Deep Dish Pizza Sandwich

Today we are going to look at a perfect party, movie night or game day sandwich that is fun, easy to make and a neat take on deep dish pizza.

For this this you need to buy a large round fresh bread from a local bakery.


You can use any round bread you like but I used a light rye here.

First, you cut the loaf in half through the middle. Then you spread a pizza or tomato sauce of your choosing onto each half. You can use any pizza or tomato sauce (or alternative like marinara sauce or pesto sauce) though I used President's Choice Tomatoes First Tomato Sauce with Basil.

Then you layer on your pizza ingredients. Here on each half we started with a layer each of spicy Genoa salami and pepperoni.

Then we laid down layers of shredded mozzarella cheese, green olives and mushrooms.

These are pretty traditional pizza ingredients, but you can use whatever you want. Try pesto sauce, black olives, anchovies, capers and mozzarella cheese, for example. Or do a meat lovers with multiple layers of different meats. The sky is the limit.

Take both halves and place them open faced directly on your oven rack in an oven preheated to 450 degrees. Bake for around 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and browned to your liking.

Remove the halves from the oven, let sit for a minute or two, and then,very carefully, recombine the two halves to form a colossal sandwich with multiple layers of cheese,meat and other ingredients! 

Cut the loaf into wedges and serve. I like to cut it into huge quarter wedges.

Serve and enjoy with ice cold beer, red wine and friends!

See also: Bistecca alla Pizzaiola with Mozzarella

See also: Roti or Naan Bread Pizzas: Fast & Fun!

See also: The Oliver: Reinventing a 50's Colossal Salami Sandwich -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

Bistecca alla Pizzaiola with Mozzarella

Today we are making a really fun, tasty and easy dish that we adapted from a vintage 1950s Canadian cookbook that had a variety of "international" recipes of varying authenticity. Called "Recipes From Many Lands" it was put out by the Westfair grocery store chain and included a recipe for Bistecca alla Pizzaiola.



Bistecca alla Pizzaiola is a dish that is from the Naples area in Italy. Like the more traditional dish their recipe results in steak that has a pizza-style flavour though unlike tradition this recipe had the steak being baked rather than braised as well as covered with cheese. It also uses more inexpensive cuts such as sirloin tip or chuck steak.

While perhaps not traditional, with some modifications we made to kick it up a bit, this version of the dish is really quite delicious.

To make it, first arrange your steaks in a single layer on a shallow baking pan. You want to try to get steaks that are around an inch thick. As stated above, sirloin tip or other less expensive cuts are what you want to use. (Sometimes these cuts are sold as "simmering steak").

We made three steaks with the measurements listed here.

Season the steaks with the following:

1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
3 minced cloves of garlic
salt to taste
liberally with black pepper

Once the steaks have been seasoned pour a large can of tomato sauce over them (around 700 ml). If you can use one that is seasoned with basil that works even better. I used President's Choice Tomatoes First Tomato Sauce with Basil.

After you have covered the steaks evenly with the sauce, drizzle about 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil evenly over it. Then sprinkle it with some chopped fresh basil. Finally, add one minced small red hot chili pepper or sprinkle to taste with red chili pepper flakes. While this last step is optional, I strongly recommend it.

Put the steaks into an oven preheated to 350 degrees and bake them for 1 1/2 hours.

After the time is up remove from the oven but keep the oven hot. Top each steak with as much grated mozzarella cheese as you want and reason allows! You can also, as an option, top the steaks with things like chopped green or black olives (or both), sliced mushrooms, green pepper, etc. Be sure to put the cheese on last though.

Put the pan back in the oven and bake for around another 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and browned to your liking.

Serve each steak covered in the sauce, any toppings and the melted cheese. The beef should be very tender and the classic pizza flavours will shine through.

Goes great with garlic bread, a Caesar salad and some red wine.

You can also use this recipe, though you will have to modify the cooking, to make with veal chops or chicken breast.

Enjoy.

