Description: Keto Meatza was a recipe inspired by my brother. He sent me a video of someone rolling ground beef out across a pan, adding sauce, adding cheese, and then placing it in a pizza oven. I didn’t have a pizza oven, but I still wanted to give it a go, so I mimicked the video and used my own home-oven at 525 F. The result? A savory combination of beef, cheese, green pepper, & onion – a veritable pizza in all but the absence of a flour-wrought dough.

Equipment:

1 large sheet pan (18” x 13” cookie sheet)

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Ingredients:

• 3 lbs Master Blend Wagyner Blue ground beef

• 2 wedges of Hawthorne Creek Creamery gouda, grated (about 16 oz)

• ¾ cup homemade tomato sauce

• (Optional) ½ green pepper, sliced

• (Optional) ½ red onion, sliced

• ~3 tsp kosher salt

• freshly ground black pepper

• 1-2 tbsp Florida Olive Farm olive oil to coat the sheet pan, and a little more to drizzle across the top

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 525 F.

2. Rub olive oil across a large sheet pan, and then spread the three-pounds ground beef across that pan.

3. Lightly season the top of the beef with about half of your salt, then spread ¾ cup tomato sauce across the beef.

4. Add the grated cheese.

5. (Optional) Top the cheese with slices of green pepper & red onion.

6. Sprinkle the remainder of the salt across the top of the pizza, add freshly-ground black pepper to taste, and drizzle on a generous zigzag of olive oil.

7. Place the pizza in the preheated 525 F oven to cook for 15-20 minutes. The meat “dough” will contract a little bit, leaving broth and fat along the outside, but that is perfectly okay. That combination will ensure that pizza remains juicy and flavorful.

8. Let the meatza rest for at least 5 minutes before eating. This dish goes excellently with a green salad dressed in balsamic vinaigrette.

Notes for a crispier alternative:

I have not tried this idea yet, but for a crispier crust, I think I will use 2 lbs of ground beef instead of 3 lbs, spread over the same surface area. I’ll pre-cook this meat “dough” for 10 minutes on 425 F before adding the toppings. I’ll also pre-cook the toppings and perform the final melting of cheese under a broiler until it is browned to taste.