Semi-greek Pizza With Soy Meatballs

Semi-Greek Pizza with Soy Meatballs

Here it is; Friday night, and I have about an hour before I have to hop in the car for my gig. Tonight is a delicate balance of several things; a mix of "not much time" and "I went to the store today and got a bunch of cool crap."

I popped open the fridge door and took inventory.

The bad ass pita bread was staring me in the face, begging to be used. So were those thick slices of Monterey jack.

And then, in walked the Veggie Patch meatballs. These things are really starting to grow on me; I've been using them for more than their intended "on-top-of-spaghetti" destinies lately. I think this is the second time in a week I threw them on a pizza.

So, here's how it all started.

I took out a piece of pita and reserved it on a plate.

I then heated olive oil in a pan on medium low, turning the dial to "4." After a couple minutes, I got about 7 or 8 meatballs in a pan and tossed them around to coat them fairly evenly with the oil. I then covered them up with the glass lid so I could keep an eye on things.

That's a great little technique, by the way. I didn't want the meatballs to dry out, and when you're cooking food in a pan without a lid, it's allowing moisture to escape. That's why if you want a runny liquid to thicken, you leave the lid off -- it concentrates what's in there.

However, I'd had enough concentration for the day and knew I wanted these things to keep the moisture with which they were frozen. So, lid on.

As they started to thaw, I took them off the heat and sliced each one in half. I then threw them back in the pan WITHOUT the lid. This way, the insides got a chance to brown. Things tend to brown better when you leave the lid off. Following the inherent logic, there's LESS moisture in the pan at that point as it's evaporating, and that gives the food a chance to develop that crust that you know and love.

I let them go another minute, then took them off the heat. They traded places with the pita, which then went in the pan so it could crisp up. By the way, my compulsive side started nagging me, so I set the broiler to high to prepare for what was about to happen.

I put a little leftover creamy tomato soup (Italian Tomato Asiago, to be precise) and ladled on just enough to cover the top of the pita as a makeshift sauce. I let it go without the lid for awhile to crisp the bread, but then covered it to make sure the soup sauce heated through.

I took that mess out of the pan and on to my giganto spatula. Layering on enough cheese to almost cover and smother the thing, it then went under the broiler for about 3 minutes -- long enough that when I opened the oven door it was bubbling and pleading to come out.

Slapping the bread, soup sauce, and cheese onto a plate, I layered on some fresh spinach leaves, the prepped soy meatballs, and threw dried (as I was plum out of fresh) basil to liven up the party.

Lament: The perfect complement would have been some sliced kalamatas and onions. Oh well...on a less nutty night, perhaps.

You can see the finished result here on the page. However, after the photo was taken, I folded it up gyro style and dipped it in high-grade Ranch dressing. Cause that's just what I do.

Time for my gig. Opa!