The best pizza toppings for a dessert pizza.

by Mo on November 1, 2010

In France, they make both sweet and savory crepes. You can order them filled with a variety of cheeses, meats like ham or chicken, and vegetables such as tomato and mushroom. But our favorite are the dessert crepes, especially those filled with Nutella or salted caramel.


If you’re not familiar with Nutella, it’s a wonderful spread made from cocoa and ground hazelnuts. It’s surprisingly nutritious, considering how delectable it is. In fact, it has about the same number of calories as peanut butter, but 5 grams less fat per two tablespoons. It’s delicious on just about anything from a toasted English muffin to a shortbread cookie.

We were thinking about making a pizza for dessert, and Nutella seemed like the best place to start. We put our cast-iron pizza pan in the oven and heated it to 450 degrees.

Nutella

Nutella

We rolled out the pizza dough as usual and spread some cornmeal on our pizza peel. We put the dough on the paddle, and then spread Nutella all over the crust. This turned out to be the most challenging part, since the Nutella sticks to the raw dough. We decided not to be too fussy about the appearance and just distributed the Nutella as evenly as we could.

Next, we cut some marshmallows in half and placed them cut-side down on the dough. Fruit sounded like a good idea, so we sliced up some ripe strawberries. They’re at their peak here in California.

So far, we had a nice combination of flavors, but it seemed a little one dimensional. Then if came to us. What if we soaked the strawberries briefly in balsamic vinegar and a little brown sugar. That would add depth and complexity. And the tartness of the vinegar would offset the sweetness of the marshmallow. Perfect.

Nutella Strawberry Marshmallow Pizza

Nutella Strawberry Marshmallow Pizza


We slid the pizza off the paddle and onto our pre-heated cast iron pizza pan and baked it until the marshmallows melted and started to brown on top – who doesn’t love that. At 450, the marshmallows browned pretty quickly. So you’ll need to roll the dough out so that it’s very thin. Otherwise, the marshmallows will overcook before the crust is done.

Our dessert pizza was sensational fresh from the oven. But it was also quite good at room temperature. What we didn’t eat for dessert, we had for breakfast with a little whipped cream. Sure, it was decadent. But you’re supposed to indulge a little this time of year.

You may not think of Nutella and marshmallows as suitable pizza toppings, but our dessert pizza was a big hit and will probably indulge in it again soon.

Now that it’s fall, can pumpkin puree and nutmeg be far behind?

Nutella Image Flickr: Enrico Matteucci

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The best low carb pizza and pizza toppings.

by Mo on August 2, 2010

Sooner or later, most serious pizza lovers will need to go on a diet. Unless you were lucky enough to inherit an incredible metabolism, chances are, you’ll probably end up with a few unwanted pounds one day.


Low carbohydrate diets, like the South Beach diet, are usually effective for weight loss. In fact, they’ve even been shown to lower cholesterol levels. Low carb diets are pretty easy to stay on because there are lots of satisfying foods you can enjoy, and it’s not hard to find something to eat if you go to a restaurant.

The down side is that conventional pizza is off limits. And after a few weeks of protein and veggies, you’ll likely be craving one. Most pizza toppings are okay on low carb diets. It’s the pizza crust that’s the deal breaker. Just one slice of Boboli thin crust has 24g of carbohydrates.

Delicious low carb pizza.

Delicious low carb pizza.

But recently, we tried a low carb pizza crust that was worth getting excited about.

(subhead)
Really good low carb pizza crust.

This crust is tasty, inexpensive, easy to make, and perfectly legal. There are really only three ingredients:

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 beaten egg

Cut a large head of cauliflower in half and then use a hand-grater or food processor to cut it into rice size pieces. Put the riced cauliflower in a microwave-safe dish with a lid and microwave it for about four minutes. Don’t add any water.

