Clam pizza. I've read about. The iconic dish of Rhode Island. But, I've never had it although it's always sounded intriguing. So, here I was. 6:00. No clue what we could have for dinner. Carryout last night and that wasn't happening two nights in a row. I had a couple of humongous patty pan squashes thanks to a glitch with a farm-to-table vendor we use. Read up on how to cook those. The little ones are great. Roast them and you're done. Wasn't too sure what to do with the big ones. Walked into the kitchen to survey and saw the remaining pizza crust. The crust I'd used for the tomato pie pizza was one of two. The second was sitting in it's bag on my counter getting stale. Fine. Pizza it was. But, I wasn't excited about red sauce. We've had our share of pasta with red sauce over the last week or so. All of the sudden I thought about clam pizza. Headed to eatyourbooks.com and started reading the ingredient lists. Fine, I had a plan.
Into the skillet for the veggies went a package of diced pancetta. And, into the pizza topping skillet went some butter. Then, shallots, garlic, spinach, white wine and clams. Once the pancetta had had an opportunity to flavor the veggies, it got added to the topping. After coating the crust with olive oil and garlic and a dusting of quattro formaggio and crushed red pepper, the topping went on. Then, a heaping serving of the same quattro formaggio. Into the oven.
What did we think? A five. Hands down one of my favorite pizzas EVER. Now, that reminds me of a story. When I was in college we didn't have Sunday evening dinner at the sorority house. Noble Roman's was the new deal down the street. Unlike most people, I LOVE anchovies. So, I'd hike down the street and pick up my anchovy pizza and bring it back to the house. My sorority sisters would smell the pizza and ask to share. I'd say sure, it's got anchovies on it. Strangely enough I never had a taker. LOL. And, to think that on our 3rd or 4th date Connie and I ordered an anchovy pizza and loved every bite!
Clam Pizza
Ingredients:
1 thin pizza crust or 2 naan bread
2 T butter
1 large shallot, finely diced
4 oz diced pancetta
2 c fresh spinach
1/3 c dry white wine
2 cans minced clams, drained (you can reserve the juice for another use)
1/4 t crushed red pepper
2 t olive oil
garlic powder
2 c quattro formaggio or five cheese Italian or mozzarella, shredded
Directions:
In a medium skillet, saute the pancetta until it's a bit brown. Remove it from the skillet and wipe the skillet. Put in the butter and melt it. Saute the shallot until it's softened and translucent. Add in the spinach and cook it down for a couple of minutes and then pour in the wine. Cook that until your skillet is almost dry. Then, add the clams and the pancetta. Remove the skillet from the heat.
Spread the pizza crust with the olive oil. Sprinkle on the garlic powder, then a dusting of the cheese followed by the crushed red pepper.
Top it all with the clam/spinach mixture. And, then sprinkle on the rest of the cheese. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.
