Bolognese Pizza

Our fridge is full of leftovers right now. Half an onion here, a tupperware of yummy bolognese sauce there, and a ball of pizza dough. My cooking habits change slightly when I am on the night shift, as usually two of my three meals each work day consist of breakfast foods. Poor lunch and dinner get left on the wayside, abandoned to the back of the fridge.

Not wanting these things to go to waste, but not necessarily wanting to eat both pasta and pizza in the same day, I got creative. It's a good thing too, since pepperoni has been on the grocery list for about 2 weeks now, yet somehow it has evaded my grocery cart during each shopping trip. And I was grateful that I happened to have some fresh mozzarella in the cheese drawer, since right after Cinco de Mayo, I went a little cheese crazy and bought mozzarella, a pound of white cheddar, queso fresco, and Crema Mexicana. I had good intentions of making a taco pizza and a queso blanco dip, neither of which happened because I woke up around 6 pm after working the previous night feeling about as rested and willing to cook as a new mother of quintuplets. 

I looked at the cheese drawer, bursting with milky, enzyme-y, melty goodness and sighed as I reached for the milk for my "morning" cereal. I don't know why, and maybe I am the only person who experiences this, but my taste buds take longer to wake up than the rest of my body-probably because I don't do well on nights. Anyway, it's my weekend off, so I'm experiencing more than an hour of daylight each day for this weekend. My taste buds are happy for the normalcy, as is my brain and vitamin D storage system. Also since it's my weekend off from work, I definitely did not want to cook pasta for lunch and then pizza for dinner because never mind that I didn't have pepperoni for goodness sake- I need to get out of the house! A low maintenance and relatively quick meal were just what the weekend-to-experience-daylightsocietyfriendshusbandnormalcy ordered.

Low maintenance and so delicious all at the same time.... how can you beat that??? Both Travis and I were very pleased with how this impromptu pizza came out. After his first bite, he said, "Is it pizza, is it spaghetti? Who cares- it's the best of both."

Bolognese Pizza

a Butter Than Toast original

1 pizza crust (I recommend homemade, but have used store bought in a pinch)
3/4 cup bolognese sauce
1/4 pound sliced fresh mozzarella (really just use enough to cover the pizza)
1/4 onion, sliced into thin strips
1/2 cup frozen, chopped spinach- defrosted and liquids squeezed out- roughly chopped
black pepper
cornmeal for dusting pizza pan

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Start with the pizza dough- if it's in a ball, let it come to room temperature prior to prepping the oven- give it at least 2 hours to warm up. Roll it out, don't worry if it's not a circle, it will still taste good. Sprinkle a pizza pan with a few heavy pinches of cornmeal, lay out the dough on top. Spoon the sauce onto the dough, spreading it out leaving about a 1/2 inch on all sides for crust. Layer on the mozzarella all over the sauce. Add onions, then sprinkle on spinach and black pepper.

Bake for 15-20 min, until edges are barely yellow. Then crank the heat to 450º for another 10 min or so, until the cheese is bubbly and the edges are nice and toasted. This last part is optional, but I love pizza crust with a crunch.

Let cool for about 5 minutes, slice up and enjoy!