You know I always tell you the truth, so here's a confession for you: my ideal Friday night is pizza on the couch in front...
Read MoreItalian Meatza Pie
http://www.MelJoulwan.com/2010/02/16/dinner-and-a-movie%E2%84%A2-meatza-pie-and-the-vancouver-olympics/
After much painful trial and error, Dave and I have declared Sundays “socializing-free zones,” which means that except for major occasions—like Valentine’s Day’s Austin Marathon cheer zone—we don’t make plans with other humans on Sundays.
It’s our day to sleep late, do laundry, cook for the week, read books, make plans to conquer the world … or scrap all of that and just lie on the couch to watch Sunday sports.
Once the chores are done, we reward ourselves with Dinner & A Movie™. Our dining room table faces the TV, so we dim the lights and sit side-by-side, just like the Alamo Drafthouse, but Paleo-Zone-friendly and free.
This week, we had Meatza Pie and watched the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. In honor of the Olympics, I give myself a Gold medal for the dinner, and Dave a 9.9 for eating style. The Olympics get a perfect-10 for the awesome competition and inspiring athletes. The South Austin judges give the music chosen by the ice skating pairs teams a meager 2.4 (out of 6.0) and to the increasingly annoying and stunningly lame commercials, we award just a 1.4.
A few things you should know before reading further:
1
My recipe for Meatza Pie below is adapted from one my mom used to make when I was kid. But hers included cheese and evaporated milk. Sorry, dairy! You’re not welcome here.
2
When the Olympics are on TV, I am parked. Even for sports I “don’t really care about.” I’ve always loved the Olympics, but now that I’m an athlete myself, my admiration for the Olympians has increased beyond all reason. Now that I know how hard it is, for example, to skate our little Roller Derby track for a 2-minute jam, I have a much better idea of what Apolo Ohno is doing during his Short Track race. While watching the male partner in a skating team throw his tiny female partner across the ice, Dave and I wondered if we would be capable of catching and throwing a sandbag while on ice skates, let alone looking confident and graceful while doing it (and wearing sequins)!
3
Homemade Italian Sausage Seasoning and Homemade Pizza Seasoning will change your life.
4
My favorite Olympic moments so far:
Watching Kearney and Bahrke win Gold and Bronze, respectively, in women’s moguls. They were so obviously filled with joy and were, of course, totally badass at their sport.
Working in the kitchen and hearing Scott Hamilton’s voice on the TV in the other room and getting really excited to see Johnny Weir skate.
Being totally stressed out by the Short Track race and seeing Apolo Ohno celebrate his Silver medal finish (instead of pouting over the missed Gold. I HATE pouting over the missed Gold.)
Biathlon = cross-country skiing and shooting = BAD.ASS.
Dave and I screaming at the TV, “Stop looking behind you! Stop looking behind you!” as American Johnny Spillane was streaking toward the finish line at the end of the Nordic Combined medal race, only to be passed with a margin of four-tenths of a second by French athlete Jason Lamy Chappuis. Johnny Spillane’s Silver medal (awesome Silver medal) is the first EVER Nordic combined medal for an American.
Both announcers, yelling simultaneously, “And he sticks it!!!” with XTREME enthusiasm during a jump in the men’s moguls competition.
Ingredients:
Meat Crust:
1 pound ground beef
2 teaspoons Italian Sausage Seasoning
Sauce:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon Pizza Seasoning
3 ounces tomato paste (1/2 can)
1/4 cup water
Toppings:
1/4 cup steam-sautéed broccoli
1/4 cup steam-sautéed bell pepper strips
10 black olives, pitted and sliced
a handful of fresh baby spinach leaves
Directions:
1
Preheat the oven to 400F. Mix the ground beef and Italian Sausage Seasoning until combined.
