For the girls at work: My Spinach Artichoke Pizza Recipe :)

Every Wednesday the girls at work and I go to Little Italy in Potsdam b/c Tara's BF makes us Spinach Artichoke Pizza.  It is to die for.  If you like the dip you will love the pizza!  While on vacation I still needed my "fix" so decided to make one myself and it actually turned out really good. A definite do again recipe but I think I will make a few small tweaks next time.   After searching and reading several different recipes none of them seemed good to me, so I came up with my own!

Janessa's Spinach Artichoke Pizza :)

Ingredients

2 tbsps butter

2 cloves of garlic - minced

2 tbsps flour

1 1/2 c. milk (I used skim and it worked fine)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese - divided

6 oz fresh spinach washed, patted dry and roughly chopped

Mozzarella Cheese (I used part-skim and it was good)

1 can artichokes - rinsed and cut up (I bought 14 oz but didn't use them all)

2 pizza crusts - I tried Freschetta Artisan Crusts and they are delicious :)

Tomato - optional

Instructions

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  Add the garlic and cook for about a minute on medium heat.  Add the flour and mix until combined and thick.  Gradually whisk in the milk, bring to a simmer and allow to simmer for 2 - 3 minutes, stirring frequently  Add parmesan cheese and mix until well combined.   Add spinach and allow to cook for 1 minute or until it wilts.  

I find that pizza stones work best but use whatever you have.   Place half of the spinach creme sauce mixture on each crust.  Then add a layer of mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with parmesan.  Place artichokes on top of the cheese, use how ever many you want.  I used them sparingly b/c we aren't overly found of artichoke.  Place another layer of mozzarella cheese.  Put sliced or chunked tomato on top and then sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese.  

Bake at 425 degrees on middle rack of oven for approximately 15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly!

This is a fairly mild spinach and artichoke recipe, the next time I am going to try adding more garlic (b/c I love garlic) using a romano/parmesan mixture (bc I'm Italian) and possibly either some crushed red pepper or some finely diced hot sweet pepper, to give it a little more zing.  It was definately good the way it was, but I just like my food a little spicier.  

Enjoy!