Spinach Artichoke Pizza

I am a huge fan of spinach artichoke dip.  I frequently order it at restaurants, and I love to make my own at home, as well. I picked up the ingredients at the grocery store, intending to make it this weekend.  Instead, I decided to use the dip as inspiration for a new twist on pizza.

I made my homemade pizza dough, but you could use a prepared dough from your local pizzeria or from the grocery store.

Ingredients:

• Pizza dough
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 4 ounces spinach
• 14.5 ounce can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
• 1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Lightly grease a 15 inch pizza pan (or a large rectangular baking sheet).  Spread the pizza dough on the pizza pan and set aside.

In a small sauce pan, heat the olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes over medium-low heat, until the garlic is fragrant and tender.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In a food processor, roughly chop the spinach and artichoke hearts (depending on the size of your food processor you may need to do this in  batches).  Transfer to a large bowl.  Combine the ricotta cheese and the prepared garlic mixture in the food processor, blending until smooth.  Transfer the ricotta mixture to the bowl and stir to combine with the spinach and artichokes.  Season with salt and pepper.

Spread the spinach artichoke mixture evenly over the pizza dough.  Sprinkle with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Bake the pizza for about 15 minutes until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly.