Ingredients:
1 Mama Mia's pizza crusts (thin & crispy)
1 12oz can
1/2 - 3/4 block feta cheese (chunk, not crumbled)
1-2 tbsp Parmesan cheese (shredded)
1/2 red onion
1/2 jar banana peppers
1 tbsp olive oil (or less)
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
toasted sesame seeds
The Mama Mia crusts come in a two-pack, so you can either make two pizzas, freeze one crust, or make one Mediterranean pizza and one plain old mozzarella pizza. Your choice. Pizza is still very good leftover the next day. :)
Preheat oven to 425deg.
Pour 1 tbsp (or less) of olive oil into a shallow pot and heat on medium. Add 1 tbsp or less crushed red pepper flakes and let cook just a couple minutes before pouring in the pizza sauce. Turn down heat, stir, and keep sauce warm. Pour 1/2 the sauce onto each pizza crust. Add roughly chopped red onion to pizzas, followed by banana peppers. On top of the onions and peppers, crumbled feta (I always use chunk feta cheese rather than crumbled because it is much more moist and flavorful). Add a small amount of Parmesan and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on the outer edges of the pizza.
Bake pizzas in the oven on a pizza stone (if you only have one, just cook the pizzas sequentially) for about 12 minutes.
When I first ate this pizza and was told it was 'Mediterranean' pizza, I didn't see much reason to equate it with Mediterranean cuisine. None the less, I stuck with the name and continued to call it Mediterranean pizza. After a year or more of eating this, I took a trip to Greece and stayed a night at Santorini island. For lunch, I walked all the way down the cliff of the island to a small port by the water where there were a handful of restaurants. Here I ordered something that was translated as 'fried cheese' (how can anything called fried cheese be bad right?). When the waiter brought out the dishes, I was surprised and quite happy to see a plate of feta cheese on parchment paper, bubbling and crispy on the edges, with banana peppers on top. Who knew? The Mediterranean pizza is authentic!
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