Easy pizza

I have recipes that I make often — such as an easy chicken Parmesan and ham and cheese muffins — and recipes that I only make occasionally. It’s so easy to fall into a routine of set menus month after month that I tend to forget the new dishes I throw in from time to time.

My daughter mentioned a few weeks after Christmas that it had been a long time since I’d made one of her favorite pizza dishes; she was right. It had probably been a year or more since I made 1-Dish Meat Lover’s Pizza from Fleishmann’s Yeast.

This is one of those super-simple recipes that takes about 20 minutes to assemble, and that includes the time it takes to brown the meat.

Fleishman’s has a number of what they call “1-Dish” recipes, which involve mixing a yeast crust in the baking dish and adding the filling. Some of the recipes are desserts, including apple or banana walnut streusel, but there are also main dishes from chicken enchilada and Philly cheesesteak to sausage and French toast and taco bake.

There are a number of pizza recipes, but I made mine with a hamburger and green pepper filling.

I mixed the crust with a fork and used the fork and my hands to form the crust in the pan. Over the years, I’ve used both a round and a square pan for this pizza. Once the crust is made, just spoon the filling on top and place the pan into a cold oven.

As the oven warms, the RapidRise yeast — two envelopes — works its magic, and the crust rises. And boy does that yeasty smell mixed with the fragrant tomato sauce and seasonings make everyone in the house hungry!

While the pizza cooks for 30 minutes, clean up whatever mess you’ve made, then toss a salad, and dinner will be ready — less than an hour from when you got started.

NOTE: A few people have asked me how much pineapple I used in the angel food cake last week. In looking back through my notes, I think the can size was probably 20 ounces. But my readers have used both 14.5 and 20 ounces and had good results with both. Sorry for any confusion.


1-Dish Hamburger Pizza

• Cooking spray
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 envelopes RapidRise yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup water (very warm, around 120-130 degrees)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 pound lean ground beef (or 1/2 pound ground beef and half pound Italian sausage) cooked and drained
• 8 oz. pizza sauce
• Chopped green pepper, to taste
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Prepare 8x8-inch baking dish or pie plate with cooking spray.

Cook green pepper and meat in skillet until meat is cooked through. Mix in pizza sauce and oregano. Set aside.

Mix flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water and olive oil in pan. A fork works well for this. Using fingers, press dough on bottom and up sides of dish to make a crust.

Pour meat mixture into crush. Spread cheeses on top.

Place pan in cold oven. Set temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes or until done.

Adapted from Fleischman’s Yeast