Pizza Night!

College kids love pizza right? Yes we do! And since I have a lot of ricotta cheese and pizza dough (it was on sale last week - remember?) I decided to make a white pizza. I'm using a lot of the same ingredients to save money, but the way it's prepared it won't taste too similar.

What you'll need:
Pizza dough
Ricotta cheese
Shredded cheese
Basil
Broccoli

How to cook:
Spread out the pizza dough on the pan and sprinkle with basil. Bake for 3 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

While it's in the oven, bring a half cup of water to boil. I use frozen broccoli (that I previously stored from the farmer's market). And cook the broccoli for about 6 minutes. It's perfect timing because your crust will be in the oven for about 3 minutes and then it will cool for another 2 minutes. 

Then spread the ricotta cheese on the crust. You don't have to spread it all over the pie because it will soften while it cooks. Sprinkle shredded cheese on the pizza. And then add your broccoli to the top. (My roommate added banana peppers, too) 

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. 

Once again, this recipe can be adapted to many different ingredient. I mean you can put anything on pizza. You don't have to go to crazy, but this is a really easy option for pizza night. 

Customized Crazy Calzones

This week ricotta cheese and pizza dough was on sale. So, my roommate and I decided to take advantage of it. We looked up a bunch of recipes and finally settled on one from Rachel Ray. It's a little different, but it tasted so good! As you noticed from my previous posts I like breakfast foods. We have a small waffle maker - but we're not making breakfast. We're making wa-zones or waffle calzones. And they make a great lunch.

What you'll need:
Waffle Maker (I think it could also work with a George Forman grill)
Pizza Dough
Ricotta Cheese
Mozzarella
Basil or Italian Seasonings
Garlic

Optional:
Pesto
Marinara

How to make:
Mix about a third cup of ricotta in a separate bowl with basil and garlic.
Spread out your pizza dough to approximately the size of your waffle maker.
Top your pizza dough with your specific toppings, I used pesto.
Spread out your ricotta mix and top with shredded cheese.
Fold over the pizza dough and seal any gaps.

Spray the waffle maker with canola or vegtable oil (Rachel Ray used olive oil, but that's too expensive for my budget!)
Next, put your calzone in the waffle maker.
Gently close the lid and let it rest on the calzone. As it cooks it will close, the dough will settle into the waffle nooks. Be sure not to smash the lid on your calzone.

It only takes about 8 minutes to cook. And once it it's done cut into halves. I dipped mine in maninara sauce as well.

It's deceiving how easy this recipe is. It looks like it would be complicated but really it is very simple. The best part about it is that any ingredients will work. My roommate made a ricotta and pepperoni calzone. You can use whatever ingredients you have around.

I adapted this recipe to fit a college budget (because my ingredients were on sale) and to the size of the waffle maker (because mine is tiny compared to hers). My presentation isn't as professional as Rachel Ray's, but it sure tastes good! If you would like to see the original Rachel Ray recipe, here is a link to her video.

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/wa-zone-waffle-calzones/