Deep Dish French Bread Pizza ***

These were actually pretty good.  My rolls were a bit too long and skinny to make it an easy task to hollow them out, though.  But that fact aside, we all enjoyed them.  With the hollowing out of the rolls, it can be a little time-consuming, but as long as you stick to a night when you have a bit of wiggle room, it's still doable.  Even better would be if you could hollow them out the weekend before, but that takes way too much forethought for yours truly.  :)

Photo courtesy of Batter Up and Fry

DEEP DISH FRENCH BREAD PIZZA
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ via Batter Up and Fry)

For the sauce:
1 14.5 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 clove garlic
2 t. dried oregano
½ t. salt
½ t. sugar
¼ t. fresh ground pepper

For the pizzas:
5 club rolls, 5-6” each
1 TB cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
1 t. salt
½ t. pepper
4-5 button or cremini mushrooms, sliced
20 slices pepperoni
2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Pour the can of crushed tomatoes into a small bowl. Finely mince the garlic and toss in with the tomatoes. Stir in the oregano, salt, sugar and pepper. Set aside.
Prepare the rolls: Cut off just the very top crust of the roll. Use your fingers to pull out the bread from inside the roll, creating a bowl. Be careful not to pull too much off from close to the sides and bottom as you don’t want the ingredients to leak out. You will want the sides and bottom to be about ½-3/4” thick.
Heat the cooking oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for about 2-3 minutes or until tender. Add the ground beef to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Break up the meat as it cooks with a wooden spoon, stirring frequently until the meat is no longer pink. Remove from the heat and drain using a metal colander. Set aside.
Place the “bread bowls” onto a baking sheet. Spread the bottom of each with a good portion of the sauce. Then divide the ground beef mixture among the rolls (you don’t want these to over flow too much, so use less beef if necessary). Layer the mushrooms and the pepperoni on top of the beef. Now top the each bun with the mozzarella cheese. The mixture/cheese should come just barely above the top of the bun as it will sink a little as it cooks.
Cook the deep dish pizzas for about 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbling, the bread is slightly toasted, and the ingredients are warmed through. Let sit for about 5 minutes before serving.
Serves 5