Heather's Easy French Bread Pizza

After torturing Terry with an abundance of vegetables Monday night I thought I would reward him for being so patient with my experimentation. Who doesn’t love pizza?

Growing up in Darien, a suburb of Chicago, I was spoiled by amazing pizza. My first job was actually making pizzas at my favorite pizza place, Phillies. Mom knows “Phil” so she arranged it so I could start working there at 15. Smelling like meat all the time didn’t really help my social life, but the opportunity certainly allowed me to appreciate the value of hard work. After graduating from college and moving 2000 miles to Southern California I was faced with the devastating reality that pizza out here SUCKS. How difficult could it be to duplicate this Chicago delicacy? Apparently, extremely difficult, because I have yet to find a pizza place here that I truly want order from.

Instead of ordering out for pizza (unless we have a slew of men over watching a sporting event) we like to make it at home. By selecting the ingredients ourselves we can control the quality, and the calorie and fat content. This also enables us to add any toppings we would like, and make as much or as little as we want. We have tried pre-made crusts, dough from a tube, Trader Joe’s fresh dough from the refrigerated section, and of course, making the dough ourselves. We had quite a lot going on yesterday, so I decided to go with the easiest method there is, French bread. French bread pizza is one of my all time favorites, and it comes together quickly with very little clean up.

Heather’s Easy French Bread Pizza

Ingredients

1 Loaf of French

Marinara Sauce

Pre-cooked meat

Chopped Vegetables

Mozzarella Cheese

Garlic Salt

Directions

*Turn on your oven to 450 degrees.

*Split your French bread in half and cut to desired size, throw into the oven to toast while the oven is heating up.

*Remove bread after it has become a bit firm and crisp.

*Top bread with marinara sauce, and meat.

*Cover with cheese and top with vegetables and a sprinkle of garlic salt.

*Bake on the top rack for 8-10 minutes.

*Turn on the broiler and broil for 1-2 minutes if your cheese has not browned.

*Remove and enjoy!

These personal French bread pizzas turned out fabulously, they were incredibly tasty, and exactly what we wanted. I used Linrusso’s marinara sauce (this recipe deserves a post of its own, which it will get the next time I make a batch, it is incredible!). Black forest ham and turkey pepperoni were the meats that I chose, they were topped with reduced fat Mozzarella cheese. I added onto Terry’s with diced onion, and mine with onion, green pepper and mushrooms. Each pizza was crispy, crunchy and full of flavor, without the unnecessary calories and fat that come with take-out pizza. Heather’s Easy French Bread Pizza is a recipe I have used many times and I will continue to depend on it in the future. If you are looking for a quick and easy meal for a busy weeknight, you have found it! Serve with a salad and your meal is complete.

-Heather