Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Spinach, Artichoke & Bacon Pizza

My sister and I made homemade pizza for the first time this past weekend and it was such a success! It is pretty simple as well.. The following recipe for the dough makes two large (about 16") pizzas.

Ingredients:
[For the dough]
1 1/4 cup water (105 degrees Fahrenheit)
3 1/2 cups of flour
1 packet of dry yeast
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil

[For the toppings]
Marinara sauce
About 1/2 cup of shredded Italian blend cheese
3 cloves of garlic
About 1/2 cup of chopped artichokes
About 1/2 cup of spinach
3 slices of bacon

To start, mix the dry yeast and and 1 1/4 cup of water that is 105 degrees in temperature and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Next, add the flour, olive oil, sugar and salt into the mixer and let it knead on the lowest setting for 10 minutes.

Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and add extra virgin olive oil, along with some italian herbs (such as oregano, thyme, basil, etc) Then cover the dough and let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour - 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Now it's time for the toppings! Take three slices of bacon and chop them into smaller pieces

Cook the bacon until they are crispy!

Arrange the artichoke, spinach and bacon on separate plates and put aside.

After the hour, take out the dough and roll it into two equal balls of dough. We wrapped up the other ball of dough and saved it for the next day to make pizza again:)

In the meantime, put the marinara in a large sauce pan and simmer. I added 2 extra cloves of chopped garlic to add more flavor.

Next, roll the dough out into a large circle, drizzle olive oil on a large oven pan and put the dough on the pan. Drizzle more olive oil on top of the dough (and you can sprinkle more oregano on top)


Next, add a layer of marinara sauce, then cheese, then artichokes, spinach and bacon. Sprinkle more cheese on top.

Bake in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, and then when the crush is hard enough, push it off of the baking tray and put it directly on the oven rack and let it cook for another 4-5 minutes (or however crispy / soft you like your pizza to be)

And here's the final product!!!! It turned out so delicious and yummy!!! ^_^