Mediterranean Pizza - Food and Health Communications

Lynn Greiger, RD, one of our new Advisors, writes in her blog about her top 5 recommendations for Mediterranean cooking:

Here are my top 5 recommendations for bringing the Mediterranean diet, and all of its health benefits, into your kitchen:

1. Make plants - fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, seeds - the centerpiece of your meals. Start lunch with a tossed salad, adding in chickpeas and pumpkin seeds.
2. Include olives or olive oil in as many foods as possible. Toss your salad with olive oil or add olives to your favorite recipes.
3. Use nuts as part of your protein choices. Add a handful of nuts to your salad or sprinkle nuts over breakfast oatmeal.
4. Choose fish or shellfish at least twice each week. Toss pasta with tuna and olive oil or coat salmon with crushed pistacchios.
5. Flavor your foods with herbs and spices instead of salt.

We couldn't agree more! In fact we liked the timing of her post since we had just prepared a Mediterranean Pizza using potatoes for a crust.

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6 yukon gold potatoes, medium in size, skin on
drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil
fresh chopped garlic
fresh chopped basil
3 ripe plum tomatoes
1/4 cup sliced sundried tomatoes
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach leaves
2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
fresh-cracked black pepper to taste

Rinse the dirt off the potatoes and pierce with a fork. Microwave the potatoes until done, about 2 minutes each. They are done when a knife goes through them easily.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Mash the potatoes into a lightly oiled rectangular 9X12 baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with basil and mashed garlic. Top with sliced plum tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms. Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and the veggies are roasted. Cool slightly then cut into squares. Grate black pepper over the top. We like to serve with a large tossed salad with roasted walnuts, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and roasted asparagus.

This recipe appears in our new DVD, 25 Ingredients, 15 meals.

Judy Doherty

Judy’s passion for cooking began with helping her grandmother make raisin oatmeal for breakfast. From there she earned her first food service job at 15, was accepted to the world famous Culinary Institute of America at 18 (where she graduated second in her class), and went on to the Fachschule Richemont in Switzerland where she focused on pastry arts and baking. But after learning that the quality of a croissant directly varies with how much butter it has, Judy sought to challenge herself by coming up with recipes that were as healthy as they were tasty.

Judy received The Culinary Institute of America’s Pro Chef II certification, the American Culinary Federation Bronze Medal, Gold Medal, and ACF Chef of the Year. Her enthusiasm for eating nutritiously and deliciously leads her to constantly innovate and use the latest in nutritional science to guide her creativity, from putting new twists on fajitas to adapting Italian brownies to include ingredients like toasted nuts and cooked honey. Judy’s publishing company, Food and Health Communications, is dedicated to her vision that everyone can make food that tastes as good as it is for you.

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