Deep Dish Pizza Rice Entree

Three times during dinner my son pronounced, "This is good!" He backed his words with action and ate two hefty portions.

Deep dish rice pizza grew out of a desire to bake a pizza in the Dutch oven last night. But a dead laptop battery prevented me from searching for a recipe.

The recipe that I could find was one for 100 servings on the Palm Pilot. That wouldn't work. The recipe was written for weights, not measures. And I didn't want to break the dough recipe down to one pie.

Also on the Palm Pilot was a "pizza" recipe that I clipped from Food Management magazine several years ago. Thomas Long created this dish for the Milton Hershey Schools in Hershey, Penn.

Give it a try. This deep dish "pizza" is good. You find yourself reaching for seconds.

DEEP DISH PIZZA RICE ENTREE

Don't add any additional oil to the recipe. Pesto has sufficient oil to sweat the onions and garlic.

1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 cups long-grain rice
4 ounces sliced pepperoni, cut into quarters
4 ounces Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup sun-dried tomato pesto
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2-1/2 cups chicken broth
1-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Use a 10-inch Dutch oven for this recipe. Ignite 21 charcoal briquettes and let them burn until they are barely covered with ash, about 20 minutes. For a 350-degree oven, you'll need 5 briquettes underneath and 16 on top of the oven.

Arrange 16 briquettes underneath oven in a checkerboard pattern. Pour about 1 tablespoon of pesto oil into oven and heat. Add onions and garlic and sweat until translucent. Add rice and stir to coat with oil.

Add pepperoni, sausage, pesto, oregano and broth. Stir. Place lid on oven. Remove 11 briquettes from underneath the oven and set aside. Arrange remaining 5 briquettes underneath oven in a circle. Arrange 16 briquettes on lid. Replace lid and cook for about 20 minutes, until done.

Top with cheeses and bake an additional 5-7 minutes, until cheese melts. Top cheese with additional pepperoni slices before baking if desired. Serves 6.