Projo Football Food & Spirits

Boboli, the folks who make the pizza shells in your bread aisle, have designed a pizza for each team in the NFL. Here are those for New England Patriots and New York for tonight's game.

Visit www.boboli.com for more recipes on the Great American Football City Tour.

NEW ENGLAND "CLAM BAKE" PIZZA

2 10 oz cans whole baby clams, rinsed and drained
3 tsp lemon juice
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
1 12" BOBOLI Thin Pizza Crust
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped


Preheat oven to 450° F.

In a medium bowl, add clams and sprinkle with lemon juice; stir. Add Monterey Jack cheese, Parmesan cheese and garlic and mix until well combined. Spread mixture on crust, leaving a 1" border around the edge. Bake 8–10 minutes until crust is light brown and cheeses are melted. Sprinkle with parsley.

NEW YORK'S "DEFENSE" HOT DOG PIZZA

1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp butter
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 beef hot dogs cut into bite-sized pieces
1 12" BOBOLI® Thin Pizza Crust
1/2 cup sauerkraut, rinsed and well drained
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded cheddar


Preheat oven to 450° F. Combine mustard and mayonnaise and set aside. Preheat a skillet over medium heat and add butter. Sauté onion for 3–4 minutes. Add hot dog pieces to onions and sauté 3–4 minutes more. Remove from heat. Spread crust with mustard mixture, leaving a 1” border around the outside, and top with a thin layer of sauerkraut. Add the onion and hot dog mixture in an even layer and top with cheeses. Bake 8–10 minutes until crust is light brown and cheeses are melted.

Stephen Linn, author of www.theultimatetailgater.com

He's got a trio of pizzas for you to toss on the grill at your next tailgate event.

He says "I love pizzas at tailgates because they cook fast, which means everyone can get one with their favorite toppings. They also meet the tailgate test of being able to be eaten with one hand while your other holds a drink."

Barbecue Chicken Pizza
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 (14-inch) pizza crust (store-bought dough is fine)
¾ cup barbecue sauce
½ red onion, thinly sliced
6 ounces Mozzarella cheese, shredded
3 ounces Parmesan cheese, shredded

Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Salt and pepper the chicken breast and grill until internal temperature is 150ºF.
Remove from the grill, let cool, and cut into ½-inch think slices.
Place the crust on a 14-inch pizza pan. Spread the barbecue sauce evenly over the crust, and top it with the onions and chicken. In a bowl mix the cheeses, and sprinkle them evenly on the pizza. Place the pizza on the grill and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crust is crisp and the cheese has melted.
Serves 4 - 8

Feta and Tomato Pizza
Olive oil
6 tomatoes, cut into slices
1 14-inch pizza crust (store-bought is fine)
1 cup feta cheese
½ cup fresh basil, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat grill to medium.
Brush tomatoes with oil and grill for 1-2 minutes without turning them. Remove and set aside.
Place the crust on a 14-inch pizza pan. Brush the crust with oil and place the tomatoes on top. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle on tip of the pizza. Place the pizza on the grill, and cook until the cheese is melted and bubbling slightly.
Serves 4-8.

Grilled Pizza con Funghi e Fontina
From Chef Ilene Ross
1 recipe pizza dough or prepared dough, rolled into 8 (3-inch) rounds
½ cup olive oil
4 to 5 cloves garlic, minced
3 shallots, minced
1 pound assorted exotic mushrooms, sliced or chopped (if using shiitakes, remove inedible stems) 1/4 cup Marsala wine
8 ounces Fontina cheese, grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pizza stone or pizza pan

Heat ½ of the oil, garlic and shallots in a large sauté pan over medium high heat until lightly golden.
Add the mushrooms and sauté until most of the liquid has evaporated (about 3 to 5 minutes), and then add wine. Continue to sauté until wine completely evaporates and mushrooms have turned a darker shade or brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove mushroom mixture from heat. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat grill to high. Brush dough rounds with remaining olive oil, season with salt and pepper and grill for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown. Turn over and grill for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the grill and place on a flat surface.
Spread the mushroom mixture evenly over the crust. Add the Fontina cheese, distributing it as evenly as possible. Season with salt and pepper and return to grill just until the cheese is melted. Serve immediately.

I made these funny little pizza rolls once when I was writing about a kids' cookbook and now my husband begs for them when he sits down to watch a game.

You can improvise this concept in many different ways but the idea is to take refrigerated crescent rolls and, add pizza sauce, grated cheese and a meat, say pepperoni, and bake them. You can make them with peppers or onions or other veggies or with sausage or hamburger. They're so easy I have no real recipe.

Make your own pizza sauce or buy a store brand because you are only using about a teaspoon for each roll. I usually make four packages using Pillsbury Crescent Rolls as we have teenagers in the house and things like this disappear from the stove while cooling. There are 8 rolls in each package.

