American Pizza
Pizza flag
6 oz. part skim mozzarella cheese slices
1 Tbsp. Country Crock Spread or butter
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, rinsed and patted dry
1 frozen pizza dough, thawed
1 cup prepared pizza sauce
2 plum tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into slices or 1 sliced red bell pepper or a mixture of the two
Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Here's how:
Take two slices of mozzarella cheese and stack together. Use kitchen scissors or small knife to cut a few star shapes out of the cheese. Slice remaining cheese slices into 1-inch strips.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt butter or margarine in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add spinach and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Stretch pizza dough to fit a rectangular pan. Spread pizza sauce evenly over dough. Sprinkle spinach over top left corner of dough. Place stars on the spinach. Lay tomatoes (or peppers) and cheese strips in alternating strips on rest of the pizza.
Bake 10 to 20 minutes until cheese is melted and starting to turn golden and crust is starting to brown. Remove from oven and serve with crushed red pepper flakes (if using). Serves 8.
— Adapted from a recipe from Country Crock