Mexican Deep-Dish Pan Pizza

With Cinco de Mayo coming up this week, our office decided to have another pot-luck luncheon. I wanted to bring something different and usually try out the recipe on my family first, but because it was short notice, I decided to take my chances and make it anyway. I actually thought it was pretty good, however, didn't get the "oh wow" factor from all of my co-workers. I ended up combining two different recipes that I found on foodnetwork.com. I took a Rachael Ray recipe called "Mexican Meat-zza: Mexican Deep-Dish Pan Pizza", but I have to admit I did change it a little bit. I ended up cooking the peppers with the onions and I also made the cornbread from scratch using Tyler Florence's Cornbread recipe(Rachael's cornbread recipe can be found on www.foodnetwork.com). Hope you have a chance to try this recipe and let me know what you think.

Ingredients for Cornbread:

• 4 strips thick-cut bacon, chopped
  
• 2 cups stone-ground cornmeal, white or yellow
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  
• 4 large eggs
  
• 2 cups milk
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
  

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Put the bacon into a cold 10-inch cast iron pan and cook over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon bits are crisp. Do not let it burn. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate. Keep the bacon fat in the pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cormeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl beat the eggs with a whisk until foamy; whisk in the milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fold in the bacon bits and the chives. Pour the batter into the cast iron pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-25minutes.

While the cornbread is baking, start on the pizza topping.

Ingredients for Topping:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns on the pan
  
• 1 pound ground beef
  
• 1 small onion, sliced thinly
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
  
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
  
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  
• 2 teaspoons cayenne sauce (I used ground cayenne pepper)
  
• Salt to taste
  
• 2 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or jack cheese
  
• 1 small can, 2 1/4 ounce sliced chiles or jalapenos, drained
  
• 2 scallions, chopped
  
• 2 small vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
  
• 2 tablespoons drained sliced green olives (salad olives)
  
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves, optional garnish
  
• Mild to medium taco sause to pass at the table
  

Pour oil in skillet and cook onion and peppers on medium. When veggies are tender, add the ground beef and as the beef is cooking, add the chili powder, cumin, cayenne and salt until cooked.

Add beef mixture to top of cooked cornbread and then start adding cheese, jalapenos, scallions, tomatoes, olives.

Once all the ingredients are on top of the cornbread, return skillet back to the oven on 400 degrees F for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

What is nice about this recipe is that you can make it your own. You can try it with italian sausage and beef combo or just sausage, you can add more cheese and other toppings that you and your family like.

References:
Cornbread, Tyler Florence, Television Food Network, copyright, 2006

Mexican Meat-zza: Mexican Deep Dish Pan Pizza, Rachael Ray, Television Food Network, copyright, 2006