Pizza Ring

Here's a kind of spectacular dish that looks really good on the potluck table.  It's not terribly hard to make and just requires a few basic ingredients and some very simple tools.  I've included a link to a video showing a version being prepared. The one I did is healthier and lacto-ovo vegetarian. Really it's just a pizza crust wrapped around some tasty stuff in the middle. Here's how it goes.

Ingredients:

• Pizza crust  (Here's the basic recipe - I use 1 1/2 cup white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour in my variant of the dough recipe).  If you've got a stand mixer with a dough hook, it's really easy. You don't have to let the dough rise.
• 1 pkg. - Cream cheese (I like Neufchatel myself)
• 1/2 pkg - Morning Star Farms Vege-Steak Strips®
• 1/2 red or green bell pepper chopped or cut in strips
• 1/2 large sweet onion chopped or cut in strips
• 1/2 jar pizza sauce
• 1 cup Mozarella (vary according to your taste)
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp milk
• Oregano
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Cheese sauce or your favorite marinara

Directions:

Ready for the oven

1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Roll out pizza dough on pizza pan or stone
3. Cut three 4 inch cuts in the center of the dough with a pizza cutter. The three cuts should cross at the center and make six wedge shapes with the points at the center.
4. Place a dollop of cream cheese in each of the wedges halfway between the center and the edge of the dough. Spread it with a spoon or spatula to make a ring of cream cheese.
5. In a skillet, brown the vege-steak strips and spread evenly over the cream cheese circle.
6. Caramelize the onions and peppers on low heat in the skillet and then spread them over the vege-steak and cream cheese evenly around the circle.
7. Spread pizza sauce lightly over the top of the mixture around the ring.
8. Cover the ring of filling with mozzarella cheese.
9. Fold the outside edge of the dough up over the filling and let the dough make a large flute opposite the base of each center cut. 
10. Lift the tips of the inner wedges as shown in the video up and over the outside dough and press into the dough. Press the flutes down against the wedges to help hold the ring together firmly.
11. Make an egg wash with an egg and milk. Whisk till smooth, then spread the egg wash over the top of the dough to give in that golden brown color you want.
12. Bake 20 minutes or until the top turns a nice golden color.
13. Make up the cheese or marinara sauce you like best.

Serving suggestions:

It's a ring. Put something in the middle. Serve it on the pizza pan or a pizza stone. Place a bowl with a nice sauce in the center as shown above.  It can be reheated, but I wouldn't recommend the microwave for the job or the dough gets rubbery.  Provide guests a sharp knife for cutting a slice of the ring and a spoon for the sauce. 

The pizza ring is pretty impressive for the work involved, and it's tasty too and, of course, we don't make this kind of thing to show off at church potluck.  Do we?

Click on this link to see a video of how this is made. I changed the recipe some to suit me, but once you see the basic steps you can easily adapt it to your personal tastes.

© 2017 by Tom King