Pizzagna
I wanted to make a real recipe for this, but I can’t make anymore pizza for a long, long time. How do people do such carb-laden foods and not become enormous/incapable of movement? Anyway, the basics are to make the edges of your crust thinner than usual and put on a plate covered in cornmeal. Pipe a mixture (if, like me, you have no piping bags, just use a Ziplock and snip off the end) of ricotta, spinach, and egg (apx. 1/4 cup ricotta, 1/4 cup spinach, 1/4 of a beaten egg) in a circle, leaving about an inch of dough to fold over. I make ricotta, so there’s no salt in it; I find it best to add some salt to your chopped spinach and let it drain (and use that drained liquid in your sauce). If you’re using store-bought ricotta, you probably don’t need to do this.
Then pipe some sauce on top of the ricotta mixture (keeping the “layers” of lasagna). I didn’t do this on the first one, but it’s desperately needed to cut the fat in the crust (I actually had to take breaks between pieces). Fold the dough over the ricotta mixture and try to tuck it underneath. Then brush down the entire thing with olive oil and add a thin layer of cheese (mozzarella or parmesan)—this creates a layer between crust and sauce to keep things less soggy, and helps the lasagna layers metaphor. Optional: add some pieces of kosher salt to the top of the crust so you can eat them as breadsticks later on.
For sauce, just make/buy a pasta sauce. I’ve made regular tomato, blonde tomatillo, and heavy mushroom sauce; they’re all delicious with pizzagna. Add sauce on top of the cheese layer, then add any ingredients (vegetables/meat) and cover with mozzarella cheese; try to get some cheese on top of the crust.
To cook, preheat your oven as hot as possible (550 F for me). I don’t have a pizza stone, so I flip a cast iron frying pan upside-down and use that (put it in the oven while preheating). When you’re ready to go, make sure the pizza slides easily around the plate (add some flour/more cornmeal under the sides if not) and take your stone/pan out of the over. Gently slide the pizza onto the pan and transfer back to the over.
Cook for 5-10 minutes, and check it frequently (but open the oven as little as possible). You want the cheese to bubble and start browning, and the bottom should get patches of dark brown (“chewy spots”). Then take it out, transfer to a plate, and let it sit for five minutes; then cut pizza-style or into bites.
Note: the oven is really hot/dangerous at that temperature. I put oven mitts on both hands and use a pot holder when taking the pan out of the oven, and I recommend you do the same.
More Pizzagna.
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