, I chopped up the mozzarella. I shredded Romano cheese. I verified that the cream cheese I was going to use was actually in the fridge instead of the freezer, so I wouldn't have to chip it apart on Thursday. I sliced mushrooms - by the way 2 ounces of mushrooms appears to be about three regular button mushrooms. I took a package of frozen spinach out to thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

When my dough alarm (the alarm on my phone that goes off every Thursday morning to remind me to take my dough out of the freezer and place it on the counter) went off, I did just that - I pulled out the two dough balls I had made Wednesday night and place them on the counter. When I got home from work on Thursday, the basil white dough for the Broccoli, Red Pepper, and Mushroom Pizza had decided to vacate its baggy and travel all over my counter.

Paul and Leslie (and their girls) were the first to arrive, and I had not started in on anything. I let them in, helped them unload their kids and food and surveyed the situation. Paul declared my dough leakage as "gross," which I thought was kind of funny.

The pizzas he and Leslie had brought were already assembled. They had even pre-baked the crusts somewhat, so they wouldn't have to bring a pizza peel. They were both carefully wrapped in plastic wrap all the way around. It was amazing to me that there was no oozing of sauce, not much sliding of toppings, and no transference of sauce nor toppings onto the plastic wrap.

Since Leslie was busy entertaining the little girls, and their pizzas were already oven-ready, I put Paul to work on the Broccoli, Red Pepper, and Mushroom Pizza. I set all of the toppings out in front of him, and handed him the recently amassed dough goo to work on.

BROCCOLI, RED PEPPER, AND MUSHROOM PIZZA

Adapted from All the best Pizzas by Joie Warner

3/4 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1-3/4 cup bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 ounces sliced mushrooms

1/4 pound broccoli florets, blanched and chopped

2 ounces thinly sliced red pepper rings

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into small pieces

1 ounce freshly grated Romano cheese

In a small bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar. Set aside for at least 5 minutes. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the bread flour and salt. Add the yeast mixture and mix at medium speed until starting to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl and continue to mix at a medium speed until dough comes together, clings to the dough hook, and becomes smooth and elastic. Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover with a damp towel or drape with a piece of plastic wrap and set in a warm, dry place for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch dough to a thirteen inch circle. Brush the dough all over with the tablespoon of olive oil. Place the mushrooms, broccoli, and red pepper slices over the dough. Sprinkle the garlic over the vegetables. Distribute the mozzarella pieces all over the vegetables. Slide the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone, if using, or transfer pizza to a greased pizza pan and put in the preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust has started to become golden brown. Sprinkle the Romano cheese over the top of it. Cut and serve.

My two ounces of mushrooms looked quite sparse on the dough once it was all rolled out. I was hoping that the rest of the toppings would fill in the gaps.

And that seemed to be the case.

I had done the math wrong when I chopped up the mozzarella for the Spinach Artichoke Pizza. The Broccoli Pizza was only supposed to have a little Parmesan (which I changed to Romano). I had halved all of the ingredients for the Spinach Artichoke Pizza, but for some reason, I didn't halve the mozzarella (that was my subconscious cheese monster taking over). It seemed like way too much cheese for one pizza, and I didn't want it to go to waste (as I said before, it was threatening not to be fresh any more). Since the Broccoli Pizza was a little lacking in the cheese department, I decided it would benefit from a little mozzarella and spinkled some over Paul's beautiful vegetable arrangement just before I slopped on the minced garlic.

SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

Crust:

½ cup + 1 tablespoon warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1½ teaspoons honey

¼ teaspoon sugar

1 cup bread flour

¼ cup buckwheat flour

¼ cup rye flour

¼ cup oat bran flour

½ teaspoon salt

1½ teaspoon olive oil

Sauce:

¼ cup olive oil

3 tablespoons minced garlic

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

The rest of the story:

10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and all the liquid squeezed out

8½ ounce can artichoke hearts, drained

2 green onions

4 ounces cream cheese

6 ounces fresh mozzarella, roughly cut into small pieces

4 ounces Romano cheese

Make the crust: In a small bowl, combine the water, yeast, honey, and sugar. Set aside for at least five minutes. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, combine all of the flours and the salt. Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and mix on medium speed for a few minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix at medium speed until the ingredients are combined well. Continue mixing until the dough clings to the hook and becomes smooth and elastic. Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover with a damp towel or drape with a piece of plastic wrap and set in a warm, dry place for at least an hour.

Make the sauce: In a small saucepan, combine the olive oil, garlic, and cayenne. Heat for a few minutes until the garlic becomes soft. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool.

The rest of the story: Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch dough out to a fifteen inch circle. Pinch the edges of the dough up to form a rim around the entire circle. Spread the garlic-cayenne oil over the dough. Spread the spinach over the olive oil. Scatter the artichoke hearts over the spinach. Dollup the cream cheese all over the artichoke hearts and spinach. Distribute the mozzarella pieces over the top. Cover everything with the Romano cheese. Transfer the pizza to the preheated pizza stone, if using, or transfer to a greased pizza pan and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes or until crust has become crispy and the cheese starts to bubble and brown in places.

While he had been assembling that pizza, I was working on the other one. I rolled out the unappetizingly grey dough (which I had to get past, because it was going to be covered up, and I knew from last week, that it was quite delicious). I actually remembered to make a little barrier around the edges to keep in my garlic-cayenne oil.

The original recipe had called for pounds of spinach cut and wilted, but I took the easy way out and bought a package of frozen spinach for the event. It seemed to me like a wasted effort to pay premium price for fresh spinach, cook it down, cut it up, and end up with about the same amount of spinach in the same condition as a box of frozen spinach that I could buy for less than a dollar.

I added the artichoke hearts on top and dolloped in the cream cheese in between.

And then it was time for the massive amount of cheese. Even with taking a little bit out for the other pizza, it was still quite a bit of cheese, and I was really starting to look forward to tasting this lovely ensemble.

Paul had taken the kids out into the backyard to play frizbee for a little bit. It was hard to imagine that it had been snowing last week at this time. It was still a little chilly - it was hovering around 60º - but they were running around and having lots of fun. They came back in just after I put all of the pizzas in the oven, and Leslie was back on duty.

Pam and Grace had arrived, and Grace took over as the entertainer of little people. Leslie was thrilled to relinquish the girls to her and concentrate on her newly created drink.

EVITA

2 measures vodka

½ measure Midori

1 measure freshly squeezed orange juice

½ measure freshly squeezed lime juice

Add all ingredients to an ice filled shaker. Shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Enjoy.

The pizzas all came out of the oven, looking gorgeous. We had a feast fit for several kings - or maybe three queens and three princesses and Paul.

I made the mistake of starting with the Spinach Artichoke Heart Pizza. It was garlicky and earthy and juicy and cheesy. It was very flavorful. While the Broccoli, Red Pepper, and Mushroom Pizza was good, it was modest in flavor and would have been better appreciated had I not eaten such a powerful combination of flavors first. Even the little bits of cream cheese browned up a little - or maybe it was the cheese covering the cream cheese that had browned. Either way, it was toasty and delicious. I wouldn't change a thing.