Green Delight Pizza

Ingredients:

Basic Pizza Dough (for 2 - 12" pizzas)

1/2 cup olive oil

2 cups fresh spinach, washed, dried and chopped

1 cup marinated artichokes, chopped

2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese


Preparation:

  • Prepare all ingredients for topping.
  • Preheat oven to 450º F (230º C). Preheat the oven for at least 20 minutes. It needs to be really hot when the pizza goes in. 
  • Roll dough into a two 12 inch circles. With your fingers, gently push dough outward to form a shallow 1/2 inch wide rim. Keep your hands lightly floured while working with the dough so that it doesn't stick. 
  • Lightly brush first dough with extra virgin olive oil. Cover with fresh, chopped spinach. Garnish with half of chopped, marinated artichokes. Top with half of grated Mozzarella cheese.
  • Repead process with second dough.
  • Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the top and bake until cheese is melted and the crust is well browned on the bottom, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Makes two 12" pizzas.

TIP: If your owen cannot accommodate both pizzas, cover and refrigerate the second pizza until it is ready to be put into the hot owen. If you don't need both, freeze the second pizza and use as needed.



Real Cooking
Did You Know?
Yeast, most commonly Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is used in baking as a leavening agent, where it converts the fermentable sugars present in the dough into carbon dioxide. This causes the dough to expand or rise as the carbon dioxide forms pockets or bubbles. When the dough is baked the yeast dies off and the air pockets "sets", giving the baked product a soft and spongy texture. The use of potatoes, water from potato boiling, eggs, or sugar in a bread dough accelerates the growth of yeasts. Salt and fats such as butter slow down yeast growth. The majority of the yeast used in baking is of the same species common in alcoholic fermentation.

Additionally, Saccharomyces exiguus (also known as S. minor) is a wild yeast found on plants, fruits, and grains that is occasionally used for baking. Sugar and vinegar are the best conditions for yeast to ferment. In bread making the yeast respires aerobically at first producing carbon dioxide and water. When the oxygen is used up anaerobic respiration is used producing ethanol as a waste product; however, this is evaporated during the baking process.