Because we have been married for 10 years, she did not even look at me funny when I proposed the idea.
Perhaps my saintly wife has come to understand me. Perhaps I've worn her down. In either case, I am a lucky man.
For you see, my taco pizza made with 3 whole Taco Bell tacos required her assistance to make. She makes perfect pizza dough, so I asked her to make me a batch.
Her recipe, which comes from a now-defunct website called Jicker's Recipes, calls for:
2 and 1/2 to 3 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 and 1/4 tablespoons of yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of very warm water (about 120-130ºF)
2 tablespoons oil
Mix 1 cup of the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Blend in warm water and oil. Slowly add the remainder of the flour until the dough starts to pull away from the bowl. Knead and let rise for at least 15 minutes.
Press the dough onto a pizza pan, prick randomly around the surface with a fork, and then let it rise again for 15 minutes. Brush the dough with oil and bake for 5 minutes at 450ºF.
Add toppings, then bake again for 5 more minutes.
For my toppings, I spared no expense: I used three ordinary Taco Bell beef tacos. Then I added a heap of freshly shredded mozzarella cheese.
The result was simply lovely: a mound of dough, cheese, and tacos.
My inspiration had been this pizza that used whole cheeseburgers, fries, and chicken nuggets as toppings. It's nice, but I'm more of a taco guy--tacos are good for you, you know. So I wanted to approach this gastronomic challenge with tacos.
It was everything I dreamed that it would be.
I wasn't alone in that assessment. We had my creation for family dinner. When my 4-year old daughter wanted a second piece of pizza, she specifically requested one with taco on it. That's a great review from a discerning food critic.
BTW - My mom had those dishes. Franciscan, right?