In the midst of Hurricane Sandy, there wasn't much to do besides use all your electronic devices at once. Following Twitter got pretty entertaining, but it was also useful. Refinery 29 put up a helpful slideshow of food to make with ingredients you were bound to have lying around now that you couldn't leave your house/apartment and had stocked up on a bunch of food that would last through a power outage. Being the pizza lover (understatement) that I am, the recipe for pizza toast, original recipe here, of course caught my eye. (Like I've said before, I do my best to make pizza in as many forms as possible.) I made this as my next snack immediately, with some alterations from the original recipe to accommodate what I had in my kitchen, and it did not disappoint. This is definitely my new go-to snack. I guess I can thank Sandy for one thing!
pizza toast
makes one piece of toast
1 piece of bread (sandwich type bread works best)
tomato paste (NOT sauce)
mozzarella cheese
herbs/spices for seasoning (optional)
your favorite pizza topping(s) (optional)
makes one piece of toast
1 piece of bread (sandwich type bread works best)
tomato paste (NOT sauce)
mozzarella cheese
herbs/spices for seasoning (optional)
your favorite pizza topping(s) (optional)
Toast the bread. I don't have a toaster oven, so I used a traditional toaster and toasted the bread first. If you have a toaster oven, toast bread on one side then apply ingredients to the other side.
Spread tomato paste, as much as desired, to cover one side of the bread and add a dash of salt and pepper, to taste. Drizzle with olive oil before spreading, if you will (I did). Here is where I got "crazy" and added some dried oregano and basil and sprinkled some red pepper flakes, all to taste (exact measurements weren't exactly on my mind mid-hurricane).
Take mozzarella in whatever form you have it (I had shredded) and cover the surface of the bread. The original recipe calls for string cheese cut into parts. Fresh mozz, if you have it, would also be excellent (obviously). Then pop it in your oven under the broiler until the cheese is melty with those appetizing pizza-like brown spots. My broiler was smoking for some reason (have to get that checked out) so I ended up having to leave it in a 400º oven until the cheese melted, which took a little longer, but it also worked, as would a toaster oven.
Remove from oven. Eat immediately. mmmmmmmmmm pizza-ish.
-E
P.S. These pictures were taken rather hastily. I apologize. Blame Sandy.
P.P.S. Until I made this, using tomato paste always bothered me because you usually don't need the whole can once you open it. SO, I looked up how to make it last, and a handy website instructed me to spoon 1tbsp amounts into sections of ice trays and freeze it. Once it's frozen, remove from ice trays and put in a bag, that way when a recipe calls for a measurement in tablespoons, you have it ready to go. You can use it right from being frozen and you don't have to throw out the whole can if you only use a little bit!
Spread tomato paste, as much as desired, to cover one side of the bread and add a dash of salt and pepper, to taste. Drizzle with olive oil before spreading, if you will (I did). Here is where I got "crazy" and added some dried oregano and basil and sprinkled some red pepper flakes, all to taste (exact measurements weren't exactly on my mind mid-hurricane).
Take mozzarella in whatever form you have it (I had shredded) and cover the surface of the bread. The original recipe calls for string cheese cut into parts. Fresh mozz, if you have it, would also be excellent (obviously). Then pop it in your oven under the broiler until the cheese is melty with those appetizing pizza-like brown spots. My broiler was smoking for some reason (have to get that checked out) so I ended up having to leave it in a 400º oven until the cheese melted, which took a little longer, but it also worked, as would a toaster oven.
Remove from oven. Eat immediately. mmmmmmmmmm pizza-ish.
-E
P.S. These pictures were taken rather hastily. I apologize. Blame Sandy.
P.P.S. Until I made this, using tomato paste always bothered me because you usually don't need the whole can once you open it. SO, I looked up how to make it last, and a handy website instructed me to spoon 1tbsp amounts into sections of ice trays and freeze it. Once it's frozen, remove from ice trays and put in a bag, that way when a recipe calls for a measurement in tablespoons, you have it ready to go. You can use it right from being frozen and you don't have to throw out the whole can if you only use a little bit!
