Taco Pizza

The other night I made Taco Pizza for dinner, and I just have to share this!  You really don’t even need a recipe… more like just sharing the idea.  Taco Pizza and Cheeseburger Pizza are two of my fav pizzas to make at home.  Very tasty and just a good home-cooked satisfying and delicious dinner.  I love having mexican food for dinner, with all the fresh tomatoes, avocado, black beans, olives, salsa, sour cream, cheese, jalepeno… lots of different flavors, textures, and colors.  SO good!

The dough I make is found here, and over here on my cousin’s All Things Italian store blog.  Par-bake your pizza dough for 8 min. at 425 or 450 deg. F., take out of oven and cover with salsa and toppings.  Rather than a traditional tomato sauce base, I spread on salsa (we love it a little hot).  Then lay on slices of fresh mozzarella and cover with grated cheddar.  Sprinkle on the black beans, sliced black olives, sliced/diced jalepeno, even some taco-seasoned browned burger if desired, then bake another 8-ish min. or til cheese begins to get golden and it’s all cooked to your liking.

Favorite toppings on a par-baked crust

Baked til golden and edges are crispy

Taco Salad Toppings!

So yummy, all the delicious cheesy indulgence of any pizza, with some freshness added with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, salsa, and sour cream.

YUM!  Hope this inspires you to have fun making pizza at home… better yet making pizza with your sweetheart, family, kids, or friends.  🙂

Pizza Love

I love making pizza!  And who doesn’t love eating it??  I have yet to meet some weirdo person who doesn’t like pizza!  It’s so easy to make the dough, and while it’s rising you can get all your fixings ready.  I recently got a big jar of Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts at Costco, and I’ve made this Greek Pizza three times in the last week!!  It is so delicious.  I spread on a little tomato sauce mixed with a sun-dried tomato pesto I had in the freezer, gave it a nice layer of fresh mozzarella and a little feta, and sprinkled on the Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts.  A delicious set of pizza toppings, great for if you’re a vegetarian or just in the mood for a vegetarian meal.  With the artichoke hearts and the olives this pizza seems meaty, without any meat.  I would love to add on a little handful of pine nuts, but since my body just randomly decided to become allergic to them recently, I unfortunately won’t be adding those on!  So weird, not allergic to anything else, but if I pop a couple pine nuts in my mouth, oh boy do I know it.  Some slivered toasted almonds would be great too, for adding a little texture.

I will note here that if you use any topping ingredients that soak/marinate in liquid and are a little wet, be sure to strain, pat with paper towel, and let set on the counter for a bit so you don’t end up with little water puddles on top of your finished pizza!

The pizza dough I make is one my Aunt gave me quite some time ago.  My cousin has the Pizza Dough recipe on her blog.  It makes enough dough for two pizzas so I knead it, let it rise to double, punch it down, cut it in two, then use one and wrap the second one up and freeze it.  Or if you plan on using the second round of dough within the next day or two, just wrap it in plastic wrap and set it in the fridge.  This week I made enough dough for 6 pizzas, portioned them into little rounds, let them rise once, wrapped them, and put them in the freezer.  So nice to have pizza dough on hand to pull out of the freezer, especially perfect for using on a weeknight.

Some tricks I do to get a very yummy pizza crust:  press it/roll it out thin, so it will be a nice cracker-y thin crust and not too doughy.  Drizzle with a little olive oil.  Have your oven nice and hot, at least 425 F or 450 F, and if you have a pizza stone, have it in the pre-heating oven.  Par-bake it for 7-8 minutes or so, until it just starts getting a golden tint to it.  Then take it out and go to town with your sauce and toppings, and cook to your liking!

So, what are you waiting for?  I hope this inspires you to get cooking, and have fun making pizza!  🙂