Pita Bread Pizza

Time for my last Secret Recipe Club post.  They've changed and it's time for me to move on.  Next month, I hope you'll come find me at  The Bloggers C.L.U.E. Society.  It's a new group that I've started with my friends Christiane from The Mom Chef and Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake.  We'll kick off our group on Wednesday, November 12th with Thanksgiving recipes galore.  I picked mine out a couple of days ago and am totally looking forward to making it.  Ought to be a lot of fun. 

So, let's talk about Nicole from Picnic.http://picnicnz.blogspot.co.nz/  She's working on her PhD and has discovered she loves cooking.  Among a lot of great looking baked goods, I found a couple of pizza recipes on her blog.  One used pita bread instead of pizza crust.  What a great idea for lunches.  We've got a toaster oven and a microwave so things that I can bake or heat up at the office are perfect. 

I decided both pizza recipes would be a great idea since I was buying a bag of pita bread anyway...  And, making homemade pizza sauce anyway...  My tastebuds were totally set for the lamb pizza for Monday.  Sunday evening during my normal cooking spree, I'd browned the lamb, made the pizza sauce and caramelized the onions.  We had a big bag of non-perishable stuff on the kitchen table.  Another bag of perishables had gone to the basement fridge.  Both were scheduled to head to the office on Monday.  I'd asked Connie to put the onions "in the bag to go to the office."  He put them in the non-perishable bag...  What we had there was a failure to communicate.  Ok, so we'd start with the chicken pizzas instead! 

What did we think?  These were VERY good.  I'm not a fan of plain tomato paste so I made homemade sauce from tomato paste.  Most of the recipes I found called for either starting with crushed tomatoes or crushing tomatoes.  Growing up, though, Daddy used to make a VERY tasty barbecue sauce starting with tomato paste.  So, I was pretty certain I could come up with an equally tasty pizza sauce.  When I put the pita pizzas together, I added some greens to add a bit of flavor and nutrition.  We use the mongo containers of baby chard, kale and spinach from Sam's Club whenever we use greens - which is pretty much most days of the week...  Here's where you can take a look at Nicole's version:  chicken pizza.

What did we think?  The pizza sauce was good.  I think next time though I'll make it with the crushed tomatoes.  The chicken pizza was very good.  The lamb pizza was almost as good but we marked it just a tad bit lower.  In any event, pita bread pizzas will become  a regular at the office!  Yes, I confess, it was busy and I didn't even think about lamb pizza recipes until I'd eaten half of mine...

For the sauce:
 4 oz can tomato paste
4 oz water
1 T olive oil
1 shallot, finely minced
1 garlic clove, finely minced
2 t- 1 T Italian seasoning

Saute the shallot and garlic in the olive oil until softened.  Add the tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes.  Stir in the water and Italian seasoning.  Simmer for at least 15 minutes.

Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:

1 wholegrain pita bread
2 T pizza sauce
1 cooked chicken breast, sliced thinly
handful of fresh spinach or mixed greens or baby kale...
pickled jalapenos
handful grated cheese - I used gruyere
sweet chili garlic sauce

Directions:

Toast the pita bread for about two minutes.  Spread one side with pizza sauce. 

Top with the greens.  Lay on the chicken slices.  Sprinkle on the pickled jalapenos. Top with the cheese.  Broil about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling.  Before serving, drizzle with sweet chili garlic sauce. 


Lamb Pizza

Ingredients:

1 wholegrain pizza bread
2 T pizza sauce
1/2 lb ground lamb
1 small onion, sliced
1 beer (I used Heinken)
seasoning (I used Penzey's Bangkok but you can use pretty much whatever to get the flavor profile you want)
1/4 - 1/3 c crumbled feta

Directions:

Season the lamb with whatever seasoning you've chosen.  Then, brown the lamb and remove it from the skillet with a slotted spoon.  Drain.  Add the onion to the lamb drippings.  Saute until softened.  Pour in the beer and sauté until the beer has evaporated.  Drain the onions.  Toast the pita bread for about two minutes.  Spread one side with pizza sauce. 

Top with the ground lamb, then the onions, then the feta.  Broil for about 10 minutes. 

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