Spinach Pizza

Today at MEMF, I tried to attend an afternoon class, but it was during Daniel's usual nap time. It turns out that while Daniel easily sleeps through my piano practice time, he doesn't sleep so well through the noise created by about a dozen singers, recorders, lutes and viols. Go figure. We only lasted about 15 minutes through that one.

Then I came home and made spinach pizza of my own design. It was so tasty, I feel compelled to share!

The dough:
Put 2 cups of all-purpose or bread flour in a bowl.
Add 1 TBSP yeast, 1 tsp salt, 2 TBSP olive oil.
Stir in 3/4 cup warm water and knead into a soft dough, about 5 minutes.
Let dough rise until double. On a warm, humid summer day, this won't take very long.

The topping:
Meanwhile, chop a couple generous handfuls of fresh spinach. I'm not sure how much I actually used, but it was probably between 2 and 3 cups.
Chop an 8 oz block of feta cheese* into 1/2" cubes and toss with 2 TBSP olive oil and a crushed clove of garlic (or two cloves, depending on how much you like garlic).

When the dough is ready, spread it out on a small (9x12) cookie sheet. Spread the chopped spinach on the dough, followed by the garlic feta chunks. Bake at 425 until the cheese is toasted and brown, the pizza crust is golden, and you can smell the roasting garlic.

*Addendum! Feta is too strong for some people. I haven't tried it, but I'll bet that fresh mozzerella or goat cheese would be good substitutes.

Comments

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh......Yummmmmmmmmm!
ann said…
You are a genius.
Suze said…
i'm not really a genius, ann, just lucky sometimes :) I mean, i'm surely not going to share my cooking experiments that flop (we shall not speak of the carrot-ginger soup or the runny runny yogurt hummus)
but thanks anyway. you guys are great!
ann said…
Last night I cooked the same supper three times. We had spinach curry, which I've made before, no problem.

disaster number one: The recipe called for six large cloves of garlic, minced. I was mincing number four, when Daniel walked in and said, "Woah. That much garlic?" I said, "That's what the recipe says." Then I remembered that measurements given in indian recipes are not always the most desirable for optimum outcome, so I followed Daniel's instinct and used only about 1 or 2 cloves, and stored the rest in the fridge. (foreshadowing for disasters numbers 2 and three, you will find.)

disaster number 2: I thought it was done and turned it off. I asked Daniel to check it and see what he thought. He thought it wasn't quite done yet. I said, "Should I cook it until it no longer smells like spinach?" He said, "absolutely." So, 10 minutes later, it seemed fine, and maybe almost done. 15 minutes later, it was charred.

disaster number 3. Start over. There was some more garlic left, and we had another bag of frozen spinach, so I chucked the first attempt and started over, frying up some of the garlic and some ginger with some cumin seeds and asofetida, etc. I walked away from the stove to move the CD player into the living room so i could hear it. Hence, disaster number 3. I returned to the stove (maybe less than one minute later), to find a tiny mess of black seeds, garlic, and ginger floating in oil in the pan. I dumped it.

On the last attempt, I was able to use more of the pre-chopped garlic, the still frozen bag of spinach (hadn't made it that far on this last disaster), etc, and made some good spinach curry, cooked just to the point where it no longer smelled like spinach.

I'm not so shy about sharing my flops. Especially when they eventually turn out okay. I also made some good cookies yesterday, including some ingredient experimentation, so I'm pretty okay with myself as a cook, even despite the mess of char in our garbage can this morning.
Umm.... Isn't Feta cheese goat cheese? I always heard it was. And feta cheese is yummy! Could I cheat and use a pre-made pizza crust (like Boboli or something?)
ann said…
Jennifer, I highly recommend kneading a ball of warm dough in your hands for about five minutes. It's good for stress. I do it every morning when I make chipatis. It's therapeutic.
Pam said…
That does sound good, Susan. Keep those recipes coming!
My kitchen has no counter space for kneading dough, and I have no kitchen table. So I must use premade. I could always squish some of Jamie's playdough every morning, though! LOL!
Suze said…
i think "true" feta cheese is made from goat milk, but most large brands (like athenos) use cow milk to make feta. steph would know for sure, though...can you help us out here, steph?

i think 6 cloves of garlic sounds yummy. but then, i love garlic so much i don't think you CAN have too much. (except, pam, remember that garlic lover's hummus we got one time? that was too much for me, but then, i was preggo at the time...)
Suze said…
one more thing for jenn: you could knead dough on a large cutting board while sitting on the floor, or in a big mixing bowl. sometimes i do that when daniel requires constant entertainment from his mama and i need to make dinner :)

i just realized that the way i wrote that sentence, it looks like i suggested that you sit in a large mixing bowl. bah. you know what i mean!
ann said…
I have a large wooden cutting board devoted exclusively to dough, and I use it on a card table (which is our dining room table). But I also like the idea of a bowl, especially becuase you can punch in it, and because you're not so prone to carpet fibers if you're on the floor.

I also read recently that you can pull out a droor and set a cutting board on it to create more counter space. We don't ahve a lot of counter space either, since we have a one bedroom. But we keep almost all appliances in cabinets (and some in hall closets), and sometimes even put the dish drainer into the dishwasher to create more counter space. And sometimes I set my cutting board on the stove for more "counter space."
ann said…
Oh, man. Drawer. Sorry. Where did that come from? "Droor." Very nice.
Can't sit in the floor or else I'll have a 12-pound fur ball sampling the dough mix. But I'll try Ann's "droor" suggestion! LOL!

Love ya'll!
I went to the store tonight determined to make this for dinner tonight. But I had to work until after 6, my throat hurts, I'm running a fever and my whole body feels like somebody beat me up, so I went down the frozen pizza aisle and grabbed a DiGiorno's Spinach, Mushroom and Garlic frozen pizza and a pint of Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide ice cream, instead! Yummm............
ann said…
Hey floozie! :-) I think you could use this as your first ROUS recipe! You could just copy and paste it, if you wanted!

I'm excited to share a blog with everybody. I think it's such a pretty blog. I can't keep my hands off it.

Are you still loving every second of owning your own piano? and baby? and husband? and home? (woo, you have a lot of great stuff!)

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