One eight-ounce can of pizza sauce will be sufficient and you should grate about 8 ounces of mozzerella cheese. I use two pieces of sliced pepperoni per crescent roll. Just roll them up with all that good stuff in it and place on greased pan. I like to use one with sides in case some cheese oozes out. Bake 13-15 minutes at 375 degrees until golden brown.

Here's a similar recipe made with chicken from Pillsbury Kids Cookbook Food Fun For Boys And Girls

CHICKEN WRAPS

For the wraps:
1 envelope (1 ounce) ranch salad dressing mix
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can refrigerated flaky biscuits
1 package refrigerated fully cooked grilled chicken breast strips
2 tablespoons butter or margarine (from a stick)

DIPPING SAUCE:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
Measure out 1 tablespoon of the salad dressing mix and put it in a bowl. Measure out the oil and put it in the bowl. Mix them up with the spoon.

Remove the dough from the can. Separate the dough into 8 biscuits. Put the biscuits on the cookie sheet. Use your fingers to press each biscuit into a 6-inch oval. Use the spoon to spread about 1 teaspoon of the salad dressing mixture on top of each biscuit.

Put about 3 chicken breast strips crosswise on the center of each biscuit. Bring the ends of biscuit ovals up over chicken, overlapping and pinching them to seal. Use the table knife to cut off 2 tablespoons from the stick of butter. Put it in the custard cup. Put the rest of the butter pack in the refrigerator. Microwave the butter on High 5 to 10 seconds, until it is melted. Use the pastry brush to brush the dough with the melted butter. Measure out 2 teaspoons of the dry salad dressing mix. Sprinkle it over the tops of the wraps.

Bake the chicken wraps for 18 to 22 minutes or until they look light golden brown.
While the chicken wraps are baking, measure out the sour cream and put it in a bowl. Scrape all of it out of the measuring cup with the rubber spatula. Measure out the mayonnaise and put it in the bowl. Use the spatula again to scrape all of it out of the cup. Toss the rest of the ranch salad dressing mix in the bowl. Mix it all together with the wooden spoon.

A market research firm - NPD Group- tallied how many times a year Americans around the country eat frozen pizza.

Midwesterners do it 22 times a year. That’s almost twice a month for those living in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and North and South Dakota.

What are they thinking?

Apparently they don’t have enough great pizzerias to visit so they are stuck eating something that tastes like cardboard.

New Englanders, I’m proud to say, are at the bottom of the frozen-pizza-eater list,only having it an average of 6 times a year.

We do not have to buy frozen with all the great pizza makers we have here.

If you are craving a pizza for when the Patriots head to Giants Stadium to play the Jets on Sunday, here are three great spots to try.

On Plainfield Pike you’ll find Neo Pizza, 2244 Plainfield Pike, Cranston, (401) 942-4636, and try the Gian. It’s made with a signature thin crispy crust, a blend of three cheeses - mozzarella, Cheddar and Parmesan - pancetta, spinach, olive oil and fresh garlic. The bacony fragrance is delicate and spicy, and so beautifully balanced by the scent of the garlic and other herbs.

Pancetta is an Italian bacon cured with salt and spices, but not smoked, so it lends a ton of flavor without overwhelming everything else. The three-cheese blend is mild, which works nicely. The spinach adds a pleasant texture. The garlic and oil provide a light base for all this goodness.

Journal photo / Gretchen Ertl

For simpler tastes, there’s the classic Margherita with a thin, crispy crust puffed golden at the edges. A perfect amount of cheese, cooked just to the point of melting, is spread end to end. A bright red sauce layered in proper proportion with cheese is topped with a sprinkling of fresh, fragrant basil.

The Big Cheese & Pub, 606 Reservoir Ave., Cranston, (401) 467-8210, www.menusmenusmenus.com, is an institution which makes its own dough daily, including whole wheat.

The choices include gourmet pizzas and the original.

I favor an Original Pizza with pepperoni. It has just-enough sauce, the mild and creamy Cheddar blend of cheese, the spicy pepperoni and the crisp crust. The large pie is sliced to create four triangle corners with lots of dough, the wedge pieces we fight over in our house.

But the Mediterranean gourmet pizza is mighty fine too. It’s a Greek topping pizza with chopped tomato, spinach, feta, Cheddar and sauce. The crust is thinner on that pizza and the vegetables dominate for a healthy alternative.

On Federal Hill in Providence, you’ll find something totally different at Bob n Timmy’s Grille, 32 Spruce St., Providence, 453-2221. Their wood-grilled pizzas as thin as sin and the cheese blends, including gorgonzola, are amazing.

Clams, veggies, arugula, chicken – take your pick. It’s all good.

These are gourmet pizzas to-go.

Curious about where the rest of the nation falls in the frozen pizza consumption survey, here are the rest of the numbers: East North Central (Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio) — 16 times; South Atlantic (Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida) — 15 times; Mountain (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico) — 13 times; Pacific (Washington, Oregon and California) — 12 times; East South Central (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama) — 11 times; West South Central (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana) — 10 times and North Atlantic (New York, Pennsylvania and N.J.) — 8 times.