Blue Pizza

Author: Rosemary O'Brien

From the time my son was about a year and a half, he has been cooking. No, he does not stand by the stove with a spatula and a frying pan, but he does make salad, mix cake mixes, and make homemade pizza—one of his favorite recipes. I got this idea from my wise brother whose daughter is four years older than Nicholas. She was barely two when I would watch her standing at the sink, on a kitchen chair, tearing lettuce for a salad.

When Nicholas was born, my brother advised me to get him involved in cooking as early as possible. His belief was if he helped to cook, he would be more interested in eating what he cooked. Besides, cooking is a life skill at which all of my brothers and I are very accomplished, if I do say so myself. Why wouldn’t I want to pass down this love of creating to my child? Well, I followed my brother’s advice and Nicholas who is now four is a cooking fiend.

In January of 2002, he was about 3 months past his second birthday and we had just come off the baking season. Christmas cookies had filled our house, and been passed out to friends, family and neighbors. As a result of this frenzy of baking, Nicholas was enamored with sprinkles. Colored sugar sprinkles in red and green were his favorites. He had sprinkled zillions of them all over—not only sugar cookies, but on my butter cookies, chocolate fudge, even a batch of chocolate chip cookies. It wasn’t necessarily traditional, but if it made him happy, who cared?

On this particular night, we were making homemade pizza. After the sauce and the mozzarella were safely spread out on the pizza dough, he wanted to add some sprinkles. Yes, colored sugar sprinkles.When I tried to explain to my very persistent child that sugar tasted terrible on cheese and tomato sauce, he became even more persistent and very upset.

Using the wit and ingenuity of a mother of a persistent child, I quickly ran through the options available to me, or actually the options I could make up on the spot while the situation escalated. I finally pulled out the grated parmesan cheese and the box of food coloring left over from Christmas. Unfortunately, there was only one bottle left in the box...and it was blue. After my momentary vision of a blue pizza I thought, "What the heck?", and dove in. The bowl came out. The cheese went into it and the blue food coloring was added on top of the cheese. As I mixed, my son became quieter, watching the transformation before him. When finished, the cheese resembled dry Play-doh that had been pulverized with a hammer.

As I watched Nicholas sprinkle the blue cheese all over his pizza, I wondered how I would ever eat this thing. In the end, he ate three large pieces of his interesting creation, all the while admiring the pretty blue color. My husband and I had to close our eyes while eating, but the taste was the same and our son was happy—now we make pizza our way.

My brother was right. If you teach your child to cook, even the simplest of dishes, he will eat with gusto.

Nicholas' Blue Pizza Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 Lb. pizza dough made in a bread machine
1-2 C spaghetti sauce (or amount you prefer)
2 C shredded mozzarella
1 C parmesan
4-5 drops food coloring of any color (absolutely optional)

Instructions

Preheat over to 350° F.
Make dough according to bread machine directions or package of pizza dough at the grocery store.
Stretch out onto greased cookie sheet.
Pour spaghetti sauce and spread over most of the dough, leaving a slight crust all around the edges.
Spread shredded mozzarella over pizza.
Take a separate bowl and mix parmesan and food coloring together with a fork until color is consistent.
Sprinkle parmesan evenly over pizza.
Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until mozzarella is bubbly.
Cool slightly and serve.

Helpful hint: You can omit the food coloring or change it to meet your child's favorite color!

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