I decided to take last week off to maintain my sanity.  Last week was dance camp for my daughter, cello lessons for my son and getting us packed and the house cleaned for a double Feis in Milwaukee this past weekend.  So, life has been crazy but I was able to keep up with cooking most nights.  We ate out twice this past week which is highly unusual for us.  I felt a teeny bit guilty but not enough that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy our time out together.

But, this was one meal my family LOVED!  I was looking to use up all the bits and pieces in jars and Tupperware containers in my refrigerator and came up with this idea.  I used my Breadman Breadmaker to prepare the dough but I am sure you could do this by hand too.  Using the Breadmaker makes it extra easy because you just have to put in the ingredients and about an hour or so later you have dough ready to use.  I LOVE my breadmaker.

The success of this dish is leaving me to ponder the endless possibilities of different herbed crusts and pizza toppings that we could have.  Also pocket sandwiches and calzones.  Think of all the things your family loves in a simple meal.  Ahh,  I love meals like this.

Verdict:

Just seeing the picture this morning both kids said, “You need to make that again.”  It was delicious.  The pesto in the crust gave the crust a new flavor and the alfredo, cheese and ham went perfectly with the pesto crust.  Not too heavy and didn’t compete for flavors.

I served this with a simple spinach salad.

Ingredients:

Pesto Pizza Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup prepared pesto, warmed
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 TBSP sugar
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in your breadmaker in the order in which they are listed.  Use the pizza dough or dough setting on your machine.
2. This will make 2 large pizzas or 2 lbs. of dough.
3. Remove from machine when done.
4. Spread dough in 2 well-greased pans for pizzas.

Ham and Cheese Pizza:

• 2 jars of your favorite alfredo sauce or homemade sauce
• 5 cups of diced ham, fully cooked ham steaks or leftovers work well
• 2 cups Swiss Cheese, shredded
• 4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup Parmigiano cheese, grated

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Poke holes with tines of a fork all over the top of your pizza crusts.
2. Place crusts in oven to bake for 5-8 minutes until well set.  Remove crusts from oven and pop any bubbles that may have formed while cooking.
3. Spread 1/2 of ingredients over each pizza – one jar of alfredo sauce, then 2 1/2 cups of ham, 1 cup of swiss cheese, 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, and 1/4 cup Parmigiano cheese over each pizza.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes until pizza crust is browning on bottom and top begins to slightly brown.
5. Remove pizzas from oven and let rest 5 minutes before slicing.