Tasty Tuesday - Latin Lover's Pizza

We had half the pizza gone by the time I realized I wanted to share this recipe. Yes, often times I don't plan to share, unless it's so good I would be stingy not to.

We've been trying to eat what we have on hand rather than run to the store ten times a week for this or that. Saves us money and we don't let things go to waste. Nature Guy wanted pizza so pizza he was going to get. I didn't have the usual ingredients on hand that we always put on, well at least not all. I did have canned mushrooms, onions and olives so that was a start. I also had frozen grape tomatoes so I used those diced for the fresh tomatoes.

What makes this pizza Latin is the dry salami instead of pepperoni, pepper jack cheese instead of mozzarella provolone, and green olives. So we figured we covered Italy, Mexico and Spain and thus the Latin. Anyhew, let's get to the recipe. I hope you give it a try, it was so good we are doing this again soon.

Latin Lover's Pizza     Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Crust
1/12 cups warm water
2 scant T. yeast or 2 packets
1 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
3 T. olive oil
4 c. flour
1/4 c. each flaxseed meal, oats and cornmeal

In a large bowl or mixing bowl combine the yeast, water and sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes until the water gets foamy.  Add the oil, salt and 2 cups of flour, along with the other dry ingredients. stir or mix until well combined. Continue to add the flour 1/2 cup at a time. Once you have a nice ball of dough you can knead on a well floured board until smooth and elastic. Or let your mixer do it for you while you work on other ingredients. Once the dough is ready cut in half for thin crust, ***(see below),or use the whole thing for thick crust, and roll out on floured surface to the size of your pan. Sprinkle the baking pan with cornmeal to help keep the crust from sticking. Place rolled out crust on pan.

Sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t. each Italian herb blend, and basil

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl and spread on crust.

Toppings
1 can whole or sliced black olives
1 small jar stuffed green olives
1 4 oz can mushrooms
2 cups pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup chopped onion
20 slices of dry salami, chopped

I like to sprinkle the sauce with the Parmesan cheese before adding any other toppings. Then I add the onion, meat and cheese, then the mushrooms, and olives. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 425 and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden. Slice and enjoy!

***I make a small loaf of bread with the other half of the dough by forming a loaf and putting it in a well oiled bread pan or small cookie sheet and letting it rise until doubled. This can be baked at 375 for 35 minutes.