The Boboli Page

"Everything"
Brocoli /Asparagus
Asparagus/Sundried Tomato
Jalapeno/Portabello
2 Tomato/Portabello/
Chicken Sausage
Putanesca/Portabello
Anchovy /Onion/
Everything

There's nothing like an oven fired up to 450º to warm a cold kitchen and that's why winter time is Boboli time.
I'm assuming everyone knows what a boboli is by now, but in case you've just returned from a long hiatus on another planet or have been ship wrecked, a boboli is a pre-baked pizza dough-like thing to which you add your own toppings before briefly baking. The dough contains a little olive oil and cheese and runs rings around ordinary pizza dough in flavor.

Choosing a boboli.
Choosing a boboli? As in feeling tomatos? Nope. Just two things. First you have a choice between original thick crust and thin crust, and second, you have a choice between a full sized boboli and a pack of little individual sized bobolis. Forget the little guys, they're a bad value anyway. Go for the full sized and unless you're counting calories (in which case you probably shouldn't be eating one anyway) go for the thick crust.
Oh, one more thing which I probably shouldn't be telling you. On the boboli rack there are bobolis with different colored tags. Those are date tags and usually the ones at the rear are fresher unless the boboli man was lazy and didn't rotate the stock. But you probably knew that already.

Preparing a boboli.
When considering what to add to a bobili, the sky is the limit. Most folks lean toward traditional Italian toppings, but there's nothing wrong with a tandoori chicken or shrimp newburg boboli. It's not so much the ingredients you add to your boboli as it is the order in which you add them. The sauce, whether it be marinara or tandoori, always goes on first and the oil whether it be olive or sesame, last (the cheese is always next to last). Typically it goes like this. 1. Sauce, 2. Vegetables, 3. Meat or fish, 4. Herbs and spices, 5. Cheese (if any), 6. Oil.

Baking a boboli.
This is an easy thing, as long as you don't follow the instructions on the boboli package. You see, eight to ten minutes is just not enough time to produce a nicely crisp boboli with well cooked ingredients. Fifteen minutes is about right and I have sometimes gone to twenty depending on the topping. The exception is if you're using a pizza stone in your oven and frankly that's the best way to bake a boboli. You'll get a wonderfully crispy crust. If you do use a stone (and I suggest you do) the baking time is more like twelve to fifteen minutes.

Serving a boboli.
For slicing a boboli, a pizza cutter is a great device if you have one. Also, if you're not using a stone in your oven the crust under the boboli is apt to be soft. In this case, slightly raising the boboli and cutting it with kitchen shears is usually better than trying to slice it as all the filling runs out. A wide spatula is a must for transferring slices to the plate.

Beyond bobolis.
A link to applying your boboli skills to the lowly frozen pizza.

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