Monday, April 27, 2009

Pizza with Goat Cheese, Chicken, Sundried Tomatoes & Spinach



"Vish ish awshoum!"

These are the words that came out of my husband's mouth tonight as he ate his slice of pizza.

Have I mentioned that my husband hates pizza?

Well, my husband - he hates pizza. He has been known to call pizza "the torture food." As in, "Honey, why don't we order pizza tonight?" - "Oh great, the torture food."

(For those keeping score, America's Next Top Model is known as "the torture show.")

After he swallowed, he declared, more clearly, "I eat my words." I have succeeded in rehabilitating my husband from his post-college pizza-hangover, to the point where he actually likes pizza.

(I wonder if I'll be able to get him to say the same thing about ANTM one day?)

I made this recipe tonight in an attempt to re-create a dish that I used to enjoy when I was a college student in Washington, DC. On lovely spring afternoons, like the ones we've been enjoying lately here in North Georgia, my friends and I would walk over to a little Italian restaurant in our neighborhood, and this pizza is the dish I would order almost every single time. It is a combination of five of my favorite foods: pizza, goat cheese, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach.


Paolo's Pizza

1 lb. raw pizza dough
3/4 cup tomato pizza sauce
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese (part skim makes it less greasy)
1/4 cup sliced sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted in water for 10 minutes
2 ounces goat cheese (chevre), chilled
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I recommend rotisserie chicken)
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (or a mixture of dried basil and oregano)
2 large handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Grease a large rectangular or round baking sheet or pizza pan. Roll out the pizza dough to desired thickness and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the pizza sauce over the dough, leaving the edges as a crust. Arrange the shredded mozzarella evenly over the sauce.

Next, sprinkle the sun-dried tomatoes over the cheese. Then drop the goat cheese in tiny globs evenly across the pizza. Spread the chicken over the top, and sprinkle the italian seasoning evenly over the crust.



Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the spinach on top. Return to the oven for another 3-5 minutes. Slice and serve immediately.


14 comments:

Janet said...

mmmm, this looks so good!

{The Perfect Palette} said...

Can you come over and cook for me? Thanks :)

Candace said...

That pizza looks divine!

Cathy said...

Torture food??? This has to be my all time favourite food. Although when we were young, I distinctly remember my brother always having something different if we had pizza. This looks great - I'm a fan of anything with goat cheese.

Jenn said...

If pizza is torture food then I would love to be tortured anytime. This pizza looks divine.

What's Cookin Chicago said...

This looks like a similar pizza I've ordered at a restaurant - looks fabulous!

Colleen said...

Haha, great story and great pizza! I like that you add the spinach fresh after baking instead of sauteeing and adding into the sauce.

Melissa said...

What a great combo! YUM!

Becca said...

I'm sorry, but pizza = torture food? How can that even be possible??

This looks awesome!!

Michelle said...

This looks to die for!! I will have to try this one. Great pictures too!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this looks amazing!!! YUM!

Eva said...

The goat cheese one sounds amazing!

Elizabeth said...

Love this!

Meredith said...

Hey so I made this last night for some friends and its was really good! All the flavors went so well together and it really was a treat! Thanks for a great recipe!

 

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