Pizza! Pizza!

So the market had a good deal on ground sirloin and we took full advantage - you know we used a bunch last night in that homey casserole and I also saved a bit for tonight's Hamburger and Grape-Tomato Pizza before freezing the rest to use at a later date.

I began this simple weeknight dinner by throwing together our favorite Whole Wheat Pizza Dough recipe - I know I talk about this recipe a lot, but we really love it and have stopped searching for anything else. Quickly done in the food processor, this dough consistently rolls and stretches well while having a wonderful taste.

Transform this dough into whatever shape you want, free-form, round, oval or rectangle - we went round as that is what our baking stone is. On top of the dough, a layer of marinara sauce is spread, followed by shreds of smooth provolone cheese, halved graped tomatoes and chunky pieces of raw ground sirloin. Yes, the meat is added raw - 20 minutes in the oven is more than enough time to thoroughly cook it. If you have any worries, you could pre-cook the meat and add it after the pizza has baked in the oven. However, if you add the cooked crumbles of beef on the uncooked pizza, they may turn into unappetizing dried out pieces and not taste so great. If you are a fan of red onion, a handful of thinly sliced pieces would be a nice way to round out pizza - since this was Jeff's last meal for the next couple of days though (more on this tomorrow...), he asked if we could just forgo them.

If you have a pizza stone, be sure to toss it in the oven and let it heat up a good 45 minutes to an hour so you get a crispy golden brown bottom on your crust. I use a peel, dusted with cornmeal, to transfer the prepared pizza to the stone, but if you are not comfortable with this or have sticking issues, you can stretch/roll the dough on a piece of parchment paper and then place that on the stone. After about 5 minutes in the oven, the dough will have cooked enough and you can easily remove the parchment so the crust has contact with the stone. Also, if you don't happen to have a stone (I really recommend using one), this recipe will be fine being baked on a baking sheet.

Recipes
Hamburger and Grape-Tomato Pizza