My fascination with Rachael Ray

Spanakopizza

To me, Rachael Ray is sort of like a car accident on the free way. Like the three car
pile-up, she is fascinating and repulsive at the same time, but impossible to ignore. Whenever I see her on one of her 400 shows on the Food Network, I am instantly captivated. The fact that she was the only celebrity I spotted the entire time I was in NY (thank you Bruno's Bakery) adds to my mild obsession with her.

I caught the tale end of one of her shows the other day and was instantly intrigued by what she was making. Full disclosure - though I love watching her show, and even own her cookbook, I'm not sure I have ever actually cooked anything I saw her create on TV. Part of me was intrigued by the Spanakopizza because of the ongoing spinach/e-coli story. Like a child who is told it can't have candy and then tries to sneak some anyway, as soon as I heard about the tainted spinach I began to crave spinach based dishes. The other part of me knew that regardless of the stupid name, this pizza would be really tasty. Feta cheese is one of the few cheeses that I'm not particularely fond of, but a nice mild feta mixed with spinach, is a classic flavor combination; it is when the feta gets too briney that I start having issues.

I went to the Food Network website and found the recipe, and then promptly ignored it, and then tried to make the pizza for dinner tonight even though I didn't have all the ingrediants. I also made my version simpler; the salad on top of the pizza seemed like overkill.



Spanakopizza with Greek Salad
Adapted from Rachel Ray's Thirty Minute Meals

For the Pizza
1 pizza dough; I like the kind they have at Trader Joe's
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano, lightly crushed in the palm
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 (10-ounce) boxes, frozen spinach, defrosted
1 cup feta crumbles
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese or shredded provolone

For the Salad
1 cup arugula, coarsely chopped or shredded or 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/3 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced lengthwise
Hot pepper rings or pepperoncini
1 Tomato, chopped
Red wine vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.

Stretch out your dough on to a pizza stone or into a pizza pan. Drizzle the dough with some extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle it with oregano. Bake dough 10 minutes.

While the pizza dough bakes, saute the onions with some olive oil. When they start to turn transluscent, add the defrosted (and drained) spinach. Add in feta crumbles and remove from heat.

Once the pizza has cooked 10 minutes, remove dough and top with the spinach mixture. Cover the pizza with shredded mozzarella, add some more oregano, salt and pepper, and bake pizza another 13 to 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust is crisp.

While the pizza is baking, toss the arugula, pepperoncini, tomato, and cucuumber with red wine vinegar and olive soil. Add salt and pepper to taste.