This Baguette Pizza Recipe Will Fill The Pizza-Shaped Hole In Your Belly When The Munchies Come Knocking

Baguette Pizza seems to be all the rave at the moment, or perhaps I missed its arrival on the mainstream food scene. Either way, I was delighted to stumble across this genius idea! Imagine having all the ingredients to make your favourite stoner snack right in your kitchen, every time you have a desire to wolf down a small pizzeria. You know? When you get the munchies! This recipe is more of a planned strategy to satisfy your begging belly!

Pizza is traditionally a savoury dish of flattened dough topped with tomatoes, cheese and a number of other ingredients before it gets baked in a wood-fired oven. It is one of the most popular dishes across the globe and comes in different shapes and sizes. Pizza has been a stoner staple for as long as the doughy delight has been delivered to the doors of stoners across the globe! The topping combination could be just about anything your hazy head could conjure up with what you have available when hunger strikes. 

Fit For A Queen

The first dish that was known as “pizza” was prepared by bakers in Naples in the 1600s. A slice of pizza was sold as street food to poor Neapolitans and was often eaten on the go. During a visit to the newly unified Italy in 1889, Queen Margherita was presented with a pizza of red tomato sauce, white mozzarella and green basil; mimicking the Italian flag. The Queen adored the pizza and it was later named after her.  

Even though foods similar to pizza have been made since the Neolithic Age (roughly 12 000 years ago), modern pizza was brought to the United States with Italian immigrants in the late nineteenth century. The first pizzeria in the United States was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1905 in Manhattan. Even though Lombardi’s has moved from its original location, the pizzeria is still operational and using the original oven since they opened. 

Frozen pizza has come a long way since its humble beginnings, but nothing could beat a freshly baked Baguette Pizza to satisfy your midnight munchies! Smothered in rich tomato sauce, stacked with as much (or as little) of your favourite toppings and dripping with melted cheese. 

Let’s get down to business! The elements we need to have at the ready are baguettes for the base, a jar of prepared tomato sauce and your favourite toppings! 

BREAD

Freshly baked store-bought French loaves are first prize but stale or frozen bread works when it comes to the munchies. You could have a baguette waiting for you in the freezer and they defrost fairly quickly while you get everything else together. You could choose to slice the bread in rounds to make smaller party-size pizzettes or down the middle to make a bigger pizza. The bread crust will slightly crisp-up and the soft interior will absorb the sauce and the deliciousness from the toppings. Be careful of using too much sauce as it will turn your baguette pizza into a soggy mess!

SAUCE

I make a big batch of tomato sauce to be stored in the refrigerator and be ready when the tummy starts growling. If you are a disaster in the kitchen you can use a good quality store-bought sauce. You want to make sure the sauce has the consistency of tomato paste. I start off with browning chopped carrots, onions, garlic and thyme before deglazing the pot with some red wine vinegar and loading it with tomatoes! The sauce should cook for at least an hour, blended and strained into a jar labelled Munchy Sauce. 

TOPPINGS

What you choose to top your pizza with will depend on what you have available when assembling your pizza. Perhaps you have ingredients specifically destined for the inevitable midnight munching. Sliced ham, pineapple and mozzarella all in a row by the jar of Munchy Sauce. Or, maybe you love the challenge of coming up with an unconventional topping combination when you are baked! Crispy bacon, caramelized onions, feta cheese, corn salsa and… Well, the list can go on and you can get creative as you allow yourself to be, grab some leftovers and be imaginative. 

GETTING BAKED

Adjust the oven rack to the centre position and heat the oven to 220 C. Baguette Pizza bakes fairly quickly, normally within 15 to 20 minutes, however, it will depend on the toppings you have selected. Some ingredients may need extra cooking time. Check on your French loaf pizza frequently and take it out when the cheese is bubbly and the bread crisp. It is worth mentioning that no two ovens are the same, so it is best to keep a hawk’s eye on your pizza baby when trying this for the first time.