This Old School Cafeteria Pizza recipe captures the essence of all that was good in the school cafeterias of our youth. (Cafeteria ladies not included.)
This fall marked a real Mama Milestone for me. After 28 years of recording the first day of school with a photo each year, and then sending my girls off to preschool, and kindergarten, and grade school, and middle school, and finally high school – times five! – I faced my baby’s first day of Senior year – and my last “1st Day of School.”
if you love and miss the old school rectangle pizza, here’s the recipe:
Half sheet pan and line with parchment paper.
Crust:
2 ⅔ flour
¾ cup powdered milk
2 T sugar
1 packet of quick rise yeast
1 tsp salt
1 ⅔ cup warm water (105-110 degrees)
2 T vegetable oil
Filling:
½ pound ground chuck½ tsp salt½ tsp pepper1 8oz block mozzarella cheese – grated yourself (To be authentic school pizza, you will have to use imitation mozzarella shreds.)Sauce (I make sauce the day before):6oz can tomato paste
1 cup water
⅓ olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
½ tbsp dried oregano
½ tbsp dried basil
Directions
- ½ tsp dried rosemary crushedCrust:Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Spray pan with Pam and lay Parchment paper down (Pam makes it stick)
- In a large bowl – flour, powdered milk, sugar, yeast, salt – whisk to blend
- Add oil to hot water (110-115 degrees) – pour into your mixture
- Stir with a wooden spoon until batter forms – don’t worry about lumps – you just want no dry spots
- Spread dough into pan using fingertips until it’s even. If dough doesn’t want to cooperate, let rest 5 minutes and try again
- Bake just the crust for 8-10 minutes – remove from oven and set aside.
- Brown meats until it resembles crumbles – set aside and drain meat
- Get out the pizza sauce – to partially baked crust, assemble:
- Sauce – spread all over crust
- Sprinkle meats
- Sprinkle cheese
- Bake at 475 degrees for 8-10 minutes until cheese melts and begins to brown
- Remove from oven – let stand 5 minutes
- Cut in slices and serve!
