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Lean and lovin' it: Low-carb almond flour puts pizza back on the menu

I love pizza.

How long has this affair been going on?

As near as I can recollect, it began with pizza from Evanston's The Spot back in the early 1960s. Mom was a teacher with three sons and she didn't have the time every weekday night to make a scratch dinner; The Spot delivered.

Shortly thereafter a friend of mine said that he'd seen a way to make pizza at home using Pillsbury's Hot Roll Mix to make a crust and then add some canned tomato sauce (generously seasoned with oregano), topped with Italian sausage from our local A&P grocery store and finished with home-grated mozzarella.

We got together on a Saturday night at his house (he had a round pan that my family didn't) and we made our first from-scratch pizza. It turned out really well for two 15-year-olds. Of course, we ate the whole thing.

During my college years, I made money for school by delivering pizza during the summer and I got to take one home at the end of every night. That's where I learned to spinout pizza dough so it was evenly thin.

After college I learned to make my own from-scratch crust and sauce. I found out that a pizza stone produced the kind of restaurant-quality crisp bottom crust.

Also, I saw a pizza place lay down thin mozzarella cheese slices on the dough before ladling on the sauce; finding that made for a less soggy crust. A light bulb moment if ever there was one.

In those less-than-lean days I topped my pizza with whole-milk mozzarella because it boasted a richer flavor profile and wasn't as rubbery as the skim-milk mozzarella that most pizza places use. When I morphed into the Lean Wizard, I dabbled with fat-free mozzarella cheese, even taking it to pizza places and asking them to top my pizza with it. They always did it, but the results were marginally successful. In 1994 I even developed a pita bread pizza and that I shared with viewers on ABC's Good Morning America.

Then, in the middle of this past year, everything changed. I went off refined carbohydrates; mainly all sugars and flour. I lost weight, sure. But, I also had to say: “so long” to pizza.

By accident I came across a recipe for a flourless pizza crust made with almond meal (ground blanched almonds) which, although higher in fat than wheat flour (14 grams versus 0.5 grams per ¼-cup) and higher in calories (160 versus 102) was way lower in carbs (6 grams versus 22). Plus, almond flour delivers almost twice as much protein (48 grams versus 26).

Excitedly, I made my first almond meal crust pizza using the same layering technique I've used for years: cheese, sauce, toppings, more cheese.

How did my new pizza turn out?

Better than I expected. The crust doesn't have the same flexibility and chew that a wheat flour-based crust has. And, there's a nuttiness flavor component that I got quickly past. But, a healthy, tasty pizza is back on my menu.

Here's the recipe so pizza can be back on your menu, too. Make sure you use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to keep the crust from sticking. I think you're gonna like it.

• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write him at don@theleanwizard.com.

Low-carb Loaded Pizza

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