Servings: 4 sandwiches
Ingredients:
*1 can refrigerated pizza crust (regular or thin crust--it doesn't matter)
*4 teaspoons store bought basil pesto
*about 1/4 cup Cardini's Light Caesar dressing
*8 oz. container of water-packed fresh mozzarella cheese, drained, and sliced (most containers come with 4 hunks--use 1 hunk sliced up per sandwich)
*black pepper
*14 slices bacon
*2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
*16 fresh basil leaves (must be fresh)
*1/4 cup margarine, divided
*cooking spray
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Spray a large metal cookie sheet with cooking spray. Arrange bacon in a single layer on the cookie sheet. Bake 20 minutes. Remove bacon from cookie sheet, and place on a plate lined with paper towel. Cover bacon with paper towel to remove excess grease. Set aside. Lower heat of oven to 375 F.
Unroll dough onto a large rectangular stoneware cookie sheet. If using a metal cookie sheet, spray with cooking spray first. Press the dough into a 16 x 11-inch rectangle, pulling dough gently as necessary. Bake 9-16 minutes or until light brown. Cool about 15 minutes or until cool enough to handle.
Cut the cooled pizza crust in half lengthwise. Then cut in half crosswise to make 4 rectangles. Cut each rectangle in half crosswise to total 8 rectangles.
On 4 slices, spread 1 teaspoon of pesto. Set these aside. On the remaining 4 slices, spread 3/4 Tablespoon Caesar dressing. Place 1 hunk worth of mozzarella slices onto each Caesar slice. Top each with a dash of black pepper and then 3 1/2 slices cooked bacon. Cover each sandwich with tomato slices and 4 basil leaves. Top with the pesto slices, pesto sides down.
Heat a grill pan or 12-inch skillet over medium heat until hot. Use a grill pan if you want the grill marks. Melt 2 Tablespoons of the margarine in the grill pan or skillet. Place 2 sandwiches in the pan. Place a smaller skillet or saucepan on the sandwiches while they cook to flatten them slightly. Cook 1 minute on each side or until the bread is golden brown and crisp and the fillings are heated. Remove from the pan. Cover with foil to keep warm, and repeat with the remaining 2 Tablespoons of margarine with the other sandwiches.*
*Note--I only cooked 2 sandwiches at a time. I baked the entire pizza crust, but I stored 4 slices in the refrigerator in a zip lock bag for when we had these sandwiches again later in the week. I also only cooked half of the bacon because I wanted the bacon to be crisp for the next time. I cut all the tomatoes and stored them in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator. I did not cut all 4 hunks of mozzarella cheese. I only cut 2--enough for 2 sandwiches. The next time we had these sandwiches later in the week, I just had to cook the other half of the bacon, slice the remaining mozzarella cheese, assemble the sandwiches, and cook.
Serve with baked sweet potato fries (found in the freezer section).
