Snowball Pizza

That's right, Snowball Pizza. Made famous in Middletown, CT by Giuseppe's (it now has a new name), and the place of my employment for 3.5 years of college.

Giuseppe's was owned by Rose and Joe (Giuseppe). They were from a small town in Sicily and I swear all of their relatives now live in Middletown.

Anyway, I adored working for them. I learned about how amazing ricotta cheese is. Rose made the BEST ricotta pie. Oh my, my mouth is watering just remembering it. She also taught me to make pasta, mix it with spaghetti sauce and then add some wilted spinach and a spoonful of ricotta.

So the famous snowball pizza:
You can start by making your own pizza dough. Sometimes I make my own, often times I buy it from Trader Joe's. It's not hard to make your own, I just find that for $1.50 I would rather just buy it. One less thing to do.

Make sure the dough comes to room temperature, and then roll it out on a floured cutting board. PREHEAT your oven with your pizza stone inside already to 450. Let your pizza stone sit in there for at least 25 minutes - it makes it crispier (or so I hear).

When you are totally ready, pull out the pizza stone and magically put the dough on it. I think the best way is if you have one of those pizza things - the wooden thing with the handle. We don't have one so this is always awkward and terrible. Once the dough has made it in one piece to the stone, spoon on sauce. I like to copy how they did it at Giuseppe's and use a ladle and swirl from the center out. Leave a smaller crust than you think seems normal. I feel like crust GROWS.

Then add a healthy topping of mozzarella cheese to the top. On top of the cheese add an entire layer of baby or slightly chopped spinach. I just cut off the ends and cut the pieces in half or so. It will feel like your whole pizza has been taken over by spinach - this is good. Seriously COVER IT. Then on top of the spinach dump a chopped tomato. On top of that add big wonderful spoonfuls of ricotta. The more the merrier.

Bake for about 20 minutes or so, but watch your oven. When it looks crispy enough then take it out.

Thanks Rose!!