Pizza Friday - White Pizza with Spinach and Sausage

I don't usually make white pizza, but after my friend Melissa raved about a white pizza she made with roasted garlic, spinach and sausage I decided to try it.


I had some sausage and caramelized onions in the freezer from the last time I made sausage pizza. Melissa uses fresh spinach on her pizza, but I like the ease of frozen.

Roasted Garlic Paste
Melissa's Recipe

1-2 heads garlic, papery skins removed
Olive oil
Dried oregano, thyme, basil, red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut the tops off the heads of garlic, drizzle with oil and wrap in tinfoil. Bake for 30-35 minutes, then let cool for 10-15 minutes. Squeeze the garlic out and mash it up (you can put it through a ricer into a bowl), add a little oil to get it spreadable, then add pinches of dried oregano, thyme, basil, salt, red pepper flake, pepper. You can use any or all of those as you see fit. Just a big pinch of this, pinch of that, a dash more oil if you need it. For sure, at least put the oregano in there.

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Pizza Friday - BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Pizza

After the success of the Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas I knew this BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Pizza would be amazing since it utilizes the same ingredients with a different delivery method.


I thought I put a lot of pineapple on my half of the pizza (SP didn't want any on his half) but I ended up putting even more on the individual slices. I think we need to find a tangier BBQ sauce, or doctor our favorite brand, because there wasn't enough contrast between the sweetness of the pineapple and the tang of the BBQ sauce. Even so, this was a winner in my book and I can't wait to make it again.

BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Pizza
Ever So Slightly Modified from Sing For Your Supper

1 ball pizza dough, rolled to preferred thickness
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 chicken breasts, fully cooked and shredded
1/2 cup BBQ sauce, plus more for brushing on the crust
1/4 cup ranch salad dressing
1 small can diced pineapple
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Place pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 550 degrees, or as high as your oven will go. Toss the cooked, shredded chicken breasts with the BBQ sauce. Set aside.

Lay dough on parchment paper or a pizza peel. Brush the pizza crust with a thin layer of BBQ sauce, then spread on the ranch dressing. Top with the cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese, then the chicken and pineapple.

Place pizza on pizza stone and bake for about 15 minutes, until all the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown. Top with the chopped cilantro.

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Pizza Friday - Sausage and Caramelized Onion

I love Pizza Fridays. SP is a sausage fanatic so this week's pizza had sausage and caramelized onions on it.

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Pizza Friday - Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Of all the pizzas I make, Buffalo Chicken Pizza is SP's favorite. Now that I've reinstated Pizza Fridays this was his first choice when I asked him what kind of pizza he wanted.


I recently stocked up on frozen dough from my favorite Italian bakery (one of these days I need to try making my own dough), and I'm so glad I did. I missed their perfect crust. I was particularly proud of this pizza, especially its roundness and thin, crispy crust.

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Pizza Friday: The Works

Pizza Friday has returned to A Taste of Home Cooking! I'm very excited about this because (1) I'd grown tired of spending so much money on takeout pizza and (2) because I love finding new pizza recipes to try.

To get back into the swing of things I kept it simple with an old favorite - The Works:


Unfortunately the pepperoni looked a little funny so I had to leave it off. This pizza usually involves pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onion, green pepper and olives. Delicious.

Question: What pizza toppings do you enjoy? Please leave me a comment so we can broaden our pizza horizons!

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A Tale of Two Pizzas

We bought a huge ball of frozen pizza dough from the supermarket so I decided to make two different pizzas. This Chicken Ranch Pizza came from Annie's Eats.


I added cooked, crumbled bacon to the pizza and it was truly delicious. I really liked that fresh tomatoes and mild onion flavor from the scallions. I will definitely make this again.


I also made a plain pizza:


... but for some reason the crust didn't really brown. This was a different brand of dough then we usually buy so I can only assume that was the issue. It was still tasty.

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An Attempt at Sicilian Pizza

I had a feeling this was doomed from the beginning, but I thought I'd see if I could make Sicilian pizza at home. Unfortunately the answer is no, at least with the dough I buy.


The pizza was good, but it didn't have that spongey Sicilian texture. In fact it was more like a pan pizza. I'm sure I need to make a special kind of dough to get that perfect consistency, but I don't work with yeast so yeah...guess I'll be buying my Sicilian pizzas from my local pizza parlor.

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Pizza with "The Works"

Our favorite place for takeout pizza does a great version of pizza with "the works," but I've always wanted to try recreating it at home.


