Hungry For Living: Healthy Ricotta & Peperoni Pizza!

I am Italian, so of course I love pizza. Lately I have been experimenting in the kitchen to come up with healthier versions of my favorite pizzas. Today's recipe is for a ricotta and pepperoni pizza. By adjusting a few ingredients you can totally change the calorie and fat outcome of this restaurant favorite. I use whole wheat pizza dough and instead of regular cheeses I opted for lesser fat versions. I also chose to use turkey pepperoni. I was very nervous about how it would taste but was pleasantly surprised. As you know I don't like foods that taste "diet" but it actually taste just like regular pepperoni, even straight from the package.

What You Will Need:

1 pkg Whole Wheat pizza dough (you can find this in the refrigerated section at your local grocery store)
8oz Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
1 1/4 cups Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese
17 slices of Turkey Pepperoni
1/4tsp Oregano
1/4tsp Basil
1/8tsp Parsley
A pinch Nutmeg
1/8tsp Salt
A pinch of Pepper
Sauce (you can use a jar of sauce or your own, I include a recipe for sauce for this recipe)
A round pan, pizza stone or cookie sheet
Corn Meal

To make a quick yummy pizza sauce you will need:

1tsp Olive Oil
1 Clove of Garlic minced
1/4tsp Basil
1/2tsp Oregano
1/4tsp Salt
A pinch of Parsley
A pinch of Pepper
A pinch of Thyme
1can of plain Tomato Sauce
Sauce Pot

To start you want to put your dough in a bowl and allow to rise. I like to give it 24hours to rise. I usually put it in a bowl and cover it with a damp paper towel and leave it on the counter overnight. In the morning I take the risen dough and form it back into a ball and allow it to rise again. If you don't have that much time you want to allow enough time for the dough to rise at least once. (TIP: to help your dough rise faster you can turn your oven on to 400 degrees for 10 minutes then turn it off and put the bowl of dough inside with the oven door slightly open, the heat will help speed up the process)

Before

After

Pre heat your oven to 375degrees

To make the sauce you want to put the pot over medium heat and add the olive oil and garlic till it begins to brown. Next add the Sauce, Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Pepper, Thyme & Salt. Stir and allow for the sauce to become hot. then reduce heat and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.

In a small bowl add together the Ricotta Cheese, Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Salt, Pepper & Nutmeg. I know nutmeg may sound weird but it's an old trick my mother taught me years ago. You don't actually taste the nutmeg but it helps bring out the flavors of the cheese.

No matter what surface you are using to cook your pizza you want to coat it with a thin layer of Corn Meal.

Next you want to form your dough. Depending on the type of surface you are using this can be a square or circle. To stretch the dough you can hold it in the air and pull out from the center while rotating the dough. You can also lay it on a flat surface and push it out using the balls of your fingers. You want to stretch the dough and big and flat as you can since it will rise a little while baking. (TIP: fix any holes by just pinching the dough around the hole together)

I like to pre bake the crust to ensure it cooks all the way through. To do this I simply stick the crust in the oven first for 10 minutes.

Once the dough is pre baked you want to remove it from the oven and add your sauce leaving at least a 1/4 inch of uncovered dough around the edges for your crust.

Next using a spoon add the ricotta in dollops and using the spoon gently spread out.

Then evenly spread your mozzarella cheese

Lastly you want to add your turkey pepperoni. (TIP: The pepperoni will shrink a little during cooking so if you like a lot of pepperoni on every slice you may want to add a little more)