©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

  

©2004 goCrawford.com

 

Last year I created a list of experimental pizzas that I eventually wanted to try. After looking back over the list the Spinach and Ricotta cheese pizza caught my eye. A few hours and a trip to the local market later and there I was prepping to create what is one of my most exotic pizzas yet.

Here are the toppings:
1 bag of fresh leaf spinach
1 1/2 cup Ricotta cheese
1 T parmesean cheese
dash salt
1 egg
olive oil
tomato sliced
onion sliced

The dough was 36 hour boli dough which had a bench rise of about 30 minutes. I washed a bag of fresh spinach and steamed it for about 10 minutes. I also sliced some large tomatoes and an onion. Next, I mixed the ricotta, parmesean, egg and salt together in a bowl.

After stretching the pizza onto my 16 inch screen, I spread a thin layer of olive oil onto the blank. Next were tomatoes edge to edge, then spinach, onions and clumps of the ricotta mixture. The pie was then baked for about 9 minutes at 500 degrees.

I learned several lessons with this experiment right away. The first lesson was that I had used too much ricotta on the pizza. It had spread out and covered much of the spinach so it remained somewhat soggy. Next, I learned that tomatoes on olive oil don’t stay. Much of the topping slid off with a tomato after my first bite. Lastly, I have decided that it was way too early in the year for fresh tomatoes. They had a bitter flavor and it really didn’t compliment the spinach.

Despite all of that, I enjoyed the pizza and I can see it’s potential. I will definitely work on this recipe until it is a winner. Comments and family recipes are most welcome!