Italian Bakery Style Pizza

My mom, Pat Christensen, taught me how to make pizza when I was in junior high school. I think this recipe came from a Betty Crocker cookbook, but I could be mistaken. I have had this recipe memorized for many years, as making a good pizza was a staple in college.

Ingredients

One batch Italian Bakery-Style Pizza Dough
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp red chili flakes
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
pepperoni, sliced
1 lb. Italian Sausage links, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces, browned
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 lb. mozzarella, grated

Directions

Prepare the dough as per the recipe provided above. Set aside in a warm place to rise. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare the sauce. In a medium glass bowl, combine the tomato sauce, tomato paste. Next, add the Italian seasoning, garlic powder chili flakes and black pepper. Cover and place in the refrigerator. Brown and drain the Italian sausage. Cover and place in the refrigerator. Chop the onion and green pepper, cover and set aside. Slice mushrooms, cover and set aside. Spray a 12 X 17 jelly roll pan with cooking spray. After one hour, punch down the pizza dough to get rid of the air bubbles and place in the jelly roll pan. Gently spread dough with your hands across and into the corners of the pan. Once dough is pressed out, let sit for 5 minutes. Spread pizza sauce evenly over the dough. Add a single layer of pepperoni over entire pizza. Next add sausage, onion, green pepper and finally the mushrooms. Place pizza in oven and bake, uninterrupted for 18 minutes. While pizza is baking, grate the mozzarella. After 18 minutes, removed pizza from oven and top with the mozzarella. Return pizza to oven and back until cheese is bubbly and the crust is a golden brown, about 5 or 6 more minutes. Remove pizza from oven and let stand a couple of minutes. Then, with a pizza cutter, cut pizza into squares and serve immediately.

Todd's Healthy Lasagna

If it tastes great, it's probably pretty bad bad for you. Unfortunately, this seems to be an indisputable rule of the culinary world. However, things that are good for you don't necessarily have to taste like crap. So, I wondered to myself when I was hungry for lasagna, is there a way to make it that won't instantly clog one's arteries? I found a recipe on FoodNetwork.com that seemed to have some potential. I didn't have to make too many changes to it other than modifying amounts of some of the spices and the amount of turkey sausage. Turned out pretty darn good!

Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients

1 28 oz. can whole San Marzano Tomatoes, hand crushed
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, plus 2 whole sprigs
3 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 16 oz. container 1 percent low-fat cottage cheese
1 15 oz. container part-skim ricotta cheese
1 10 oz. box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 lb. lean sweet Italian-style turkey sausage, casings removed
1 medium onion, finely chopped onion
12 sheets traditional wavy lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small pot bring the tomatoes, wine, whole basil sprigs, garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper, to taste, to a simmer; cook until slightly thickened, 10 minutes; set aside.

2. Meanwhile, puree the cottage cheese in the bowl of a food processor until smooth. add the ricotta, spinach, 1/4 cup chopped basil, scallions, nutmeg, and salt and pepper and pulse until just combined; set aside.

3. Coat a large nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray set over medium heat. Cook the sausage and onion, breaking it up with a wooden spoon into small pieces, until the meat is browned and the onion tender, 10 minutes.

4. Assemble the lasagna: Mist a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Top with 3 noodles, half the ricotta mixture, half the sausage and 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers with sauce, noodles, remaining ricotta and sausage and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese. Top with remaining noodles and sauce. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until the noodles are tender and the sauce is bubbling around the edges of the pan, 1 hour.

5. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and continue to bake until melted, 10 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup basil. Serve.

Comes out to about 400 calories per serving.