Pasta Pizza

I loved the idea of this “ who wouldn’t want pizza with a crust made of browned-til-crisp spaghetti?

Unfortunately, the method needs some adjustments.

First, you must prepare your crust: cooked angel hair pasta (I used whole wheat spaghetti) is spread in a lightly oiled non-stick pan and cooked, covered, for 25 minutes over medium heat until the pasta is brown and crispy. The pasta is then inverted and further cooked before the toppings are added. I know that pans and stove tops behave differently but my pasta was starting to burn after 7 minutes. I inverted it and continued to cook it over low heat instead. This is the heat setting I should have used at the start as my pasta crisped nicely on this side in about 15 minutes.

The toppings are then added and the "pizza” is cooked, covered until the cheese is melted and the toppings heated through, 3-5 minutes. In essence, this is steaming cheese…….not my preferred method of cooking it. (I was tempted to put it under the broiler!) Also, for this to work, all of your toppings, apart from the tomato sauce and cheese, must be pre-cooked. Though topping suggestions are given, the author encourages you to use what you like, which I did, using homemade tomato sauce, provolone cheese, leftover roasted peppers and broccoli.

In the end, I don’t know if the consistency of my crust was what it should have been. Top and bottom were crispy with a chewy centre, but the crust wasn’t really firm enough to support the toppings so knife and fork were required to enjoy it.

All of that aside, my family really liked it and would like a repeat. In fact, it was noted that I had leftover cooked pasta in the fridge and "wouldn’t it make a nice lunch for Father’s Day with bacon and pepperoni instead of vegetables”…….

I’ve included a link to the recipe from the author’s website.