Thinking outside the box - Frozen pizza done right!

Well, after a long, and extremely stressful day at work, sometimes – and I really hate to admit this – I just don’t feel like cooking.  About once a week or so, we get the urge for pizza.... the heck with the diets, comfort food is where it's at!  We have been trying to keep the eating out to a minimum – so instead of ordering pizza, we have been going with frozen.  Some are actually pretty good – but hey, EVERYTHING can be approved on. 

A good start!

So last week, we took a Freschetta California style, sun dried tomato and cheese pizza and put it on steroids.  Got to say – it was REALLY good with some improvements!  I added fresh mozzarella, fresh parmesan cheese, fresh baby spinach and some more sun dried tomatoes ( I mean really- there were about 6 little pieces on the whole pizza out of the box…)  Now THAT’S what I am talking about.  5 minutes of chopping, and 15 minutes in the oven, and – BAM! A frozen pizza as good as take out! ( Sorry Emeril!)

Another ten dollar awesome
wine from Korta - find it, BUY it!
Going to work on my wine
photography, I promise!

We enjoyed this delectable treat with a bottle of Korta Cab Franc – again, a ten dollar miracle wine! This vineyard is producing some amazing wines at a really reasonable price.  Cabernet Franc can be a little thin, but this baby was a power house!  Thick, jammy, fairly heavy tannins – but manageable – black cherry, herbal tobacco, some hard candy flavors, a hint of oak– Really enjoyed trying to figure out all the tastes happening here.  LONNNGGGG finish of vanilla, dark chocolate and cherry….Just a perfect wine with the pizza – and the food really made the wine stand out!

So we ended up with a great pizza, a great bottle of wine – all for about $20 bucks total!  Who needs take out? 

Here is what I added to the pizza:

1 small ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced thin

1 cup or so, chopped baby spinach

about ¼ cup fresh parmesan cheese (they have bags of this in the cheese section – VERY sharp cheese.  Much better than the stuff in the plastic shaker containter)

½ tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried oregano

5 or 6 sun dried tomatoes sliced (about 2 tbs)

Now THIS is a frozen pizza!

Spread the tomatoes, herbs, spinach evenly over the top of the frozen pizza.  Cover with fresh sliced mozzarella, and bake pizza to instructions on the box.  Serve with an amazing ten dollar bottle of wine, some good blues music ( or Van Morrison – or in our case, both )  a couple of candles and a VERY understanding spouse, who is willing to listen to you blather on about work for an hour or so until you wind down…… and you have a great end to a marginal day!

Bon Appetit!