Stuffed Spinach and cheese pizza with dipping sauce

Today's dinner was a compilation of 3 cookbooks.  The original idea came from no whine with dinner cookbook.  It called for a refrigerated wheat dough - I had a recipe for that I wanted to try in $5 dinner mom, and then I thought it would be good dipped in a red sauce - so I used my go-to sauce from American pie.  All good books.  It turned out OK.   Not a bad way to eat your spinach, and I didn't mind adding the nice tomato sauce either.  Here is how I made the entire dish.


Dough Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 cups unbleached white flour
• 2 scant Tablespoons (2 packages) yeast
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup) Parmesan cheese -I used the powdery Kraft stuff for this because I thought it would incorporated better

Dough directions

1. Combine water and 2 cups white flour in a mixing bowl (I used my bosch.)  Add yeast, sugar, salt and oil.  Whisk or stir together to make very liquid dough.  Let sit 10 minutes.
2. Add remaining 2 cups white flour and 2 cups wheat flour.  Mix with the mixer until smooth.  Add Parmesan and Italian seasoning and mix until well incorporated.  
3. Cover and let rise 45 min to 1 hour.

Filling ingredients

• 1 16 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• dough from recipe above
• 1 8 oz package shredded mozzarella -2 cups
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (I used the real stuff here - a triangle that I shredded)
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta (this was optional and I didn't have any, but I really wanted to try it.  I think it would be delicious.)
• 20-30 slices turkey pepperoni coarsely chopped (I chopped mine with kitchen scissors)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425.  Drain spinach in a colander.  Press into the colander to squeeze out extra water. Pat with paper towels.  Place in a medium large bowl.
2. Add cheeses, pepperoni, garlic powder and a few grinds of pepper to the spinach.  Mix together well.
3. Take out 2 large rimmed baking sheets.  Pour a little bit of olive oil onto one pan.  (1/2 Tablespoon or so)  Use your fingers to spread the oil all over the pan.  Place 1/2 of the dough on the prepared pan.  Spread it over the oil to cover the entire pan.  
4. Spread the spinach mixture evenly over the wider bottom 1/2 of the crust leaving 1/2 inch border.  Fold the top part of the dough over the spinach mixture.  (At this point I turned the dough on the pan and kind of stretched it out a bit, pushing it a little flatter.)  Use a fork to press edges of dough together.  Poke the top of the dough with the fork a few times to allow steam to escape.
5. Bake until crust is golden brown about 15 minutes (I may have done 20)  Cut into slices and serve with sauce.

Crushed tomato sauce Ingredients

• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (5 cloves)
• 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• salt

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  (I totally forgot the salt yesterday and it was fine.  I also warmed it up for a minute or 2 in the microwave yesterday to use as a dip.)