How to Make Mexican Pizza

Made with chili-spiced black-bean puree, tomatoes, olives, shredded lettuce and low-fat Jack cheese on a whole-wheat crust, the pie also gets a little low-fat sour cream (that nacho staple) on top. Mexican Pizza - Deconstructed nachos were the inspiration behind this fun pizza. Made with chili-spiced black-bean puree, tomatoes, olives, shredded lettuce and low-fat Jack cheese on a whole-wheat crust, the pie also gets a little low-fat sour cream (that nacho staple) on top.

Ingredients you need to Make Mexican Pizza

1 cup canned black beans, rinsed
1/2 cup coarsely chopped jarred roasted red peppers
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon chili powder
Kosher salt
1 pound whole-wheat pizza dough
Cornmeal, for dusting
1 cup shredded low-fat Monterey Jack cheese (3 ounces)
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup pitted black olives, sliced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 cup shredded butter lettuce
3 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream

How to Start

1. Set a pizza stone on the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 450°. In a food processor, combine the black beans with the roasted red peppers, garlic clove and chili powder and puree until smooth. Season with salt.
2. Stretch the pizza dough to a 12-inch round and transfer to a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel. Spread the black-bean puree on top, leaving a 1/2-inch border.
3. Sprinkle with the cheese, tomatoes, olives and scallion. Slide the pizza onto the preheated stone and bake for 12 minutes, until the bottom is crisp and the cheese is bubbling. Transfer the pizza to a work surface and top with the lettuce and dollops of the sour cream. Cut into 4 or 6 wedges and serve at once.

How to Make Italian Pizza

Even though it’s become the most popular Italian food abroad, pizza and Italy didn’t always go together like, well, pizza and Italy. In fact, pizza wasn’t even invented until the 19th century, when it started out as a fast food on the streets of Naples. In the beginning (and, we’d argue, even today), the simpler the pizza, the better: The classic pizza napoletana was just dough with a tomato sauce of Marzano tomatoes, oregano or basil, a little garlic, salt, and olive oil.

                                

It’s another pizza from Naples, though, that has the neatest pedigree. When Queen Margherita came to visit Naples in 1889, she was charmed by a local pizza baker who had made, in her honor, a pizza with the colors of the new flag of the just-unified Italy—red tomatoes, white mozzarella, and green basil. Yep, you guessed it. It’s now called the pizza margherita 

Ingredients you need to make an Italian pizza

(makes dough for 4 pizzas, each one about 12 inches in diameter):

• 600 mL of warm water
• 7 cups (1kg) flour, type “00″*
• 2.25 teaspoons (25 grams) yeast
• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1.5 tablespoons salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar

*A note on the flour: In Italy, “00″, or “doppio zero,” flour is the most highly-refined and finest-ground flour available. Not available where you are (or too expensive?). An all-purpose flour should work just as well!