When producer Amy asked me to cook for Talk of the Town on Dec 16th, (CLICK TO VIEW) she mentioned all the holiday specialties they had recently aired so I wouldn’t double up. My first thought was that I am feeling overwhelmed by holidays recipes, and my second was that I barely have time to shop, decorate, and wrap presents, to say nothing of feeding my own family intriguing new dishes. Now back to that first thought. There must be families who are more tolerant than mine if they allow experimental recipes to replace old favorites (of which there are already too many) at holiday meals. I must have seen about fifty recipes for dressing or it’s cousin - stuffing. If I served dressing with something like sausage and kumquats –or called it stuffing for that matter – someone might shoot me. (Well at least with a peashooter – it is the South)
I racked my brain, which is way too full for that right now, and thought of Crispy Skillet Pizzas, the dish we are churning out with great frequency at the Swor House. This is because because it takes no more than ten minutes and it’s easy plus being a delicious crowd pleaser. I always have the ingredients, since almost anything works. The base is a flour tortilla, which will keep in the pantry till opened, after that you need sauce – pizza, or barbeque or salsa- whatever you like. The toppings are cheese, mozzarella, cheddar, or Parmesan – again whatever you like. Finish that with protein and veggies of choice, and the possibilities are endless. A salad bar run at the grocery for ingredients can be useful if you are actually planning ahead. We use an iron skillet but an ovenproof non-stick is fine. We even splurged on a new skillet to keep two pizzas going at a time. That was helpful because we had some very young visitors who were charmed to have pizza for breakfast. What could be more fun than a sausage and cheese pizza to start the day? Yum.
Well the lovely people at Talk of the Town said yes to my weird idea and I made pizzas on air yesterday for crew and staff. If you need a quick dinner (and who doesn’t) I promise you will fall in love with this desperation dinner idea.
Ingredients for one pepperoni pizza*
1 tsp olive oil
8 inch flour tortilla
¼ cup pizza sauce
¼ cup mozzarella cheese
8 to 10 slices pepperoni
1 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
Optional: red pepper flakes to taste
Other add on ingredients can be cooked Italian sausage, roasted garlic, spinach, mushrooms, or peppers
Directions
Preheat oven to broil.
Heat an iron skillet or non-stick ovenproof skillet over high heat.
Add olive oil and swirl to coat.
Add flour tortilla to the skillet and cook for 30 seconds to brown the bottom.
Remove skillet from heat.
Top the tortilla with pizza sauce – spreading all the way to the edge. (Hint: for crispy edges let sauce and cheese spread slightly over the edge of the tortilla.)
Top sauce with cheese. Add pepperoni on top of the cheese and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes.
Put skillet in the oven and broil for 4 to 5 minutes to slightly brown the top.
Remove skillet from the oven, put pizza on a cutting board and cut into slices.
* Pizza maybe topped according to your personal taste. Try barbeque sauce and cooked chicken, or taco sauce and ground beef, or Alfredo sauce and cooked salmon or shrimp. A vegetarian pizza is also an easy option. The sky is the limit!
Happy Holidays! Sending more delicious ideas to you in 2015!
