Spunky Mini Pizzas...

For our Friday Night Pizza last week, we had "mini" calzones and since we were quite amused with the notion, we thought we would keep with the theme this evening and prepare these Mini Pizzas with Spinach, Peppers and Prosciutto.

For a quick sauce to top the dough, we drained away the liquid from fire-roasted tomatoes (diced or whole, whichever you have handy) and placed them into the food processor with oregano, garlic and a couple teaspoons of olive oil. You can make a smooth sauce if you wish, but we thought a bit of texture would be nice here and just pulsed it a couple times to break down the tomatoes.

Since these are mini pizzas, I took the hunk of our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough and divvied it up to get twelve equal portions. I used a scale to move things along, but you can could just as well quarter the dough, then divide each into thirds to get roughly the same size pieces. Since there are a wealth of toppings in place to add, we stretched the dough out just enough, but not as thin as we would normally. While the dough won't end up as crunchy, the base needed that oomph to hold up to the additions.

On top of the tidy rounds, we gave each a rub down with olive oil, then added a spoonful of the chunky sauce, a mound of fresh spinach, strips of roasted red pepper and sliced salty prosciutto. For the cheese? Shreds of mozzarella were dropped on top, followed by a scattering of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Even if it looks like it might fit, don't try to cram the dough onto one baking sheet - go ahead and disperse them between two and once placed in the oven, remember to rotate the pans halfway through for even baking.

Pulling these out from the oven immediately widened our eyes as we saw the gooey cheese on top all bubbling and golden. Remember how we drained those tomatoes before we added them into the sauce? Since the sauce wasn't cooked down first, taking that step ensures it doesn't run all over the place and sog the crust as it cooks. While these may be small, these explicit little gems are sure to please with their overloaded tops and chewy crusts. To give these a little heat, you could either add crushed red pepper into the sauce or have a dish on the side so each person can add as much or as little as they like to their rounds.

Recipes
Mini Pizzas with Spinach, Peppers and Prosciutto