peculiar pizza

In case you haven't noticed by now, I like unique things. I like things that make you stand back and say, "What?" So it's little surprise that I was encouraging this week's slightly offbeat but very delicious recipe: Cauliflower Crust Pizza. Yes, Cauliflower Crust Pizza.

See. I wouldn't be surprised if you just said, "Huh?" or "What?" or "Really?" or some other equally incredulous sort of word in your brain...or maybe even out loud, if you are the talk-to-your-computer type. Anyway, despite its atypical conglomeration of ingredients, this recipe was more amazing than it could ever sound by its title. And, fortunately for me, its amazingness remained even despite my near-disaster in the kitchen. 

A poorly-thought-out decision to use aluminum foil on my cookie sheets nearly cost us the experience of this quirky pizza.  So, let me just start by saying that these pizzas should be baked on parchment paper. Perhaps it would work to bake them directly on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray (as stated on the original recipe) but I didn't try this myself. Instead I went right for covering my cookie sheets with tin foil and greasing those. Bad, bad idea. Ten minutes into the cooking process I peeked into the oven and it was obvious that the cauliflower crust was stuck to the foil. I flew into a panic. This was not how dinner was supposed to turn out. But, I held myself back from making the desperate, pick-up-McDonald's-on-your-way-home phone call to my husband.  Instead, I decided to attempt emergency crust surgery. I scraped the crust off the tin foil (in chunks, mind you), slapped it all onto a piece of parchment, and squished it back into a circular shape. It did not look pretty, but it held together, which was all I really cared about at that point.  I was grateful that the whole thing would be covered in sauce and cheese and a medley of other toppings, thus disquising my near disaster. Once the toppings were on, you never would have known that the pizza was sporting a rather unsightly crust. I breathed a sigh of relief.  Disaster averted.

I adore parchment paper and can't imagine why I didn't use it from the get-go with this recipe.  But, I must say that you have to watch your cookie sheets carefully when using parchment at the high temperatures that this recipe requires. Keep a close eye on it, especially during the broiling phase, or you could have a mishap worse than mine on your hands. A Cauliflower Crust Pizza engulfed in flames would most surely make for a sad end to the day.  But, a Cauliflower Pizza in just about any another state (including one with a motley crust) will make you smile in spite of yourself.  Kooky combinations have a distinct way of doing just that.