sexed-up pizza

I bought a frozen pizza from my building's basement grocery. It was called a Chili Gambas pizza—gamba being the Spanish word for "prawn." I almost laughed when I took the pizza out of its plastic wrapping: there were only three or four scrawny, miserable-looking prawns unevenly scattered over the surface of the pizza. The spices on the prawns (if those were really prawns and not just tiny shrimp) looked kind of hopeful, but most of the pizza was bare, bereft of hefty proteins.

So I set to work sexing up the pizza. I had a bag of frozen shrimp; I took out a fistful, thawed them quickly in hot water, then quickly tossed the shrimp in a mixture of mayonnaise and a combination of spices ranging from harissa to chipotle to Cajun seasoning. I added a sprinkle of salt and garlic powder for good measure, then placed my tossed (and meatier) shrimp onto the pizza. The pie looked a lot better at that point, but still not complete: I took out some shredded mozzarella that had been thawing for another purpose and spread that over the pizza. With that, I was ready to bake.

I set the oven to 375ºF (about 190ºC) and baked the pizza for roughly 12 minutes. I then did an extra five minutes with the oven's top burner on, hoping to create some char on the mozzarella, but no dice. The heat should have been higher, and the pizza should have been closer to the burner for that to work. Still, the result, when the pizza came out, was quite nice. It barely looked like a frozen pizza from the grocery store. The crust was nice and crisp, the cheese was thoroughly melted, and the shrimp (which had been par-cooked before packaging) were done to perfection. The spices I'd chosen worked perfectly with the pizza, and this turned into a much more enjoyable eating experience than how things usually are with frozen pizza.

I might have to try sexing up other pizzas later. I've got pepperoni and plenty of extra mozz.

delizioso