On a recent Friday I realized I had all the necessary ingredients on hand (half a green pepper, onions, pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms). SP was a little wary since he gets nervous when I put too many ingredients on a pizza, but it was delicious. Just like the takeout version, only better because I made it at home.

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Pizza

Another pizza:


... this one has pepperoni and black olives hidden under the blanket of melted mozzarella.

Sometimes I put the cheese on first and then the toppings and sometimes the other way around. How do you do it if you make homemade pizza?

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Pizza

This is actually a meal I cooked post-baby! My mother-in-law and my mom were over for dinner so I made two pizzas - pepperoni and olive:


... and mushrooms for SP:


It was good to get back in the kitchen.

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Buffalo Chicken Pizza

SP asked for Buffalo Chicken Pizza one recent Friday and I was happy to oblige.


This time I didn't have any Marie's dressing but I did have some leftover blue cheese. I shredded mozzarella and Swiss cheeses and layered half of both down on the rolled out dough, then topped it with poached chicken (my new favorite way of cooking chicken since it stays super juicy and tender), chopped scallions, the crumbled blue cheese, a few splashes of Frank's hot sauce and the rest of the cheese.

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Pizza Friday

Once again I'm insanely far behind in posting. I've got a ton of photos to go through and posts to write. Here's a recent pizza from Pizza Friday:


This one has pepperoni, sausage and black olives. It was absolutely delicious. SP was running late and I ended up preheating the pizza stone in the oven for about an hour, which resulted in a perfectly crispy crust.

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Pepperoni and Olive Pizza

A recent pepperoni and olive Pizza Friday pizza:


I love making homemade pizza. It's simple, delicious and very satisfying.

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Pepperoni Pizza

Another Pizza Friday pizza, this one with pepperoni:


SP recently found that our supermarket carries the same brand of pepperoni they use at one of our favorite pizza (actually tomato pie) places. I can't say I noticed a huge difference when it was on the pizza, but it sure tasted good.

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Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza

Longtime readers know SP is a huge mushroom fan. When I last made pizza he asked for mushrooms in addition to the pepperoni:


I covered his entire half of the pizza with mushrooms, but they shrunk in the oven.


Another photogenic pizza. I do love natural light.

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Pepperoni Pizza

I love when my pizzas come out looking so photogenic. This was a pepperoni pizza from a few weeks ago. I loved the perfect crust and toppings. It was absolutely delicious.


What's funny is that I really layered on the pepperoni but since everything shrinks in the oven they ended up being spaced pretty far apart.


Mmm...pizza. I've been on a pizza kick lately but haven't been eating it that much. Might need to change that soon.

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Pizza Friday

One recent Friday I made pizza using some frozen mozzarella cheese. This was pepperoni pizza, although I mistakenly put the pepperoni under the cheese. I'm not sure what happened to the cheese but it didn't melt very well:


Not my best work, I have to say.

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Pizza Friday

We finally restocked our supply of frozen pizza dough (thanks entirely to SP!) so I was able to make pizza last Friday. We had some thinly sliced pepperoni and a container of frozen sauce in the freezer so this was even easier to put together then normal.


I love photographing my homemade pizzas. They always look so delicious before I cut into them.


We baked this a little longer then usual (got slightly distracted...oops!) but even the burnt edges were good (SP is such a trooper for eating them). Definitely one of my better pizzas.

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Pizza Friday

We had one pizza dough left in the freezer but not much mozzarella cheese, so I had to improvise for Pizza Friday last week. I knew we had some frozen spinach in the freezer so I thought I'd make a white pizza:


I defrosted the spinach, rung it dry in a kitchen towel and then sauteed it with some chopped shallot, garlic, salt, pepper and nutmeg. I mixed the spinach with some leftover ricotta cheese and spread it over the rolled-out dough, then topped the pizza with mozzarella cheese.

If you notice the last few pizzas have had a ton of bubbles in them. I'm not overworking the dough - I barely roll it out - so I think we just got an airy batch of dough. This one was the worst though...it looked like an alien pizza and the pieces with the bubbles were separating. In theory this pie should have been great, but it just didn't hit the spot. We're definitely a tomato sauce on pizza family.

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Pizza Friday

Last Friday I wanted a simple pizza for Pizza Friday so I just did plain pizza:


It was absolutely delicious. The flavors of the sauce could really shine through.

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