UPSIDE-DOWN PIZZA
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 80) [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
One of the best pizza recipes I’ve come across was the result of an accident in my test kitchen, when I put out the ingredients for imitating a franchise product, only to find our youngest daughter had put the sauce into the pan first, and then the cheese and other toppings.
I was not about to waste the ingredients at the price of groceries! When she called my attention to the fact that she had forgotten the crust, I was at another counter in the kitchen trying to duplicate the giant popovers served at Bullock’s Department Store in Lakewood, California.
To salvage the pizza, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to pour the popover batter over the pizza fillings and see what would happen! The popover batter baked up high, puffy and golden brown; and when we served it to our panel of critics (the family), they all agreed, relatively speaking of course, ‘It’s a print!’
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons oil
10-ounce can of tomato soup
½ teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon each: dry oregano leaves and onion powder
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
4 ounces shredded mozzarella
8-ounce can drained mushrooms
1 cup pepperoni, sliced paper-thin
4 ounces shredded provolone cheese (or additional mozzarella)
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon onion salt
¼ cup grated Parmesan
INSTRUCTIONS:
Grease a 10 x 13 x 2” pan or Pyrex baking dish with the 2 tablespoons of oil. Spread the soup evenly over the bottom of the pan or dish. Sprinkle on the garlic salt, oregano leaves, onion powder, Parmesan and mozzarella. If you don’t like pepperoni, you can substitute 1 pound browned hamburger or ground sausage, well-drained and crumbled.
Then sprinkle on the provolone or additional mozzarella and set it aside. Put the milk in your blender and then the flour, eggs and onion salt, blending on high speed for 2 minutes. If you don’t have a blender, use an electric mixer to combine. Pour mixture gently over the top of the cheese layer, but don’t try to cover it completely. It will spread during baking.
Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the batter and slide it gently into a preheated 450°F oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 400°F and continue baking another 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting into squares and sliding them carefully onto plates! Serves 6.
See also…
http://therecipedetective.com/2021/09/20/mondays-memories-of-my-mom-memorable-photos/