2
Make the meat crust. Divide the meat in half, roll into a ball, and press evenly into an 8- or 9-inch round pie pan. Cover only the bottom of the pan and smooth the meat with damp hands until it’s an even thickness. Repeat with the other piece of “crust.” Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and the edges are brown. Leaving the oven on, remove the crusts from the oven and allow to cool in the pan.
3
Make the pizza sauce. Heat a small saucepan over low heat, then add the olive oil, garlic, and Pizza Seasoning, stirring with a wooden spoon until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add the tomato paste and stir until combined, then stir in the water. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 5 minutes until thickened. Set aside.
4
Make your meatza. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and place the meat crusts on the baking sheet. Spread about 1/4 cup sauce on each meat crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges. Arrange the vegetables on top, pressing them gently into the sauce. Pop the pizza back into the oven for 10-15 minutes, until hot and browned to your liking.
Bonus! Drizzle each pizza with 1 teaspoon of extra- virgin olive oil when they come out of the oven.
You Know How You Could Do That?
A
Make it Tex-Mex! Recipe right here.
B
Be a square. Instead of individual round pizzas, use a 13×9-inch pan. Cut it into small squares for portable party food.
C
Plan ahead. Make the crust, sauce, and veggies in advance — they hold up great in the fridge or freezer — then assemble anytime you want pizza. Faster than delivery!
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Trying this as soon as I can get to the butcher and get ground beef! YUM. Although I may also try a personal pan version since I have about 2 patties worth already in the freezer, now that I think of it.
Have you ever tried the raspberries frozen? I do it with blueberries. When you pour the coconut milk over the frozen fruit, it freezes as well and gives everything a nice ice cream/sherbert-y consistency. Good stuff.
You are a cooking Goddess! This look Yumtastic!
Once again, your recipes have me super excited to get in the kitchen. I swear, I think your recipes have single handedly been responsible for me finally loving a trip to the grocery store. A million times thank you!
Meghan –> I had frozen blueberries with coconut milk today. Heavenly!
Catherine –> I just had the leftover Meatza Pie for lunch with satueed kale on the side. This one is a big winner. My recommendation: make a double batch on a flat plan. It's really tasty.
I want to share a question I got via email and my response…
Question from Chelsea: " I noticed that the two Penzey's spice mixes you listed both have sugar in them. Are you aware of that? Is it a minor Dino-Chow infraction that you ignore? I -love- Penzeys, but a noticed a lot of their mixes are laced with sugar, and their amaaaazing salad toppers mostly have parmesan cheese in them. Guess I was just curious to see what you thought – I've been dino chowing it since last summer, and since then I've really been noticing sugar showing up in some strange places on the ingredients list."
My response:
Yes, I know they both include sugar, but I look at it this way: if I use 1 tablespoon in the entire recipe, in the case of the sausage seasoning, it's a negligible amount of sugar because the whole recipe makes four servings. Even if that was one whole tablespoon of sugar, which it's not, that would still only be 4.2 grams of sugar per serving. I can live with that, since the rest of the recipe is made of such great ingredients.
But it's a valid question, and I think everyone needs to decide for themselves what works best for them.
And yes, labels are shocking! Which is why Sunbutter, the Penzeys spice blends, coconut oil, coconut milk, olives, olive oil, and frozen vegetables are the only packaged foods I buy. You should hear my rant on soy beans and corn syrup — I can do about 10 minutes with barely a breath 😉
where have you been all my life??? 🙂 i just made this dinner tonight and seriously…too die for. who knew kale chips were so delicious!!!
Tanya –> Hooray! So glad you enjoyed it! Happy eating!
HOLY HOLY HOLY GRASS FED COW!!! The kale chips are amazing….I'm pretty sure that my life just improved by at least 10% and I'm an accountant so that statistic is accurate lol! Thank you so much for the great recipes and I can't wait to buy the book…and yes I did the survey 🙂 Take care!!
