Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Mini Low-Carb Pizza

I thought I would share this recipe that uses low-carb wraps as your pizza dough. It's great with a salad or even as a snack. There are several pictures at the end of this entry.

Notes on the recipe:

Once you start prepping, it's very easy to make a few of these at a time, I just use the regular oven instead of the toaster oven.

Chopped fresh Basil and other fresh herbs work well if available.

Rule of Thumb For This Recipe: Any ingredient that contains a lot of moisture will soak into the wrap causing it to become very soggy and limp.

The picture shown above was made with cheddar and monterey jack cheeses.


Mini Low-Carb Pizza

1 Low-Carb Tortilla
1/4 cup of grated cheese, mozzarella, cheddar and monterey jack work best.
1 plum/roma tomato sliced (Roasted Peppers work well too)

First, bake/broil the tortilla wrap on a piece of aluminum foil as to remove a fair amount of the moisture until it starts to turn lightly brown. The ends will begin to curl up. My method is 5 mins. on one side and then I flip it and 5 mins. on the second side. If you skip this step, the pizza will turn out very soft and limp.

While the wrap is baking, I slice the tomato, lay them out on paper towel and sprinkle them lightly with kosher salt to draw out excess water. This will prevent the pizza from becoming soggy.

Next, if I grate the cheese(s) if necessary. Buying pre-shredded cheese saves time but it's not as fresh.

When the wrap is finished baking, remove it from the oven and I spread the cheese on top and then the tomato slices, sprinkle it with any of the following: oregano, italian seasoning, garlic powder or fresh herbs. It then gets put it back in the oven for about 3-5 mins until the cheese is melted and the ends of the wrap start to turn golden brown.

Remove from oven, let stand 1 minute and enjoy! I usually get the pizza cutter out and cut it into 8 slices.

**PICTURES**
Sliced Roma Tomatoes Tomatoes sliced, salted and on two paper towels. After they've sat for a few minutes, I take a third paper towel and press down on them from the top. It's amazing how much water tomatoes contain. I tend to use plum or roma tomatoes as they contain less water and are meatier. I leave them on top when I put them on the pizza as it lets the water evaporate instead of being trapped under the cheese.




Monteray Jack and Chedder cheese freshly grated and ready to go! It's amazing how expensive cheese can be. I usually try and buy it whole and grate it myself. You just can't compare to it being freshly grated. I generally use a combination of either these two and/or mozzerella. I've even used regular American, Swiss, Asiago or Fontina. I've even grated parmesian reggiano or locatelli when I have them.


In these next two pictures, the one on the left is before it was cooked and the one on the right, obviously is after.




These are my favorite wraps. I found this 20 count package at Sam's Club. The price was $4.26. Such a deal as they are a regular part of my diet.


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