Six hours in the car on the way to Pittsburgh this past weekend gave me plenty of time to think about food for my family reunion. The menu was already set and included family favorites like hot and sweet Italian sausage cooked in tomatoes with thinly sliced red peppers served on Mancini rolls, thick baked beans with chunks of juicy ham and molasses, and stuffed shells with ricotta and loads of melted mozzarella. My task -- make an appetizer that wouldn't seem out of place on this meat and cheese-heavy table.
Get Jennifer's Pepperoni Bread recipe after the jump.
You ever have one of those days when you're not sure what you want to have to eat? You're trying to decide between pizza or maybe pasta or maybe go the healthy route and have a salad. Well, now you don't have to decide.
This recipe for Pizza Pasta Salad has everything: you have your penne pasta, your tomatoes, your pepperoni, your salami, your mozzarella cheese, even Italian salad dressing and Parmesan cheese. Sounds like a recipe that you can experiment with.
(OK, it's not the healthy salad route mentioned above but it sounds pretty good.)
Pot pies and spinach are one thing, but this is pizza we're talking about!
General Mills is recalling 5 million boxes of its Tostino's and Jeno's frozen pepperoni pizzas because of possible E. coli. The pepperoni actually came from a third party. The recall is for pepperoni pizzas produced since July. So far, 21 cases of illness have been reported. Four of the customers actually have some sort of kidney failure (!), but no E. coli has been officially found at the General Mills plant.
After pointing you to Wendy's new Design A Burger contest, I figured I'd point you to this site, since many of you eat pizza and not burgers.
It's the Random Pizza Generator, and it automatically chooses your crust, the types of cheese and all of your toppings for you. It's sort of like that idea Kramer had on Seinfeld, only you won't burn your fingers. The webmaster doesn't suggest you actually make the pizza you get, but if you do, take a picture of it and he'll post it.
The one I got was Smoked Gouda, Provolone, Cauliflowers, Salsa, Wurstel, and Spam. For the record, I am never making that.
Just weeks after introducing their new Fresh Fit Menu, Subway Restaurants are now planning to add a personal-sized deep dish pizza to their regular menu offerings. The idea has apparently been in the works for years, but never materialized due in part to the difficulty of fitting full-sized pizza ovens into their tiny stores. That particular problem has now been fixed though with the use of speed ovens - a compact design that can cook a personal-sized pizza in 90 seconds flat.
The basic pizza will be prepared off-site, then baked at the store with your choice of additional toppings. Supposedly a plain pizza will be sold for $2.99, certain toppings such as pepperoni or meatballs can be added on for a dollar extra, and vegetables and extra cheese will be free. Subway is planning to introduce the new product line in June at 13,000 US locations.
The fat and calorie content of some pies is enough to make nutritionists cringe, but let's face it: pizza tastes good. Really good. The Miami Herald says that 93% of Americans have pizza at least once per month. Very few people are willing to swear of pizza for more than a brief period of time, even during a diet, let alone for any substantial length of time. Can you make pizza a healthier part of your diet? Sure. There are quite a few ways to cut down on the worst parts of pizza and still enjoy it.
The first option is to limit yourself to one slice of pizza. Good luck with that - though it is a good idea to pair a pizza with something lighter, like soup or salad, to prevent yourself from reaching for that last slice.
The second option is to eat low fat, low calorie pies. This is actually a great way to get your fix without blowing your diet or your top button. The taste is the same or similar to regular pies, especially if you sprinkle on some of your own toppings, like a bit of parmesan cheese or red pepper flakes.