Rosie Makes A Pizza And Uses Up The Leftover Alinea Cracker Dough.

Last Friday, I attempted Alinea's Cheese in Cracker. Unsuccessfully, I might add. I cooked them the 6 minutes I was instructed to, but they didn't brown. I had half of the dough leftover and I hate wasting anything, so Monday night I used half of the leftover dough for a pizza.

Here's my little ball of dough.

I rolled it out about 1/16 inch thick. There's only a tad of yeast action still working, but I love thin and crispy pizza crusts and this delivered. Next I started on my toppings.

First I steamed some spinach.

Spinach cooks down to next to nothing. Drain on paper towels ...

... and use the boiling spinach water to pour over top of some sun-dried tomatoes.

Cover the sun-dried tomatoes and let sit for about 30 minutes, until nice and soft.

I dug down into my freezer and found some ice cube trays with pesto I made this summer.

I cooked the cracker dough for about 9 minutes in a 450 degree oven. It did not poof, as before.

I used 4 pesto cubes and spread it over top my pizza cracker.

I coarse-chopped my spinach ...

... and strategically placed on the pizza.

Mr. Hawthorne had used some roasted red peppers in a dish of his the other day, so I used them up. After opening up a jar of peppers, I've found they get moldy rather quickly. Best to utilize them promptly.

Roasted red pepper slices get added.

I found some prosciutto hiding in a fridge drawer and arranged slices on my pizza.

Found a red onion.

Falling onions.

Pretty! Pretty!

After the sun-dried tomatoes were soft, I sliced them ...

... and dropped them on the pizza. Action shot!

A little Queso Fresco.

Some grated mozzarella.

Then Youngest Hawthorne came in and decided it was necessary to grate a huge honkin' pile of mozzarella atop the pizza. Good choice, son. You learned well, My Little Grasshopper.

This went into a 450 degree oven until the cheese was melted and slightly golden.

This was delightful, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Let's go back over the ingredients, shall we? Just so you can get an accurate picture of all the flavors, smells, textures, and tastes going on here. Cracker-thin crust. Pesto coating. Steamed spinach. Roasted red peppers. Prosciutto slices. Red onion. Sun-dried tomatoes. Queso Fresco. Mozzarella. Mozarella. Mozarella.

Excellent pizza. Now, I still have 1 dough ball left from the attempted Alinea cracker dough I made last Thursday and Friday. For the next bread thingie I will make with the last piece of dough, I think I'll season the dough first. Add some garlic, maybe onion, some fresh herbs. Maybe some olive oil. Oooooh! I think I have an actual cracker in mind.

This was extremely appealing. Both visually and gastronomically.