Coyote Pizza

Friday nights are usually make-your-own pizza night around here. Last weekend we even made our own dough...from scratch! More on that tomorrow. Tonight, with my discovery of the Better Homes and Gardens 20-Minute Super Suppers cookbook, this Friday night brought us a gourmet pizza made easy. 20 minutes from start to finish and SO delicious!

I happened to have some chorizo left in the freezer from those Chorizo-Topped Pizzas that I made a couple of weeks ago. To begin, I followed the recipe and browned 8 oz. to top this pizza. I didn't take a picture of this step, but I thought that I should mention it here in the beginning. It's good to have the sausage browning while you do all of the other steps, so that you don't have to wait for it at the end. Next, the recipe called for bottled roasted sweet red pepper sauce. I didn't see any at my grocery, so I decided to make my own. I totally winged it. Remember that cheap jar of roasted red peppers that I snagged for my Fabulous Focaccia Sandwiches? Well, I grabbed them out of my fridge and dropped 1 cup into my immersion blender mixing cup. They were packed in water, so I drained them a little first. Then, I added in about 1/3 cup of olive oil. Truth be told, I had a dipping cup of olive oil mixed with spices, sitting on my counter from the night before. We had some friends over for dinner and I served bread with dipping oil. Since I set out 3 different types of dipping oil to sample, it didn't all get eaten. I hated to waste it (olive oil is NOT cheap!) so I added 1/3 cup of the dipping oil to the roasted red peppers. I mix my own dipping oil spices and I don't measure a thing. Here's what I think was in that olive oil: garlic powder, red pepper flakes, Kosher salt, and Italian seasoning. Then, I poured in about a teaspoon of sugar. After plunging my immersion blender into the mix for a few seconds, it made a really delicious sauce.



I spread the sauce over a pizza shell that I purchased in my grocery store's bakery. Not Boboli, my local grocery actually bakes and bags pizza shells. Better than Boboli! I put the sauce covered pizza shell directly onto the rack of my 425 degree oven and baked it for 5 minutes.



While the pizza shell baked, I drained the chorizo and chopped up some green onion and sliced a jalapeno pepper. When the pizza came out of the oven, I sprinkled it with the chorizo and green onion and then arranged those jalapeno slices over the top.



Next, I grated a little less than a cupful of queso fresco. I found mine at ALDI, but I'm pretty sure that most grocery stores carry this Mexican crumbling/grating cheese in their deli section. Sprinkle it over the top and bake the pizza for just 5 more minutes.



Once it's all sliced up and on your plate, top it with a little sour cream and some tomato slices. The tomato in the bottom of my crisper drawer was less than perfect, so these slices didn't look pretty...but the tomato added a really nice, fresh bite to the pizza. This recipe is definitely a keeper!




Coyote Pizza adapted from BHG 20-Minute Super Suppers
Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:

8 oz. bulk chorizo, casings removed
12 inch pizza bread shell
2/3 cup refrigerated or bottled roasted sweet red pepper sauce

Or to make your own sauce:
1 cup roasted red peppers
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 t. Italian seasoning
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. Kosher salt
1/8 t. red pepper flakes
1 t. sugar
Combine ingredients in a blender, food processor, or with your immersion blender.

1/4 cup sliced green onion
1 thinly sliced and seeded jalapeno pepper
2/3 cup crumbled or shredded queso fresco cheese and/or 2 1/2 oz. Monterrey Jack Cheese
Tomatoes, thinly sliced
Light sour cream

In a skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink, drain well. Meanwhile, spread the pizza shell with the roasted red pepper sauce and place directly on the rack of an oven pre-heated to 425 degrees. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove and top with cooked chorizo, green onion, jalapeno, and cheese. Bake for another 5 minutes, until heated through and cheese is melted.

Top with tomato slices and serve with sour cream.

*Note: I baked the pizza directly on the rack for the first 5 minutes, with a baking sheet heating on the rack underneath. After topping the pizza, I transferred it to the pre-heated baking sheet for the next 5 minutes of baking. This allowed for the crust to crisp, but ease of baking a fully topped pizza. The baking sheet also provides a nice surface to slice the pizza before serving.

TGIF! Enjoy your weekend!