Artichoke Pizza

This might be the thousandth time I've mentioned it, but we've been on quite a pizza kick lately. 

A couple weeks ago, Anthony and I went to a charity event in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC for a good friend of ours' organization, Hope for Hope. Afterwards, we stopped into the famous Artichoke Basille's Pizza for a quick slice. I'd never been there before, but had heard amazing things. 

To make a long story short, their signature pizza - the artichoke pie - absolutely lived up to all my expectations. The crust was thick and crunchy, the sauce delicious and creamy. Basically it was perfect and I dreamt about it for about a week afterward. 

So I decided to attempt to recreate the pizza. It surprisingly worked out great (a friend even said it was one of the best pizzas she's ever had)!

First you start out by sautéing some garlic in olive oil.

Next you add some spinach...

... And cook it for a few minutes.

Then throw it in your food processor...

... And pulse it a few times.

Next we add some chicken broth, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese.

We then let the sauce cook for a while so it reduces down to a nice, creamy consistency.

Once it's done, we spread it all over the pizza...

... It gets smothered with cheese.

And artichokes. Plus a little olive oil and more parmesan cheese.

Then we bake it until it gets toasty and delicious and looks like this! 

Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

Artichoke Pizza

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tablespoons olive oil (plus more to drizzle on top)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 10 oz. fresh spinach
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 2 pinches of black pepper
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 balls of pizza dough (about 18 ounces)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
• 1 can (13.5 ounces) of artichoke hearts, quartered

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put pizza stone in oven to heat. 
2. Heat the four tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for a minute. Add the spinach, salt and pepper to the saucepan and cook until spinach wilts (about 8 minutes). 
3. Once the spinach is cooked, transfer it to a food processor and pulse a few times until chopped. 
4. Transfer spinach back to saucepan and add in chicken stock. Simmer the spinach in the chicken stock for 15 minutes, then add in the heavy cream and parmesan cheese. Simmer the mixture for half an hour. 
5. Take your pizza stone out of the oven and grease it with a little olive oil. Flour your hands, combine the two balls of dough together and flatten it, creating a thicker crust around the edges. The thick crust helps hold the sauce better. 
6. Transfer your dough to the pizza stone. Spread your spinach sauce on the dough. Top with mozzarella cheese then artichokes. Sprinkle with the last 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, and drizzle a little olive oil over the top (no more than two tablespoons). 
7. Put pizza stone in oven and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown and crust is golden.