02 April 2007

Taco Pizza

If I were a certain television personality whose books are strategically located everywhere these days, I might say, "Yum-o!" but since I'm just me, I say, "Yum!"

We are all often conscientious about what we eat, cautious of the pounds we're adding to those hips when we have a slice of bread or a sliver of cheese. I was kind of craving a taco salad the other day and pizza at the same time and thought to myself that I couldn't really afford to splurge twice in one week. So I came up with this ingenious idea to make a taco pizza. OK, so it's one really big splurge that is probably equivalent of two, but I feel better knowing that I only splurged once. Get my logic?

For the pizza crust, if you have a bread maker, do this from scratch. If you don't have a bread maker, buy a ready made crust.

For the bread maker version, try this recipe for Cornmeal Pizza Dough from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger:
1 1/2 C water
1/4 C olive oil
3 2/3 C unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 C medium grind yellow corn meal
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
Put it into the bread maker, set to the Pizza setting. This usually takes about 90 minutes. While the bread maker is doing the hard work, prep your toppings.

Toppings:
1 can refried pinto beans
1 package of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 8-oz container of low fat sour cream
2 ripe avacados, peeled, seeded and chopped, mixed with a generous pinch of salt and a good squeeze of fresh lime to keep it from turning brown
Fresh tomato salsa (see below)
Taco meat (see below)
A generous handful of scallions and cilantro, rough chopped
Shredded iceberg lettuce

Fresh Tomato Salsa:
2-3 large ripe tomatoes, cored, seeded and chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped (use a larger portion of whites than greens)
a handful cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
2-3 serrano peppers, chopped (adjust heat by leaving in seeds or not or somewhere in between)
minced garlic to taste
a generous pinch of salt
a less generous pinch of sugar

Gently mix this all together in a bowl and let the flavors meld at room temperature. In fact, do a melding dance in the kitchen while you imbibe a cerveza in anticipation of the taco pizza. Refrigerate leftovers (as if there will be any). Or just use your favorite jarred salsa... but know that is a total cop-out.


Taco meat:
Lean ground beef (you could probably substitute ground turkey or chicken if you wanted a healthier version)
a lot of salt (after all, that is what makes taco seasoning in a packet taste so good)
a bit of garlic
onion powder (or use fresh finely minced if you prefer)
a lot of cumin
a little hot sauce such as Texas Pete or Tabasco
some good quality chili powder (ancho or chipotle or a combination of those would be nice)
maybe a half can of Rotel
(or just do the meat with a packet of taco seasoning)

Brown the meat thoroughly with either the packet or all the seasonings. The important thing about the seasoning is to make the meat taste seasoned enough to permeate through the pizza crust, beans, sour cream and avacado. The reason to call it a taco pizza is because you are supposed to taste "taco". So season well. Drain completely in a colander until the mixture is dry. Set aside.

Some assembly required
(Those are the dreaded three words at our house during the Christmas season!)
Spray a jelly-roll pan with oil and put your pizza stone on the lower rack in the cold oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. When the dough is done, place it on the prepared jelly-roll sheet and shape it to cover the entire sheet, making sure the edges come up on all four sides. Prick the dough with a fork all over. Bake on the middle rack about 12-15 minutes. It won't be completely cooked but should start showing signs of doneness; don't let it get too brown. Remove from oven, but leave the oven on.

Open your refried beans and spread them evenly over the crust. Top the beans with shredded cheese. Top the cheese with taco meat. Put the whole thing back into the oven until the crust is done, and the cheese looks melted and gooey, maybe another 3-5 minutes or until the look of the crust makes you feel like you can't wait another second to eat it.

Next, spread that sour cream all over and sprinkle with your chopped avacado, scallions and cilantro. Using a slotted spoon to drain all the liquid off, scatter your chunky fresh tomato salsa all over. Cut that taco pizza into pieces and serve each piece with some shredded, crunchy iceberg lettuce.

After you eat this, you will not want to go back to regular ol' pizza again! Yum.

Note: Because the toppings tend to be moist (like the salsa and the sour cream), I recommend inviting some friends and trying to eat it all up while it's fresh. Leftovers are okay if you drained the meat and the salsa really well, but will probably only be good for one day and then your crust starts to get soggy. If you end up with leftovers, relive your college days and have some cold (taco) pizza for breakfast.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i made the lamest version of this at about the same time you were making it: frozen naan, jarred salsa, pre-shredded "taco cheese". my excuse is that i spent all day making chicken soup for my dog (who is now eating all homemade food since the pet food recall).