Judi
You're so nice, Judi! Glad you like the kale chips — I totally LOVE them, too. They come in really handy when you want a salty snack. Thanks a ton for the cookbook support and filling out the survey!
I read about the kale chips last week and wanted to try them. Last night, I tried…but was too lazy to look up the instructions. Suffice to say, tossing kale into hot oil works, but it's dirty and dangerous–the oil explodes! I'll try again with the sane and safe baking method.
Can you save kale chips for a day or two, or are they best eaten immediately?
Thanks for the recipe!
Mindy… good luck with the oven 😉
They taste best when eaten almost immediately… they only hold up for about 30-60 minutes before they start to lose their crispness.
If you put the Kale chips in brown paper lunch bag, they last for a couple of days and stay crispy. From personal experience.
Melissa, thank you for this recipe. I had it with my family tonight and my three very picky children happily ate their with spinach. I also sprinkled theirs with cheese, but mine was loaded with the suggested veggies and I adored it. I did use my fall-back super easy to make tomato sauce though. Since I actually took my recipe from someone else, I will give credit where credit is due and post a link.
http://goddesshobbies.blogspot.com/2009/08/preserving-food-roasted-tomato-sauce.html
Update… In the month since my kale explosion, I've become a crispy kale convert–and brought a tribe along with me. My paleo-suspicious 13-year-old likes it. My best friend's kids request it. An I-don't-eat-vegetables friend loves it. Crispy kale rules! 🙂
Mindy –> Glad to hear it! Way to make veggies appealing to a tough audience! I have a new, similar Brussels Sprouts recipe to share soon… and when I took the sprouts out of the oven, I made myself some kale chips as a reward. Salty goodness!
I’ve been thinking about kale chips all day!! Making them now and i’m literally looking at the clock every 30 seconds…1 minute 43 seconds left! Thanks for this awesome recipe!!
I was suspicious of kale chips too, but just started my first whole30 and thought I’d give them a try… HOLY YUM! I was stunned at how tasty they are! I have a small jar of them with me today at work and I’m looking forward to snacking them later!
They’re crazy good, right?! Happy snacking to you!
So I made the meatza pie last night… Pretty tasty! But my tomatoes didn’t really turn into a sauce. I had about 1 cup of grape tomatoes, but wanted to take your advice and make a 9×13 pan so I added about 1 cup of roasted red peppers. Pretty sure I used around a tbsp of coconut oil (AMAZING to cook with!) The tomatoes and peppers got super tender, but never sauce like. Looking at your photo above I’m wondering if I just didn’t have enough tomatoes/peppers. Super tasty anyway! 🙂
Just made kale chips for the first time tonight and YUM! My husband is more of the salty snacker, but both of us love them! I’m sure that they will be all gone tonight!
I just made kale chips for the first time and my 12 year-old daughter (who I have to force feed veggies) mooched them all. Had to make a second batch. 🙂 Thanks!
I know this recipe was posted years ago but am hoping that somehow you’ll still see my question. Will the kale chips turn out just as good if I use the baby kale that comes prewashed in a bag and is sold at Costco?
On a side note, your Chinese 5-Spice Pork Spare Ribs are a weekly staple in my house! Thank you for making Whole30 compliance a breeze!
The pre-washed kale should work just fine, but if there are any thick ribs, you’ll want to remove them from the leaves.
Glad you’re enjoying the 5-spice ribs! Happy Whole30-ing!
This was unbelievably good! The pizza sauce recipe alone is a life changer. Love, love, love.
Right on! So glad you like it 🙂 Thanks for letting me know.
Cooking the meat crust now. It’s created a lake of grease juice. I’m assuming you drain all this off? ?
Good assumption 🙂
LOL. Meat crusts are ready to go. Can’t wait to eat them tonight. I have enjoyed several of your soups and am looking forward to receiving your cookbook for my birthday in July.
A great classic recipe that fills the pizza gap without all the stuffed feeling. Love this recipe. Thanks for Sharing.