Make Your Pizza Dough Florentine!
Do you know how eggs Florentine, and other dishes with this name, came to be? It all started when Catherine de Medici of Florence married Henry II of France and went to live with him. Noticing that France didn’t have many of her favorite ingredients, including spinach, she simply had them brought over from Florence. Because she was the first one to introduce this region to this tasty and healthy treat, they deemed just about anything made with spinach “Florentine.” And now, you can dish some up to your customers in pizza form!
Ingredients for one Pizza Florentine
- 1 frozen pizza crust or package dough
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup frozen spinach, or spinach that’s been cooked and drained
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup blue cheese, crumbled
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, or the temperature you normally use for pizza.
- If not using pre-rolled dough, start by rolling out the dough on a floured surface. Brush entirely with olive oil, but reserve about one tablespoon for drizzling afterwards.
- Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on the dough, and then top with spinach. Sprinkle blue cheese evenly over top.
- Place in oven and bake for about 10-20 minutes, until the crust has puffed up nicely, is golden brown, and mozzarella cheese has melted.
You can also make your actual dough Florentine for any dish. All you have to do is knead cooked spinach into any pizza dough balls until it’s fully incorporated until the dough is entirely green, or marbled with spinach throughout.