Saturday, November 7, 2009

Fridge-clearing pizza

True food recycling.
If it's not for fresh eating.
It's pizza topping.

Every Friday night is pizza night at Betsey's house. I'd like to say that I use a time-honored crust recipe that I wheedled away from a little Italian grandmother on a romantic trip to New York — but I confess it's just Jiffy mix from a box.

For the younger family members, toppings are a simple affair. Three-year-old Owen is a straight up, from-the-jar red-sauce and cheese man. Eight-year-old Anne Elise likes the same base, but she throws on a few slices of onion and kalamata olives.

For the grown ups, topping the Friday pizza is always an adventure. See, Friday at my house is the end of the grocery week. What's available for pizza is what's left in the fridge. And while I absolutely agree that spanking fresh ingredients make the best meals, I also know that you can disguise a lot of tired produce with some melted cheese and a super-hot oven. (I also believe that just about any leftover can make a worthy burrito filling - but that's another topic for another day.)

This week, we happened to get lucky. Here's what we ended up with.

Green Pizza
3/4 cup thinly sliced leek
1 1/2 cups broccoli florets
minced garlic to taste
1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
white truffle or olive oil
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup shredded fontina cheese
1/4 cup shredded mozzerella

Preheat oven to 425.

Saute leeks in a small amount of olive oil or butter (with a few random onion slices if you have some left from your daughter's pizza) over medium heat until soft and beginning to caramelize. Stir in minced garlic and broccoli florets until thoroughly heated.

Brush truffle oil (or olive oil if you don't have it) onto pizza crust. Spread sauteed mixture evenly over the top. Arrange olives over that.

Sprinkle on feta, fontina and mozzeralla.

Bake until cheese is completely melted and edges of crust begin to brown, about 15 minutes.

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