Give Beans the Pizza Treatment

Ever since I made our Pizza Without a Crust for the big football-watching party, I have had a hard time getting it out of my mind. It haunts me, in a good way. But, as I approach 40, I have accepted that one cannot live on pizza dip alone. Luckily, we have a recipe for Pizza Beans.

Technically, the name of the recipe is Roasted Tomatoes and White Beans with Burrata, but if you look at the ingredients list, you will find stuff that goes on pizza—tomatoes, garlic, fresh mozzarella and basil. Much like the pizza dip, you can scoop it up with crusty bread; unlike the pizza dip, it is packed with fiber, something I have been told I should worry about.

Fiber aside, it’s absurdly easy. Roast some cherry tomatoes with garlic and olive oil, until they get slightly jammy and browned. Add two cans of beans and return to the oven for a bit. Remove from the oven and finish with cheese and basil. That’s it.

Come to think of it, Italian flavor profiles are my favorite way to convince myself to eat more fiber. Cauliflower, a vegetable that is primed to take on whatever flavors you cook it in, is particularly malleable. This Antipasto-Style Zucchini and Cauliflower Salad soaks up tons of flavor when tossed in a dressing of red wine vinegar, honey and oregano—the addition of salami and provolone doesn’t hurt either.

Pivoting from fiber to protein, I’m also intrigued by bistecca alla pizzaiola, which translates roughly to “pizza steak.” There’s no cheese on this one, but there is a punchy tomato sauce made with garlic, pepper flakes and a few anchovy filets for extra umami. (I think you all know this by now, but anchovies, melted into a sauce, do not taste “fishy,” just extra savory.) Finish the steaks with a drizzle of olive oil and torn basil and eat with crusty bread. Can you add cheese to round out the pizza vibe? I certainly won’t stop you.

The sauce for pizza steak calls for canned tomatoes, but you can make a similar, spicier sauce—called Bagna d'Inferno—with a couple pints of cherry tomatoes, if that’s what you have on hand. We originally developed this one as a topping for polenta,—add cheese and basil and you have pizza polenta!—but it’s good on almost anything savory.

We don’t have any recipes for dessert pizza, though I remember them fondly from the 90s. What we do have, however, is the Original Tiramisù, which is shockingly simple, with a mere six ingredients and a 30-minute cook time.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.