Pizza Pasta

Pizza Pasta With Veggies

The husband loves himself some pizza. And he loves having a wife who gladly makes him scratch-made pizza on a regular basis. So you can only imagine his disappointment when I told him that I wasn't planning to make pizza this week. No pizza on Friday? Had I lost my mind? No pizza on a huge NCAA basketball night? I thought both of our waistlines could use a week off. Do I sound like a big meanie? I don't mean to, but it's the truth. I really thought I could get away with cutting a few pizza calories out of week. But the husband was so sad when I told him we'd be having a pizza-free Friday, I had to compromise.

I looked for a recipe that would fulfill the husband's pizza needs without costing us each 600+ calories. My answer came in an interesting recipe from Food.com. Pizza with a pasta crust? Sure, I thought, the husband might go for that.

When I told the husband about my plan he kind of made a face like he wasn't so sure what I was thinking, but he was willing to try it. So I chopped up some green pepper and onion, started some no-salt-added diced tomatoes for the sauce and put on a pot of water for the pasta.

My  stove in action

A teaspoon of olive oil, a garlic clove, 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasonings, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and a dash of salt and pepper later my 1/2 cup of tomatoes was turning into a very nice quick sauce. (The husband doesn't really like chunks of tomatoes, though, so I also had to mash the diced tomatoes a bit.) In about 10 minutes, the sauce was ready. At the same time, I cooked the veggies and the 3 ounces of whole wheat spaghetti until both were nice and tender.

Once the spaghetti was ready, I added an egg white, hoping to help it form a pizza crust as I cooked it over medium heat. 

Pizza "crust"

Unfortunately the pasta didn't come together into the crust I had imagined. According to the recipe, it should have browned on one side and easily slid out of the pan so I could brown it on the other; but that just wasn't the case. Do you think it's because I added the egg white? I just don't think this was the issue, but I could be wrong.

After the "crust" was ready, I added the tomato sauce, veggies, 1/4 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese and covered it to cook until everything was nice and hot. 

The husband's pasta pizza - with veggies, cheese and pepperoni

Because we only have one small skillet, I had to cook our "pizzas" separately and decided to cook the husband's first. Hey, I wasn't serving the man pizza. I figured the least I could do was let him eat his dinner first. Boy was I nervous. Dinner didn't really look like pizza, and if it didn't at least taste good, the husband wasn't going to let me live this one down. But he told me it tasted like pizza - and he liked it!

No, the dinner I served wasn't exactly like the recipe, but I think it was pretty close. I'm sure it had the same flavor, even if it didn't have the look it was supposed to. And the husband didn't seem to miss his regular Friday-night pizza like I thought he would, so I've got to consider this a win.