Spinach Pizza

It's a double pizza post day!

Vace makes a white spinach pie that I like, so I tried to duplicate it. First, gotta say, Trader Joe's sells frozen fresh chopped basil in these small ice cube tray looking packages. Kind of like a basil bulion cube. I'm a fan.

I made the spinach topping by cooking up all this stuff in a sauce pan:
~1 Tbs. water
half a bag of frozen chopped spinach
2 tsp. fresh chopped basil (Just one of those TJ cubes)
1 large garlic clove, crushed, chopped
red pepper flakes
S&P
After thats all cooked, let it cool a little. Drain any excess liquid and add a generous dose of parmesan/regiano.

Let the dough rest on the counter while the oven is pre-heating to 450'. Divide the dough in half. Roll out the crusts. Bake them un-topped until the dough doesn't look raw, but not browned. Take them out. Brush with extra virgin olive oil. Shake on a little parmesan. Top with clumps of the spinach mixture and mozzarella cheese. I put sliced mushrooms on one of them. Put back in the oven until golden.

Pizza!

After eyeballing the ready-to-use dough at Trader Joe's, and then reading about Matt's success with it for calzones, I decided it was pizza time. Amy and I have different taste in toppings (she's into pepperoni, while I dig spiced beef, crumpled sausage, and feta) but we both agree that a nicely browned layer of cheese is vital to the taste and texture of a good hot pie. This was without doubt a screaming success.

Penne a la Vodka

So, I should've measured out my pasta, and I should've looked closer and picked up crushed tomatos and not diced, but this still tasted and SMELLED delicious.

I cut this recipe in half, but eye-balled the pasta and could've used less per sauce. In general I was hoping for a thicker more present sauce. Any suggestions?

1lb penne
4 cloves garlic, minced. (if you own a garlic masher, come here so i can beat you with it)
1/2 tsp red pepper
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatos
3/4tsp salt
2 Tbs vodka
1/2 c cream (i used half and half)
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley (i used dried)
2 links sweet italian turkey sausage

- Cook Pasta
- Remove sausage from casing, crumble and cook in large pan.
- Add garlic, red pepper, cook til garlic is golden (don't burn it).
- Add tomatos, salt, let it boil, reduce heat, simmer 15 min.
- Add vodka, cream, let it boil (and cook off the alcohol), lower heat, toss in pasta (and a little pasta water) and parsley.

Well anyway, Enjoy!