Italian Easter Bread... Pizza-fied!

As you may or may not know by now, Kenji's Foolproof Pan Pizza recipe is my Holy Grail. It is so incredibly easy and delicious, it's literally foolproof. The recipe yields two cast iron skillet sized pizzas, so I knew half of the dough would go toward a traditional, saucy pie for dinner. It's the second half that left me wondering what new creation I could whip up. 🤔

Yesterday I made a delicious soup in the Crock-Pot that called for 3 cups of spinach. Silly me converted 3 cups to 24 oz, which is for measuring FLUID oz. Welp... that left me with an overabundance of spinach in the fridge, and I didn't want it to go bad! Luckily, bread and spinach marry beautifully, and I'm a sucker for a good love story!! 😍

One of my favorite traditions each year is baking my family's version of Italian Easter bread stuffed with either spinach or prosciutto, provolone, and hot ham capocollo. They look like calzones or stromboli...

In my opinion, the bread honestly gets in the way of the spinach sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE bread. I also love flavor.

As usual, I didn't write down any measurements. If you ever decide to make this, trust me and YOURSELF, and just make what feels right. Not enough spinach? Add more. Bland? Add salt. Want it spicy? Add red pepper flakes. Missing something? Go for parm.

The pizza dough recipe again for good measure: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe.html

... and my blog post about it: https://jpirrera.wixsite.com/jesspirrera/post/this-recipe-has-stolen-a-pizza-my-heart

While your dough is proofing in the cast iron skillet (2 hours), make the spinach mixture. Sauté sliced black olives, 2 cloves of garlic (or more), and maybe 3/4 of a 16 oz spinach container in extra virgin olive oil. Obviously add more or less based on your preference. While it was cooking down, I went in and pulled off some long stems.

Spinach is like a bad magician with only one trick: it disappears before your very eyes! ✨ I continually added fresh spinach to the pan when this happened. No need for more oil. The fresh spinach incorporated perfectly fine with the original mixture. Then I added some grated Grana Padano and red pepper flakes to the party. When the 2 hours of proofing was up, I also grated some low-moisture mozzarella and spread it out on top of the pizza dough. Just enough to create a very sparse layer.

I'd say this was the perfect amount of spinach! You don't want too much, or the dough will be too wet. The mozzarella also acts as a protective layer against soggy crust.

After 17 magical minutes in a 500 degree oven, we get this beauty! This recipe produces consistently impressive results, and I love it!!! If you want more color on your crust, keep it in longer, but make sure to watch that the spinach doesn't begin to burn.

You can pizza-fy anything! What's next?