Tiella di spinaci alla Tatta (from cooking class)

Category: primo (first course)

Ingredients
1 lb of frozen spinach (drained and squeezed-- get moisture out by defrosting and squeezing)

2-3 chopped anchovies. Use kitchen scissors to cut them up since it's easier than trying to chop them (Trader Joe has anchovies)

1/2 cup of raisins

dark rum or brandy (optional)

1 large onion chopped

3 tablespoons of olive oil

3 garlic cloves chopped

3 oz of spicy salami or whatever salami you can find

1/2 cup of grated parmigiano (or MORE if you like more)

1 jar of artichoke hearts (drained and chopped)

1/2 cup of chopped kalamata olives (pitted, bulk section in QFC or Safeway or in the deli section of safeway or QFC)

1/2 cup of white wine

1 bay leaf (bulk section at QFC/optional ingredient)

1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper

2 lbs of pizza dough (Trader Joe) *or* you can use 2 boxes of puff pastry dough. I like Peppridge Farm (Safeway, QFC, any mainstream grocery store)

extra virgin olive oil (TRADER JOE has the BEST olive oil at the BEST prices in Seattle!)

Buy frozen spinach and set out in fridge on a paper towel to thaw the day before or couple hrs before you cook with it


Instructions
Before you start to cook:
soak 1/2 cup of raisens in 1/2 cup of dark rum, brandy or wine if you don't have rum on hand

Chop an onion and brown it in 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil for 8 minutes on medium heat until onion is soft and starting to caramelize.

Throw in the bay leaf. Add 1/2 teaspoon of crushed pepper.

Add 3 chopped garlic cloves to the browned onion and brown for 3 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup of white wine to the onion and allow for the wine to evaporate.

Add the spinach and stir it around to flavor it up a bit for a minute. Turn off heat since you are not looking to cook the spinach so much as flavor it up.

Drain the raisins and add them and all your remaining ingredients in with the spinach. Set aside to allow flavors to marry.

Mix alllll your remaining ingredients into the spinach and drizzle a little olive oil on the mix if it looks dry.

Olive Oil your cookie sheet or whatever you plan to bake your pizza on/in.

Roll out your pizza dough and spread the spinach mixture on to the dough and pull edges of dough over the spinach and seal up the dough.

Spread olive oil on top of pizza dough.

Bake for at least 25 min at 475 degrees. Watch the pizza so it does not burn. After 25 minutes turn the oven up to 500 for an additional 5 min if the pizza is not browned. You'll need to use your own best judgment on when to pull it out based on how think you've rolled your dough. YOUR spinach pizza might take more or less baking then what I am suggesting based on how thick your dough is.

If you use puff pastry spread it out on the cookie sheet, spread spinach mix on pastry and cover with a second sheet of pastry. Bake at the temperature indicated on the Peppridge farm puff pastry box. The spinach mix is cooked, you are just looking to bake the puff pastry enough.

You'll want to roll the puff pastry out a bit or put it in the pan and try to spread it out a bit or it will be thick (which is fine if you like a thicker crust).

BUON APPETITO!!!