Easy Pizza Pudding

I did something really, really neat this weekend!

But enough about that.

Let’s talk about bread. Nature’s Pride, to be specific.

I received these free samples via the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program and have obviously been taking my own sweet time playing with them.

Not wanting to tax my bread-utilization skills too much at the outset, I started pretty basic.

PB&J on whole wheat. Good stuff.

On the eversoslightly more interesting end of the sandwich spectrum, I graduated to tuna on oatmeal bread.

I love stirring plain yogurt and tons of mustard into tuna. Throw in some arugula and you’ve got yourself quite a zingy sammie.

(What a dumb word, sammie.)

This is where I’m going to blow your mind, though. How about we make a bread pudding…PIZZA flavored? Stay with me: we just apply bread pudding procedure to ingredients that add up to what is basically a deconstructed-reconstructed pizza. I’m not talking about cinnamon and raisins and all that schiesse up in there, too. I’m adventurous, but even that doesn’t sound like much of a party to my mouth.

It’s probably easier if I just show you the recipe.

Pizza Pudding

Ingredients:

• 8 slices of sandwich bread, cubed
• ~ 2 cups milk
• 2 cups chopped kale (I used frozen; could also use spinach)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1.5 cups marinara
• 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• parmesan cheese, for topping

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Place cubed bread in a bowl and pour milk over it, stirring to coat evenly. Let soak while the oven preheats.
2. Prepare an 8”x8” casserole with cooking spray and spread 1/2 cup marinara on the bottom.
3. Once the oven is preheated (about 10-20 minutes after turning it on, or when it lets you know), gently stir the chopped greens and beaten eggs into the soaked bread. Add other seasonings, if desired (garlic, oregano, basil, etc.)—I left them out this time for in favor of putting “easy” in the title.
4. Spread 1/2 of the bread mixture into the baking dish and sprinkle 1 cup of cheese over top.
5. Pour on 1/2 cup of marinara as evenly as possible and then spread on the rest of the bread mixture.
6. Pour on the remaining 1/2 cup of marinara and sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup of cheese.
7. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until browned and bubbly on top.
8. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes or so, until it stops bubbling. Slice into 4 pieces and sprinkle with parmesan, if desired.

Serves 4

She won’t win no beauty pageant, but she’s dinner.

The marinara and cheese do most of the work in the flavor department, which makes this easy to assemble (I reckon you could even do it ahead of time in order to have dinner on the table earlier, or if you were entertaining guests). Still, I wouldn’t be above throwing in some fresh basil or other seasonings next time, just to take it up a (less lazy) notch.

Whatever you do, I recommend using a bread you really love, because that’s the meat of this dish! And yes, Nature’s Pride Oatmeal bread will do nicely.

Thank you to Foodbuzz and Nature’s Pride for pudding dinner on the table!

Did you do anything really, really neat this weekend?