Blast-from-the-past Pizza Pods a la Buffalo, NY: A Non-recipe

 

While John was getting his master's degree in Buffalo, we'd go to the Pizza Plant when his family visited, and I would eat the most delicious pizza spin-off ever created-- The Chicken Souvlaki Pizza Pod. I love pizza.  I love chicken souvlaki even more than pizza, so this was a match made in heaven.  The pizza pods at the Pizza Plant (say that 20 times as fast as you can) were essentially creatively-stuffed calzones in a trademark pod shape but executed in such a brilliant way as to become something new-- PIZZA PODS.

Anyway, to bring us back to earth with an abrupt crash, I've never made a chicken souvlaki pizza pod.  Here's a non-recipe for the spinach pods I occasionally make.

Ingredients:

-Pizza dough recipe, your choice

- A bag of frozen, chopped spinach, drained well

- Lots of fresh garlic cloves, minced and cooked in a bit of olive oil over medium heat until softened slightly. (When I say lots, I mean LOTS. We like garlic around these parts.)

- Grated Parmesan cheese

- Salt and pepper in liberal amounts

-Your favorite homemade or storebought Italian vinaigrette

- Lots of mozzerella cheese, shredded (If you've got feta, go for it!  Do it!  Do it now!)
-I've only done this once, but to make to-die-for spinach pods, grill up some of these and add them to the mix.  

In a large bowl, toss the well-drained spinach with the garlic and parmesan.  Drizzle many glugs of the Italian vinaigrette, to taste, and then add s + p, to taste.  Stir in the shredded mozzerella and/or feta, in the amount you desire.

Divide the prepared dough into fist-sized balls (or larger, depending on how large a pod you want to eat).  On a lightly flour-dusted surface, roll out very thin in an oblong shape and heap a mound of filling down the center, leaving at least a one-inch margin around the edges. Roll up, pinching the dough together as you go.  When it's sealed, carefully move to cornmeal-dusted baking stone or sheet*, seal-side up, and bake at a high heat until dough is done.  (If you've made pizza before, just do whatever you do to normally bake your pizza.)

*If you're using a cookie sheet instead of a preheated stone, you can roll the dough out right onto the cornmeal and save yourself the trouble of moving it.

Also, here's proof that a few times a year, we even buy pepperoni.
Yum.
Long live the pig!

 

(I rolled this one out too thickly.  Oops.)