Ricotta-Stuffed Pizza

Rising, rising, rising.

Last night I was unable to focus on writing my paper.  Instead, I kept scurrying into the kitchen to peer into the oven in anticipation of my newest favourite pizza: spinach and sun-dried tomato with a ricotta-stuffed crust.

While visiting Angie in Naples, we talked about how pizza is such an important food for the Italians.  Apparently, the government even encourages people to eat pizza often, citing it as a perfect and complete nutritional meal.  Funny, because in most other parts of the globe, we see pizza as a diet no-no, carb-loaded and grease-laden.  But when you get it made right with fewer greasy and heavy toppings, you'll understand why Italy is telling us to go ahead and dig right in.

I rarely use any other pizza dough recipe than this one by Sara Moulton.  You know sometimes you have one of those recipes that you wouldn't dare to change, because it's just that great, and it would be like an insult to the creator of the recipe by deviating from its original instructions?  This is one of those recipes.  It's already perfect.  Though I'll admit; I did make a minor change, and that was adding some dried herbs into the dough before kneading and allowing to rise.

Ricotta isn't an ingredient that I commonly, use, but I had leftover from a ricotta pasta primavera recipe that I tried out last week.  Ricotta's a nice treat, sweetened with honey and eaten for breakfast, or used in pasta to make a lower-calorie cream sauce.  Now that I'm beginning to use it as an everyday ingredient more often, I think I'm going to try making it on my own sometime.  Anyway, with the leftover ricotta that I had, I added a bit of twang by squeezing in some fresh lemon juice. No added salt or other seasonings to the ricotta - it's got a nice light and fresh taste just like that.  I stuffed the crust, just as how my calzone in Naples was stuffed with ricotta, and ohhhhh baby, from now on, my pizzas (and belly) are going to be stuffed!

A cross between thin-crust and calzone, this is good eats.

Ricotta-Stuffed Pizza  
makes two large pizzas (4 servings)


pizza dough with dried herbs, already risen twice and ready to roll out
pesto or tomato sauce
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes packed in oil, drained

1 onion, sliced
4 cups spinach, roughly chopped
1 cup ricotta cheese, mixed with 1/4 cup lemon juice
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
Roll out the dough as thinly as possible, then transfer onto an oiled pan (or even better, a pizza stone).  Spread a thin layer of pesto or tomato sauce onto the dough, then scatter with the sundried tomatoes, onion, and spinach.
Spread the ricotta-lemon cheese along the edge of the dough, and then roll the edge to enclose the ricotta.  Don't worry about rolling it too tightly or if the ricotta oozes out - this adds a new rustic appeal to the finished product.
Drizzle the pizza with extra virgin olive oil, and then bake for 20 minutes, or until the crust and bottom of the pizza are crispy.  Devour immediately.