Quick Pizza

Jazz Cooks, p. 121

Pizza dough to fit in a 12-inch pizza pan, either homemade, store-bought, or purchased from a pizza shop

Cornmeal for sprinkling on pizza pan

¾ cup tomato sauce

¼ cup spicy Mexican salsa

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese (with or without jalapenos)

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 small (4-ounce) can diced jalapenos, or to taste

Chopped black olives (optional)

Preheat the oven to 500F. On a floured surface, roll out the dough and fit it onto a pizza tile or a pan that has been lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Curl the edges. Mix the tomato sauce with the salsa and spread over the dough. Mix together the oregano and red pepper and sprinkle over the sauce. 

It's a lot of red sauce for my taste, but the salsa gives it some nice zip.

In order, evenly distribute the cheese, onion, jalapenos, and olives (if using) over the sauce. 

Prepped in pretty colors!

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the crust is browned and the sauce is bubbly. Let cool for a minute, then slice. 

Nice and gooey-melty.

My Rating: 3/5 "This has a lot of things going for it: Monterey Jack is always a win, and so are olives and jalapenos. I could have handled less red sauce, but of course I always feel like the world would function a lot better in general without so much red sauce. The weird part, though, was the combination of the Italian spices with the chiles and salsa. It doesn't quite compute on the palate. Try it yourself, though, and see what you think!"