Spread the cauliflower on a plate to let it cool for a couple of minutes. Then combine it will the grated mozzarella and egg. We added some oregano, basil, garlic powder, and a little grated parmesan for flavor.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Oil a cookie sheet or pizza pan — we got good results with our cast iron pizza pan — then spread the cauliflower mixture onto the pan. We ended up with about a nine inch round.

Bake the crust for about 15 minutes, or until it starts to brown. Remove it from the oven, add you favorite pizza toppings, then pop it under the broiler for a few minutes until everything is hot and melted.

Because there’s so much cheese in the crust, you’ll need less cheese as a topping. If you’re doing the Atkins diet, you can use traditional pizza meats like Italian sausage and pepperoni. Just make sure they’re cooked before you use them. For the South Beach diet, leaner meats like ham, prosciutto, or sausage made with chicken are preferred.

Tomatoes and tomato sauce have some carbs, so use these sparingly. But most vegetables are virtually carb free, so add as many as you like. Onions, peppers, artichokes, olives, and mushrooms are all good choices.

The pizza we made was extremely satisfying. In retrospect, we added more cheese than we needed to. And even though it was smaller than the pizzas we usually make, we couldn’t even finish it. We each ate about a third, and left a third for some other time.

We didn’t get hungry later, and we satisfied our pizza craving without blowing our diet. If you’re trying to lose a little weight, or even if you’re not, give it a try. It’s a good way to get another serving of vegetables into your diet.

Find more diet pizza ideas here.

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Best pizza toppings from the Mediterranean.

by Mo on June 22, 2010

We just got back from traveling in the South of France, and as you’d expect, the food was fantastic. One of the most enjoyable parts of our trip was visiting the fantastic food markets. Each town has its own market day, and some have a market every day but Sunday. The Saturday market in the town of Arles is one of the best is the area. And there’s a permanent market in Antibes that’s open every day but Sunday.


The restaurants here serve lots of fresh seafood and other ingredients that you find in the market — vegetables, herbs, and olives. Because the South of France is so close to Italy, there’s also lots of pasta, dishes with tomatoes, and pizza.

There’s a pizza restaurant in just about every small town, and many of them having wood-burning ovens. They don’t make traditional Neapolitan pizza here — the crust is thicker and there are more pizza toppings. But they do create a delicious pie.

We were a little surprised by the pizza toppings, which don’t vary a lot. Nowhere did we see pepperoni, Italian sausage, or the usual pizza meats. Here, as in Spain, it’s all about the ham. Jambon cru, which is like prosciutto, is the most popular choice. Some places, you’ll see specific types of ham, such as Serrano or Iberico ham from Spain.

Proscuitto Pizza

Proscuitto Pizza

Seafood, especially ancovies, are also popular toppings. But you’ll also see tuna and calamari.

Most places offer both white and red pizzas. White is sauced with crème fraiche, which is absolutely delicious. The white pizzas are best with vegetables like caramelized onion and mushroom.

The French are known for their fabulous cheeses, and here’s where they make their mark. Unlike in American and Italy, mozzarella isn’t the star of the show when it comes to pizza cheeses. Emmental, which is similar to Swiss cheese, and is made in Switzerland, is very popular. Chevre, or goat cheese, is also used a lot, and it’s frequently combined with arugula.

Arles Market

Arles Market

Gruyere, Fontina, Reblochon, Comte, and Roquefort all makes delicious pizzas.

Many of the pizzas we had has a black olive in the center, and virtually all of them had a drizzle of excellent local olive oil. This really brought all the flavors together and improved the overall taste. A carafe of olive oil with chili peppers is served with your pizza. It’s pretty spicy and adds a nice zing.

We found an artisanal olive oil at our local farmers market and we’ve started drizzling it over our pizzas. It wasn’t inexpensive, but it was well worth the money.

The best pizza we had in the South of France was at La Cantina in Saint-Remy-en-Provence. The town itself is quite charming, one of the cutest in the region. And the restaurant was surprisingly quite modern. But the pizzas there were some of the best we’ve ever has, anywhere.

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