Tonight's Dinner: Pizza with Spinach, Pancetta and Cheese

This was tonight's dinner, I needed to make something that I could prep a lot earlier in the day and then finish later so I picked pizza. I made the dough earlier, par-baked it earlier, chopped up the cheese, roasted the pancetta, and cooked the spinach a few hours earlier and then put the whole thing together later on. It was out of this world!

Pizza with Spinach, Pancetta and Cheese

1 recipe pizza dough

1 cup roasted tomato sauce *

1/2 lb fresh spinach, wilted, squeezed dry and chopped

2 slices pancetta, cooked and chopped

1/3 ball mozzarella cheese, sliced

1 thick slice fontina cheese, sliced

1 slice asiago cheese, shredded

Drizzle extra virgin olive oil

Place a pizza stone in the top part of the oven. Preheat oven to 500 degrees (or between 450 and 500 depending on oven). Preheat for 15-30 minutes. Roll out the dough ball to fit a standard pizza pan. Grease a pizza pan with olive oil. Place dough on pan and stretch to fit, patching up holes if there are any.

Place pizza crust in oven and cook for 10 minutes just to set the crust. Remove from oven, place on wire rack to cool for a few minutes. Remove crust from pan. Place on a pizza peel that is sprinkled with some semolina flour OR some cornmeal.

Put roasted tomato sauce on crust and brush all over (or push with the back of a spoon) to cover the whole thing, if possible. Sprinkle with cheeses, spinach and pancetta. Drizzle with oil.

Bake at 500 for 10 minutes to melt cheeses and to start to brown the top.

Remove from oven, cut into 8 slices. Serve.

Risa’s notes:

*To make roasted tomato sauce: Place a pint of cherry tomatoes (or grape tomatoes) on a cookie sheet that is brushed with oil. Drizzle more olive oil over top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 300 degrees F for ½-1 hour, moving them around every once in awhile.

Remove from oven and let cool. Add a little bit of water and, with an immersion blender, puree with a bit of water and oil to make a smooth consistency. Let cool until cooking time. Can be prepared ahead of time (I actually make roasted tomatoes about once a month or so and refrigerate covered with some oil) and then when I want to make the sauce, I add a little bit of marinara sauce and puree the tomatoes with some roasted garlic.

Yield: 4 servings (2 slices each)

Source: RisaG

Posted by RisaG