Tag Archives: cheese

White Pizza with Roma Tomatoes

Last week I was unexpectedly told I could work from home on Thursday and Friday, which was not only awesome for its own sake, but because it allowed me to hibernate in front of our living room window unit instead of venturing outside into the blistering sun, which has the potential to scorch the very skin off my bones in about 1 minute flat.

So Thursday and Friday, I booted up our old Compaq laptop (the one that the burglars in January took out of the case and then–hah hah–did not deign to take), logged into my remote desktop, and set up a little station right in front of the air conditioner with: my coffee. The laptop (incidentally, still covered in fingerprinting dust from the detective). My work cell phone. My coconut Greek yogurt (divine). A big glass of water. Two cereal bars. An old, battered copy of Jane Eyre. What ensued were delightfully peaceful mornings and afternoons, with my attention riveted on the passionate dialogues between Jane and Mr. Rochester and the chilling relationship between Jane and the inexorable St John Rivers, with the occasional distraction of answering my cell phone to set up a delivery appointment for a shipment of citric acid, sending an order confirmation to a customer in South America, or getting a transportation quote for a customer Stateside, or going back and forth about a mysterious wire transfer that a customer claims to have sent but we never received. And then–back to the plights of Jane as her will is tried and bent under the stern command of St John Rivers!

Aaaaah. Life is good.

The downside of this break in routine–I got a little lazy with my blogging. Thankfully I had this recipe hanging around in my drafts, and it’s the perfect follow-up to Erica’s pizza crust recipe from last week. So it’s all coming together after all, despite my neglectful 4th of July ways!

I love the simplicity of this lil’ white pizza. It’s not up my husband’s alley, so I’m pretty much guaranteed to get it all to myself. Mmmmm!

My sister Erica called me up and pretty much commanded me to make it. I’m so glad that after a bossy start in my career as a sister, I have learned to listen to the Blonde One when it comes to culinary matters. And decorating matters. And many, many other matters.

Ingredients

(makes 1 pizza)

1 pizza crust
2 spoonfuls Alfredo sauce
2 handfuls grated cheese (mozzarella + Italian blend)
1 sprinkling grated Parmesan cheese
2 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 500 F with a pizza stone inside, and shape the pizza crust on a piece of parchment paper.

Spread the Alfredo sauce on the pizza crust very thinly. I emphasize–very thinly. If not, things get a little gross. Sprinkle on the mozzarella/Italian blend, and then layer on the thin slices of tomato.

Sprinkle a little Parmesan on top of the tomatoes.

Slide the parchment paper with the pizza on top straight on to the pizza stone as soon as the oven is fully preheated.

Bake at 500 for 10-14 minutes, consume, rejoice! You could even sprinkle it with fresh basil right before eating, if that’s your thing.

Now this is my idea of a good pizza! Not a piece of pepperoni in sight.

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Little Rollies

I saw this recipe on Amy’s site and thought that it would be the perfect appetizer to make for our Thusrday night Bible study. Amy calls them ‘Baked Salami Mozzarella Bites,’ and that’s a great name for them. However, when explaining what I was going to make to my husband, the name ‘Little Rollies’ popped out. And stuck.

They’re small enough that nobody will hesitate to try them (one bite is not a huge commitment), and so delicious that they disappeared by the end of the study. This is the first treat I’ve made that has been fully consumed by the group, which makes it the most popular Bible study food I’ve made to date. It beat out the apple tart. It beat out the queso. It beat out the pumpkin cranberry bread. It beat out the beer bread. Its trail to victory has left everthing else in the dust.

Let the Little Rollies sweep across the Bible studies of this nation.

These crunchy little pizza-flavored rolls with the salami and melted cheese, dipped in a little marinara, are so crazy good. And so crazy easy to make. Don’t be doubting–I’ll show you!

Ingredients

(Serves 10-12)

32 wonton wrappers
4 pieces string cheese
32 salami rounds
Cooking spray/olive oil
Marinara sauce, to serve

Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Quarter the pieces of string cheese lengthwise . . .

. . . then cut all the strips in half crosswise.

Spread out the first 8 wonton wrappers, with a corner facing you. Place a salami round in the lower section of each diamond shape, as close to the edge as possible.

Place one piece of string cheese (crosswise) across the bottom of the salami round.

Folding up the bottom corner, roll the wonton wrapper once so that it partially covers the piece of string cheese.

Fold in the sides like so . . .

[Sorry, that was possibly the worst photo ever posted on my blog. It’s a crime, that’s what. In my defense, I was really struggling to roll and photograph at the same time, and wasn’t even paying attention to my overly-bright flash settings. Yikes.]

. . . and continue to roll (like a burrito).

Seal the edges with a dab of water.

Repeat with all the wonton wrappers until they’re gone! Do this assembly-fashion and it won’t take long. Especially if you have a friend or little helper by your side (thanks Carrie, my dear “little helper”!).

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spritz it with olive oil or cooking spray. Place the little rollies on the baking tray, and lightly spritz the top with olive oil or cooking spray as well.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until they’re starting to look golden and toasted. Turn them over with tongs, crank up the heat to 500 F, and continue to bake for 5-10 minutes, until they’re crispy and brown.

You may have noticed there are not 32 little rollies here. That’s because I didn’t photograph them the night I made them for small group, but instead made a few more the following night for our personal consumption. They’re just that good.

Pad off the excess grease with a paper towel . . .

. . . and serve with marinara sauce for dipping.

Wanna see inside these addictive little bites? The rolled salami encasing the melty cheese . . .

It may be better to make a small batch, because I’d hate to think what would happen if it was just you alone, faced with 32 of these temptations.

Moderation . . . moderation . . . moderation . . .

(I’m hypnotizing myself into self-control)

Click here for printer-friendly version: Little Rollies