Spinoccoli Pizza

in Broccoli, Pizza, Spinach, Vegetarian

Spinoccoli Pizza

We have pizza night once a week. At least. And then there was that time (last week) when some magical switch flipped and my husband became completely obsessed with making pizza himself. HIMSELF.

A glorious week, it was!

Jason brings dependability and stability to the relationship – and pizza nights πŸ™‚ – with sausage and pepperoni. A wild night calls for fresh jalapeΓ±os but it’s always sausage and pepperoni. And me?

Trying to narrow down my favorite pizza toppings is like… trying to narrow down my favorite pizza toppings. Fancy cheeses, roasted veggies, and lots of goat cheese abound. I’m always in the mood for something a little different. And this pizza fits that bill perfectly.

Spinoccoli Pizza

The Spinoccoli is a white pizza topped with baby spinach, broccoli, mozzarella, and cheddar. We swap out the spinach with Central Market’s herbed baby spinach-arugula mix (because I love that stuff) and substitute goat cheese for the cheddar (because I love that stuff, too). And because there’s no such thing as too much goat cheese.

It’s one of the very, very few preparations of broccoli and spinach that my husband will eat. When dealing with the crankiest of carnivores, calling it “Spinoccoli” (Spinoccula?) gets a much better reaction than “veggie pizza.”

Spinoccoli Pizza

Top your favorite pizza crust with fresh spinach, arugula, broccoli, and goat cheese.

Ingredients

  • For the sauce:
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Tbsp flour
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • Fresh ground black pepper
  • Dash of nutmeg
  • 6 Tbsp finely grated Parmesan
  • 3/4 cup milk (I've used whole milk and skim with equally good results)
  • Salt
  • For assembly:
  • Your favorite pizza dough (or mine), ready to stretch and bake
  • Olive oil, for brushing
  • 1/2 cup packed spinach-arugula mix, rough-chopped
  • 1 cup small broccoli florets
  • 2 oz crumbled goat cheese
  • 2 oz shredded mozzarella
  • Handful of grated Parmesan
  • Flour, for dusting surface
  • Coarse cornmeal, for dusting surface

Instructions

  1. Place a pizza stone in the top 1/3 of your oven and preheat your oven to 550 (500 if your oven doesn't go that high), letting it hold at temperature for at least 30 minutes. (If you're not using a pizza stone, just have your baking sheet ready.)
  2. Heat butter and garlic in a small sauce pan over medium heat.
  3. Whisk in flour, fresh black pepper, and a dash of nutmeg and let cook for 1 minute.
  4. Slowly stream in the milk while whisking, until smooth. Cook until bubbly and thickened, 3-4 minutes more, whisking frequently.
  5. Whisk in the Parmesan until melted and salt to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.
  6. Dust a pizza peel or your baking sheet with generous pinches of flour and cornmeal.
  7. Gently stretch the pizza dough in to a 12-14 inch round or divide into 3 portions and stretch, for individual sized pizzas.
  8. Brush a ~1-inch border of olive oil around the edge of the pizza dough.
  9. Spoon white sauce onto the pizza, spreading with a spoon almost to the edge of the dough (you'll probably have a little sauce leftover).
  10. Sprinkle the spinach leaves evenly over the white sauce, followed by the broccoli, mozzarella, goat cheese, and Parmesan.
  11. Transfer your pizza from the pizza peel to baking stone (or place your baking sheet in the oven).
  12. Bake for 7-9 minutes for a single large pizza (5-7 for individual pizzas), until the dough is blistered, the edges are golden brown and crispy, and the cheese starts to brown.
  13. Remove from oven, slice, and serve.

Notes

Yields: 1 large pizza or 3 individual pizzas

Adapted from Annie's Eats

Estimated time: 1 hour

20 comments… add one
  • Naomi

    This looks fantastic! I can’t wait try it. Love the photo styling as well. πŸ™‚

  • Made this before and LOVED it! πŸ™‚

  • This sounds so yummy! Goat cheese makes everything wonderful.

  • I love how you cut it! Just gorgeous.

  • oh. my. This looks DELICIOUS!!!!!!

  • Looks amazing! And that pizza crust! YUM!

  • Patti

    too funny, when I first saw Spinoccoli I thought of Fast Times at Ridgemont High – but I guess that was Spicoli. Close! Even my husband would eat a veggie pizza if it was called the Spicoli! πŸ™‚

  • My sister turned me on to this pizza at Pizzeria Uno. It’s my current favorite, but I never thought to make it myself. I’ll have to flag your recipe to try sometime soon! Thanks!!! πŸ™‚

  • This pizza is right up my alley!!! I look forward to making this!!!

  • Pizza night is something that my husband would love! If only he would catch on like your husband and make it himself :). I’m in LOVE with that first picture! Like I want to blow it up and hang it on my wall. And I love the way you cut it. So creative and un-traditional!

  • I’m going to call everything I serve my family “spinoccoli” from now on instead of “roasted veggie” this or that. They’ll love it. Almost as much as I’ll love this pizza! Yum.

  • I LOVE that first photo! LOVE it. And I am so happy you are pizza people too. . . I read almost every post of yours, and I feel like you’re so much more gourmet and inventive than I will ever be. . . but we have pizza night every week at our house. It’s nice to know we’ve got something in common!

  • That looks like a great way to eat vegetables. We make pizza on Sunday evenings and that’s my husband’s cooking night so I will have to subtly push this recipe under his nose.

  • I am drooling over these photos. That’s so fun that your husband got into making pizza himself. And yes fancy names like Spinoccoli makes it sound better than “veggie pizza”.

  • angelitacarmelita

    I heart you… your my new bff. And not because this is a recipe for pizza (seriously, who doesn’t love pizza), and not because you can’t narrow down your pizza toppings, (because anyone that say’s they can is lying), but because you said “there’s no such thing as too much goat cheese” Yep, friends forever. I have to admit that ‘green’ pizza’s are my fav, so thank you very much for sharing this combo. I just made a batch of Jim Lahey’s pizza dough and it’s now got these toppings written all over it!

  • Oh how I love this pizza…

  • Lara

    DELICIOUS!!! I made one change though – I substituted carmelized onions for the broccoli (didn’t have any on hand, but had a bag full of onions). When I was cooking the onions I threw in the spinach with some chopped garlic during the last minute, so all the flavors could come together. The result was unbelievable.

    And I couldn’t agree more…there is no such thing as too much goat cheese. Ever.

  • Beautiful pizza, and I bet it tastes even better than it looks :-). Pinned πŸ™‚

  • anna

    Thank you very very much for this great and delicious recipe. I made it two days ago, and me and my friends just loved it!!
    Greetings from Germany. πŸ™‚

Leave a Comment

Cancel