Hypothesis: Anything you put between a pizza crust and melted cheese will taste good.

My kids inherited their sense of taste from me. I always like polarizing foods, such as licorice, the smoked oyster, clam and Gouda dip from a restaurant where I worked, fish jerky..I'll stop, since about half of my dear readers are probably gagging now. Anyhow, last night I was itching to use one of the bags of pizza dough my husband brought back from a recent trip to Trader Joe's. I made clam pizza. The kids went nuts! If you share our strange tastes, please read on.

Clam Pizza With Pesto

Roll out your dough. Or put your freezer crust on a pizza stone or baking sheet. I have a pizza stone, but I'm not convinced that it's all that big of a deal. I mean, I don't have a wood burning pizza oven, so what the heck is the difference? I like the stone because it looks fancy. I do think you should buy a Zyliss pizza slicer. I have one and it has changed my life. I got it at Mary and Martha's, which is a brilliant store staffed by nice and smart ladies.


Spread basil pesto on the crust. I made a lot of pesto this summer, froze it in ice cube trays and popped the cubes into a container. I used four cubes for this. Incidentally, lots of things can be frozen in cubes for convenience: tomato sauce, buttermilk for baking, egg yolks when you only need the whites for something else*.

In a pan, sauté two 14.5 ounce cans of chopped clams, drained, and a teaspoon or three minced garlic in a little bit of butter and olive oil. Spread that on top of the pesto. Use a slotted spoon so you leave any remaining liquid behind.

Sprinkle sliced black olives on top of the clams.

Now add a healthy bit of shredded Parmesan and Mozzarella cheeses.

Cook it according to the directions for your crust. The Trader Joe's crust said to cook for 6-8 minutes. That was a big fat lie. It was more like 15 minutes.

My kids liked it so much they had seconds. They would have had thirds, but I was saving the rest for my husband and sister. I didn't even have seconds, but I wanted to. I told the kids to "Eat a piece of fruit if you're still hungry." I sounded just like my mother when I said that, which scared me, so I cut up two mangoes for them, which is something my mother would not have done. She knew how to cut fruit, but I don't think they had mangoes back then.

Namasté, y'all!

* The only thing I know of that uses only the yolks is custard. Oh wait, I forgot about Hollandaise sauce. Save your egg yolks for those.