Having spent too much time in front of the computer one day last week, Mamma Gee and I retired to the anti chamber, whereupon we commenced channel surfing. As there were no vampire shows on, the remote magically made its way to SpeedTV. Imagine that! We came across The Racing Chef and since combining food and racing is like food for my soul, we stuck around. Chef Nicky Morse’s style isn’t our usual TV chef fare, but he presented this super easy tailgate party idea that looked like a lot of fun. What Chef Nicky didn’t mention is that Pizza Boats are also great food for the kids to make.
In the show, Morse and his guest (I hate to admit I don’t remember the guy’s name) made four different styles of PB, showing just how easy it is to feed a crowd with a wide variety of tastes.
After the break, we’ve got instructions and lots of great photos. I’m not going to list any ingredients for this one, as all you need are a couple of baguettes and your imagination.
To begin with, tear off a couple of sheets of aluminum foil that are slightly longer than your bread and scrunch up the sides a bit to resemble a boat. Cut your load in half horizontally as if you were cutting it to make garlic bread. This is a task best left to Mom or Dad or older kids if they are competent with a knife. Now the fun begins and the kids can take over.
Tear out the middle of both halves, so you have a trough to contain your toppings. Set the torn out bits aside to make croutons or something. Or, like us, you can dip them in whatever is handy.
You might even be bad and toss one or two at the dog. Just so long as Mom isn’t watching!
A big part of this recipe is making something fun and easy, so we used the ever present Ragu spaghetti sauce for this one. The kids like it and it is easy. As you can see, 9 year old Riley enjoyed spooning in a layer of tomatoey goodness.
As this example is a kid friendly traditional version, we chose pepperoni as the next topping. Never wanting to be conventional though, Riley added in a heavy layer of meaty chunks.
What else would you put on top of a pepperoni PB but a thick layer of cheesiness. Sticking with our easy theme, we worked with a pre packaged, Tex Mex, grated cheese to add a bit of spice and colour.
Pop these puppies in a preheated (400 deg F) oven for about 20 minutes or till nicely browned and the cheese is bubbly. Remove and let them cool a bit before cutting. The foil boats make transporting the PB’s easy and clean up is a snap.
Mom and Dad wanted to switch things up a bit, so we decided to do a BBQ version including grilled chicken. Earlier in the week we had found a giant bottle of Budweiser BBQ sauce at Costco that looked nice so this was a perfect opportunity to give it a test drive.
We grilled a couple of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts and slathered them in the sauce. While they rested, we spooned in a layer of Bud BBQ sauce into the boat. Thinly slice the chicken and stuff the trough and then smother it with the Tex Mex cheese. Heavenly!
Beyond the kid friendly aspect, the beauty of these is that the possibilities are endless. Chef Nicky piled on some massive raw shrimp, which looked perfectly juicy after cooking. You wouldn’t want to precook them, as they would be rubber. You could use alfredo pasta sauce with grilled veggies topped with asiago cheese. Beef, onions and peppers might look like a hoagie, but you know your guests would gobble them up. Regardless of what you choose to fill them with, the kids will love them and so will the guests at your next party!
What fillings are you going to try?
