mexican pizza for the soul

When I was in elementary school, there were 2 school lunch menus that made it a necessity to ditch the bagged lunch for a day. They were Taco Bar, and my personal favorite (and my brother’s)- Mexican Pizza. It came shaped like a hexagon, which has never really made sense to me. I have yet to see another hexagonal pizza… or another hexagonal food of any sort, for that matter. Anyway, it had ground beef, some sort of taco-ish sauce, cheddar cheese, beans (?), and maybe a few superfluous green peppers mixed into the beef so us picky children couldn’t see it. It was pure deliciousness.

I have attempted many times (as has my father), to replicate this delicacy. I think he came really close to getting it perfect, once. But my dad has a tendency to quit making a particular recipe once he’s perfected it. I don’t try that often to find that piece of Mexican Slice-of-Heaven on earth, but sometimes I muster the strength.

Here was tonight’s attempt:
I used ground turkey instead of beef, because I think it has a better texture (plus, I like to pretend I’m a health nut, it makes excuses for eating junk food come easier). The crust is a very decent frozen crust that always thaws out insanely fast. The sauce was Boboli that I Mexicanized by adding some spices and a lot of sauce packets from Taco Bell. I know, I know, but I ran out of chili powder.

Topped with a Mexican Blend cheese, jalapenos, tomato & onion and served with shredded lettuce and a dollop of sour cream.

You can, like any normal pizza, customize this “recipe”. Olives, bell peppers, chorizo, beans… I’ve used refried before, but I bet whole black beans would be awesome, too. Or a bean mix for vegetarians- kidney, black, chili? Yum. You can make your own dough, or use a pita or tortillas (taco bell style!).

Fast, easy, cheesy. The longest part is letting the pizza dough rise, and you can either skip that step, or go do something fun while it does it’s thing.

So, while it didn’t meet my very high standards of the Mexican Pizza ala Pinckney Elementary School cafeteria, it’s still yummy, and a good change of pace when you get sick of regular old Italian style ‘za.

Be Sociable, Share!

•