Moussaka Personal Pizzas



Tomato Sauce

 Featured Ingredient:

Del Monte Tomato Sauce

Sometimes I feel like I am playing an eternal game of "Chopped" in my kitchen. What can I make with what I have. I make it a challenge to use up as much as I have without having to go buy too many more ingredients. Like most mom's we are trying to stretch our dollar, so my strategy is probably no different than a lot of you out there. My ingredients need to be a bit more traditional though, unlike the Food Network show. Kudos to those chefs who make something edible out of a basket full of snapper, cotton candy, salsify, and mache.

It was Friday and I wanted pizza. I had sausage but decided to go a different direction. I had ground lamb and figured I could take the base of a Moussaka recipe and use that as a topping, as both pizza and moussaka call for a tomato product and have a creamy cheese like finish.

Here's the recipe:

16 oz. Refrigerated prepared Fresh Pizza Dough. (Buy the stuff in the plastic bag)
1 tsp Olive Oil
3/4 lb Ground Lamb
1 small onion (about a 1/2 cup)
3 small cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves (not ground)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 can Del Monte Sauce
1 ball Sorrento Fresh Mozzarella
1/2 cup Romano Cheese
Salt & Pepper to Taste
Cornmeal
Cooking Spray

Heat olive oil in skillet.  Add onion and sautee until almost translucent.  Add garlic and sautee for 2 minutes.  Add lamb to pan. Season lamb with cinnamon, oregano, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.  Sautee lamb until browned and cooked through. Set aside until dough is rolled out.

Meanwhile:

Preheat oven to 450F

Thinly slice mozzarella cheese and grate Romano cheese and Heat Tomato Sauce in a small saucepan.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and spread a light dusting of cornmeal to prevent dough from sticking.

Separate Pizza dough into 4 equal sections and roll into a ball.  Roll out each ball into a disc about a 1/8 inch thick.  Make a border by building up the side.

Put on baking sheet.  Assemble Pizzas.**  First put sauce;  then Lamb Mixture; then Mozzarella cheese, top with Romano cheese.

Bake about 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese is thoroughly melted and bubbly.

**(Cook's note: I put the dough in the oven for 5 minutes before assembly to get it going, as I've had experiences where I've had the pizza but the dough that was under the sauce gets wet and never rises well.  The dough does start to rise in the middle, and you lose some of your well, but I punched it down and gained some of it back and was very happy with the end product.  You can also assemble it on the raw dough.)



Moussaka Pizza

Hot and bubbly.  Right out of the oven.