Greek Pizza

Tonight I made the most delicious pizza and I'm very proud of it because it's entirely my own creation. Two years ago, my husband Bill and I went to Greece for our honeymoon and we've been obsessed with Greek food ever since. I have a signature Greek meal that I put together once we got home from Greece, based on how the Greeks prepared food for us. I make this meal pretty much every time we have company and it's amazing, if I may say so myself. Don't worry; I'll be sharing that meal with recipes next time I make it.

But back to the meal at hand. For awhile now, I've been thinking of taking some of the elements from my Greek meal and putting them on a pizza. Namely, I wanted to include flavours from Chicken Souvlaki and Greek Salad as well as the Greek spice mix that we discovered in Greece. So I marinated some chicken in my souvlaki marinade, added the spice mix to the dough, and made Greek salad ingredients my main pizza toppings (minus the cucumbers, of course, because that would be gross).

This is what I came up with:

Greek Pizza Crust

(The base for this recipe comes from my mom - it's in the cookbook that the home ec department from my old high school recently put together.)

1 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp instant yeast

2 1/2 cups white flour, split in half

2 tsp dried parsley

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried marjoram

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp coarse black pepper

Put the first four ingredients in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer (if you don't have one, just use a large bowl and a hand-held mixer). Add the yeast and 1 1/4 cups of the flour to the wet ingredients and beat for 5 to 6 minutes in your stand mixer, using a beater or paddle attachment. Once it's done beating, switch to your dough hook and add the remaining 1 1/4 cups of flour and the spices and knead the dough in your mixer until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it seems too dry, add a splash of water while it's kneading, but be careful not to add too much.

Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover it with a damp towel (this is important so the dough doesn't dry out) and let the dough rise until it doubles (about an hour). I like to put it by a heat register so it rises better. Once the dough has doubled, punch it down, shape it into a round ball, place it on a lightly floured surface, and roll it into the shape of pizza crust you desire. I just roll my dough out right on my pizza stone so I know exactly how big to make it. If you like a lip on your pizza, make sure you roll out the dough a bit bigger than you want it to be and then roll up the edge to create a ridge. Prick the dough several times with a fork and set aside to let it rise again (about an hour). Once it's the thickness you like, bake it in a 350°F oven for 10-15 minutes, just to set the dough before you pile on the toppings. (You can also make the dough ahead of time, and freeze it at this point; just make sure you thaw it completely before you add toppings and bake the pizza.)

Greek Pizza Toppings

Souvlaki Chicken

juice of 1 lemon

3 large cloves of garlic, minced

2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

2-3 tsp of Greek spice mix (see below)

2 chicken breasts, chopped into small bite-size chunks

Combine the first five ingredients in a bowl. Place chicken pieces in a sturdy plastic zip bag, add the marinade and close the bag. Knead and/or toss until all of the chicken is coated in the marinade. Place in the fridge for 2-5 hours. Once the chicken is marinated, heat a small frying pan over medium high heat. Add the contents of the bag to the pan and cook the chicken in the juices for several minutes until the chicken is no longer pink. Then drain the liquid and put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes so the chicken browns a little.

Greek Spice Mix

equal parts of dried parsley, thyme, marjoram, and oregano

1/2 a part of coarse black pepper

I usually keep a small container of this mixture in my spice cupboard for easy Greek seasoning.

Sauce

1/2 can of tomato sauce

1/2 can of tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

I didn't want to add any spices to the sauce, since there were already spices in the crust and on the chicken. If you don't like things very salty, you may want to skip putting any salt in the sauce since there's already some in the tomato sauce and a lot of the toppings are salty as well.

Toppings

about 1 cup chopped fresh spinach

1/4 red pepper, chopped

1/4 green pepper, chopped

1/4 red onion, chopped

about 1/3 cup chopped fresh kalamata olives (canned won't taste the same)

1/2-3/4 cup crumbled feta

1-2 tbsp capers (optional)

about 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 tomato (I like vine-ripened), sliced

Method

Spread tomato sauce over the crust - I like to use a large silicone pastry brush or a spatula. Next spread the chopped spinach onto the pizza and then layer the browned chicken over top of the spinach. Sprinkle on the peppers, onions, olives, feta, and capers if using them (I didn't add them because I was out of them, but they are commonly used in Greek salad and I think they'd be a nice touch on this pizza). Then smother everything with the mozzarella cheese.

Bake the pizza in a 350°F oven for about 20 minutes, until the cheese starts to brown and the crust is nicely browned on the bottom (I used a spatula to lift the edge of the crust so I can take a peek under there). Once you've taken your masterpiece out of the oven, arrange the fresh tomato slices on top of the pizza, and then let it sit for at least 10 minutes before you cut and serve it so the ingredients can set and so the pizza can cool a bit. You might want to just leave the kitchen for those 10 minutes, because really, it will look and smell so delicious, you'll have a hard time waiting. But it'll be worth the wait, I promise. Otherwise, your pizza will leak liquid and you'll likely burn your mouth biting into it.

Doesn't that look delicious?! If you decide to make this, I'd love to hear your (and your family's) reactions to how it tastes. Both Bill and I loved it and I will definitely be making this again. Soon. YUMMY!