This Week's Pizza

Pizza with brussel rabe and smoked mozzarella

For the last four years, we've had nachos every Sunday night.  It's almost rhythmic--I pull out the baking sheet, line it with parchment paper, arrange tortilla chips, and start grating cheese.  Until recently, we have not grown tired of what Chris Johnson calls "naughty nachos," or "nachos-with-enough-cheese-to-cause-an-instant-cardiac-emergency."  Lately, though, even Wyatt says he's tired of nachos.  That's not enough to constitute a change of plans (though he wishes it was), but the resident cook is also tired of them.  Time for a change.  Time for Pizza Sundays.

You know what that means.  If you don't like pizza, you'll have to find something else to read on Mondays.  

My inventory:  some Italian sausage, whole milk mozzarella, smoked mozzarella (fresh), and this gorgeous bunch of brussel sprout greens from the farmers market:

Brussel rabe

Can you believe those?  Don't you just want to bottle that color and sell it to Martha Stewart?  I have never seen these in the store or at Pike Place, and now I forgot the name of the farmer who grew them.  But I'll be buying more next week.  They have a brussel sprout (BS) flavor (though milder) and the most tender little stems and shoots.  Yancey and I happen to be nuts for BS, but you might like them even if you're not in the BS fan club.  You could substitute spinach, kale, chard, or collards.  Me and my greens.  Sheesh.

I chopped them up pretty finely, stems and all, and sauteed them with olive oil, garlic, and salt, and added a squeeze of lemon at the end.  I had washed and wrapped them in a paper towel earlier in the week, so they were still taut and fresh, only needing about 10 minutes of cooking time.  They formed the base for the pizza, and we sprinkled cooked sausage and the cheeses over the top.

You can find the pizza dough recipe and method here, and this week I've also included some instructional photos so you don't avoid this blog on Mondays.  You can do it!  Banish the Fear of Yeast!

Brussel Rabe Pizza Topping
1 large bunch brussel or broccoli rabe (or kale, chard, collard greens)
couple big glugs olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon
1 c. cooked Italian sausage crumbles
1 c. shredded whole milk mozzarella
1 c. fresh smoked mozzarella, torn into chunks

Finely chop greens.  Pour oil into skillet and heat up on medium-high.  Add greens, saute for a couple minutes, then add garlic, salt, and pepper.  Saute until tender--will depend on which green you use and how fresh they are.  Cool.

Top dough with greens mixture, then scatter sausage and cheese over the top.  

Big puffy dough

Step 1: Pat down gently

Step 2:  Start stretching

Step 3: Pick up

Step 4: Final stretch

Step 5: Top and slide in

Comments

[pds]

Ok, so I'm not the biggest fan of pizza, but this is an intriguing to be though because it's another way to dump out the extra veggies of the week into something that is kid friendly.

Very intriguing.

:raises eyebrows, taps fingers and thinks:

[Kelly]

so...i'm in the process of making it. Although, i really do miss my pizza peel!!

[bethany]

it's the "slide in the oven" part that gets me...any tricks?

[sarahmk]

Bethany, yes--there are some tricks to the "slide in the oven" part. Notice I haven't gone to the work to outline them yet! That gives me a good focus for next week's pizza. Yancey's actually the pro at that--I'll pick his cute brain.