Winner winner weeknight dinner!
Sometimes I'll get a sudden craving for pizza during the week, when I have more limited time for cooking. Or sometimes I know ahead of time that I want to make pizza during the week, but I don't have time over the weekend to whip up some dough. Or maybe I realized I'm out of flour and I'm just not in the mood to carry a new bag of it home from the grocery store.
Since I don't make a habit of keeping pizza dough in my freezer, all of these scenarios can present a problem. Do I order in a pizza or mix up some version of a quick pizza dough? Neither option is particularly great. Ordering a decent pizza almost always costs more that I really want to spend on dinner, or leaves me with so much leftover that I'm tired of the pizza before it's finished. Quick pizza doughs, in my experience, are usually kind of flavorless and boring, since the dough has no chance to develop any real flavor without yeast and fermentation time, and I end up with a pizza that tastes like I just spread toppings on a really bready cracker.
Of course, I could always stop by the grocery store on my way home and buy some pre-made dough, either the uncooked dough in a bag or the pre-cooked kind. The dough in a bag option is fine, but sometimes I don't want to wait for my dough to come to room temperature or maybe I just don't feel like getting my hands messy. And the pre-cooked options are almost always on the thicker side, which is not what I'm looking for when I eat pizza.
The solution came to me one day when I was grocery shopping and I looked at those pre-packaged naans you can usually find in the bread aisle, and I thought that maybe they would make an awesome thin crust pizza! And I was right! It totally does. And the best part? Weeknight pizza can be as simple as opening a package of naan, spreading on your favorite toppings and melting it all under the broiler. It's a perfect way to use up leftover veggies or meat. They also happen to freeze really well, so you can make up a batch and have a supply of personal pizzas ready and waiting.
So pick out your favorite array of toppings and dinner is ready in 10 minutes!
Naan Pizzas
There isn't much more to the recipe for these than open package, top, and melt, but below are two of my favorite topping combinations. One note is that since these have such a short cooking time, use already cooked vegetables and meat, otherwise they will end up under cooked.
Pesto, mozzerella, broccolini, chili flake, and pine nuts. Spoon a thin layer of pesto over the naan, top with slices of fresh mozzarella and some diced, cooked broccolini, sprinkle with chili flakes and pine nuts and cook under the broiler until cheese is melted and everything toasts a bit.
Muenster, bacon, kale, and spicy honey. Place 3 slices of muenster cheese across the naan, sprinkle bacon on top and top with a layer of sauteed kale. Cook under the broiler until melted and golden, then drizzle with the honey. You can also use regular, non-spicy honey, just sprinkle some chili flakes on the pizza before baking to add a little heat.