Lenten Recipes: Sun Dried Tomato and Clam Pizza

In the Catholic Church, we abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent.  I love this - for spiritual reasons that I don't usually delve into in public - and also because it expands my vegetarian and seafood recipe repertoire.  Generally, Fridays during Lent mean pizza night here at imperfect.  I'm currently on a make my own pizza rather than order out kick.  I like knowing exactly what's in our food.

Why yes, I am considering job offers for professional food plating and photography.  I mean, look at this masterpiece.  I'm fighting off food presentation job offers everywhere I go.  But for reals, this pizza's delicious.  Anyone want to come clean my cooktop?



And you guys? Making pizza dough? SO easy. My mom's Pizza on the Grill dough recipe is a good recipe - but when I don't have time to let the dough rise, or when I want a thinner crust for oven purposes, I go with this recipe:

Quick Pizza Crust (via AllRecipes)
3 cups flour (I use whole wheat flour)
1 package active dry yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tablespoons oil

I mix the dry ingredients together, then dump in the water and oil - mix it around and spread it out on a cookie sheat.  No need to knead the dough or let it rise.

At this point you could top your pizza with whatever you want - tomato sauce, pesto - the sky's the limit, friends.  But, because I was going with a clam pizza, I thought I'd keep it simple and spread some olive oil on the unbaked dough, sprinkled a little garlic powder over the top, and baked the dough at 375 for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together:
2 Tablespoons olive oil (plus some for spreading)
2 cloves garlic minced
2 cans minced clams, drained
Sun-dried tomatoes (your call on the amount - I used about 1/4 cup)

You'll also need:
Mozzarella cheese
Oregano and Basil (or Italian seasonings)

When your crust is done semi-pre-baking, top with mozzarella cheese and spread the clam and sun dried tomato mixture over the top.  Sprinkle with seasonings.  Bake (still at 375) for another 20 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and crust is done.  Delicious.

PS - after much procrastionation, I finally categorized my Recipes tab up top.  So you don't have to read every post I've ever written to find a pesto recipe.  I'll try to stay on top of it, but no promises.  This is imperfect, afterall.