See also: Beef Short Ribs Charcoal Barbecued with Homemade BBQ Sauce

See also: Beef Roast with an Onion Jus

263 Recipes in Praise of Cooking w. Cottage Cheese Pizza, Chicken Kiev, Cream of Tuna Soup & more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

Vintage Cookbook: 263 Recipes in Praise of Cooking

Publication Details: Standard Brands Publishing c. 1975

From its very oddly phrased title, to its less than appetizing period style photography, to its cute little illustrations and its often bizarre recipes, this brand oriented cookbook is very 1970s camp.

Each of the 263 recipes uses one or more of five specific products in some way -- Blue Bonnet Margarine, Chipits, Magic Baking Powder, Planters Nuts or Planters Peanut Oil.

The book is especially heavy in trying to promote the virtues of margarine opening with a two page section on the history and alleged benefits of margarine. Blue Bonnet Margarine shows up in a large number of the recipes, and in almost all cases I can assure you would be far better off using butter! (Though in the case of the baking recipes substitutions can be tricky.)

There is a lot of classic fare here and many pages of dessert, cookie and baking recipes that look well worth trying out.

But there are also recipes like Cottage Cheese Pizza that, to put it mildly, push the boundaries of what we would likely regard as good taste these days!

Today we look at the bulk of the recipes that were accompanied by photographs.

(Click on images to enlarge)

See also: A Taste of London in Food and in Pictures w. Potted Cheese, Yorkshire Pudding, Chelsea Buns and more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

See also: 1973's Hamburger and Champagne Cookbook w. Pick-A-Bone Soup, Beefsteak Pie & more: Vintage Cookbook TBT

Roti or Naan Bread Pizzas: Fast & Fun!

My son preparing his "Pizza Roberto" for the oven! 

Frozen pizza, with very few exceptions, is fairly terrible. We buy it, when we do, usually because it is fast and easy. When it is on sale it can be affordable, but it is often not. Moreover, it is often made with inferior toppings and sauces that, especially after freezing, just don't taste that good.




While it is not entirely true, many feel that making a pizza from scratch is simply too daunting, especially after a day of work.

But today we are going to do a fast and very fun alternative that uses any fresh toppings of your choosing and that can involve the whole family. This is Roti or Naan bread personal sized pizzas.

Roti or Naan is Indian style flat bread. This is readily available, with the wonderful rise of multiculturalism, in many standard grocery stores or can be sought out in specialty ones.

While store bought roti or naan does not hold up to homemade, of course, it makes an excellent thin style pizza crust.

I like to use Pesto Sauce as a pizza sauce, and if you do you do not need to oil the bread. But if you are using a traditional pizza sauce, passata  or tomato sauce, you should brush on about a half teaspoon of olive oil over the side of the bread you are going to top. If  using the thicker naan, brush the edge of the bread as well.

Then top with your sauce, toppings and cheese or cheeses of choice. I like to spread a nice layer of pesto, top it with spicy soppressata (a type of Italian salami), anchovies,  some unpitted black olives and feta cheese.

Pictured here is a roti pizza with pesto, pepperoni, green olives, mushrooms and topped with mozzarella. But the options are endless. Top with whatever you like. It is really great to use seasonal vegetables, sliced thinly and brushed with oil as toppings. Zucchini for example!

One brand of roti or naan bread

The best part is that it is a great way to involve kids or friends in the making of the dinner. As long as you have a variety of toppings to chose from, everyone can make something they like.



Once you have assembled your pizza, place it directly on the oven rack and place the rack in the middle. If you can cook convection preheat to 375 degrees and cook until the roti or naan is golden brown (or, if you like, a slightly darker brown for a well done, crispy crust) and the cheese nicely melted.For the roti this will take about  3-5 minutes. The slightly thicker naan will take 5-7 minutes.

If you do not have a convection option on your oven, preheat conventional to 400 degrees. Either option, monitor the pizzas closely. Individual appliances really do vary. There is a world of difference between golden brown and black and burnt! After the first couple of pizzas, you will know your oven. As always, practice will make perfect.



So next time you want some fast, fun and actually delicious pizza, with the toppings you want, try this! And watch for a future blog on BBQed pizza!