Week #15: Iowa - Loose Meat Pizza

State:  Iowa

I have never been to Iowa, so I had to do a lot of research on this one.  Iowa's top produce is corn, soy, and apples.  I wanted to find a staple food or dish that is from Iowa and apparently the Loose Meat Sandwich without sauce is the must-try dish.  So, I decided to do a Loose Meat Pizza, where it is similar to a sandwich, but is designed like a pizza.  The Iowa Loose Meat Sandwich recipe is very similar to what I call a "Sloppy Joe", but does not have the tomato sauce.   This pizza turned out really well and don't make judgement until you eat it at least once.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  Here is what I did to make the pizza:

Ingredients Needed:

Meat Recipe:
1 lb of Ground Beef
1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tsp of minced garlic
1 tsp onion powder or 2 tbsp of chopped onion
2 tbsp of low sodium beef stock
Salt & Pepper to taste

Pizza Sauce Base:
1 tbsp of oil
1 tbsp of water
2 tbsp of Spicy Brown Mustard

1 tsp red pepper flakes

Mozzarella Cheese
Sliced Pickles
1 pizza crust - Preferably homemade

Sauce:

For the sauce, I made a mustard style sauce for the base.  Since the meat is in a marinade, the sandwich calls for a yellow mustard, but I decided to do a spicy brown.  The spicy brown mustard I used was Tabasco's version, which has some kick to it.  I mixed the mustard with olive oil and water, which made a spread for the bottom of the pizza.  Combine all ingredients together and adjust to consistency.  It should still taste like a mustard, but the water will help thin it out.  

Meat:

Cook the ground beef until brown.  Then add the stock, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, garlic, onion powder or onion, salt & pepper to taste.  Cook ingredients together until mixture is thoroughly blended into the meat.  Turn off heat and allow meat to cool.  This will be a topping for your pizza. 

Pizza:

Preheat oven to 415.  The pizza crust is going to be the bun or sandwich bread.  Spread the mustard sauce along the base of the pizza till all areas are coated.  Then add the ground beef mixture to the pizza, covering all areas like a Loose Meat sandwich would be.  Layer pickles across the top, just enough to get 1 or 2 on each slice of pizza.  Then add mozzarella cheese and sprinkle the red flakes.  Allow to cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes depending on the crust.  Take out of pizza out of oven.

Pairing: 
Trying to find a beer from Iowa is a challenge, because they do not export to Florida.  Some great companies to try would be Three Floyd's Brewing or Twisted Vine. I went with a Porter style beer or a Rye IPA would be good.  For wine, a great red would be good for this pizza.  

Learning Moments:
Sometimes, simplicity is very good.  Simple ingredients can make a pizza really taste great.  For this pizza, there was the acidity of the pickles, the sweet & salty meat, the cheese, and the tangy mustard base.  This was an underdog pizza right here.  It is a MUST try!  By the way, why do pickles have food coloring and all those preservatives in them?  I guess Vinegar is not enough to preserve pickles for some reason.  Try to find a better natural or organic version.  In addition, eating this pizza the 2nd day may have been better than the first.  Enjoy and cheers!!