How Katie Lee Combines Pizza And Salad For The Ultimate Mashup

When you're dining at a local pizzeria or making homemade pepperoni pies, there is a certain question that always arises: What should we have as a side dish with our cheesy star of the show? Well, many settle on Caesar salads. But, have you ever thought about combining the two together into one food? Lucky for you, Katie Lee already has you covered. 

Lee, author of several cookbooks and host of the Food Network show "The Kitchen," posted a video on Instagram detailing how to make a Caesar salad pizza. To make this concoction, Lee spreads pizza dough (you can use store-bought, but we have a definitive 45-minute pizza dough recipe) into a rectangle, completely covering a greased baking sheet. To add flavor, Lee brushes an olive oil, garlic, and oregano mixture on top of the dough before sprinkling shredded mozzarella and sliding into the oven for 15-18 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. As soon as it's done baking, Lee grates lemon zest right on top.

Instead of sausage, pineapple, or any other typical pizza toppings, Lee tosses Romaine lettuce with Caesar dressing and places it right on top of the crust. Finally, Lee adorns the top with a heaping amount of parmesan cheese.  

To crank this dish up a notch, you can make it a chicken Caesar salad pizza, or add other toppings like fried capers, hard-boiled eggs, or substitute the Romaine lettuce for kale. 

Besides Katie Lee's recommendation for creating a Caesar salad pizza, there are other avenues for combining greens with 'zzas. Think of any salad you might want — Waldorf, Cobb, Greek — and just place it right on top of a finished pizza crust. The possibilities are endless. Simply bake the dough, follow your go-to salad recipe, plop it on the crust, and that's it!

Another unexpected way leftover pizza can elevate salad is to use the pie as croutons. Taking any leftover pizza you have, cut the slices into small cubes, coat in olive oil, and pop them in the oven for eight minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. You can actually use those croutons to make a "pizza salad," where ingredients consist of olives, pepperoni slices, mozzarella balls, and any of your other favorite pizza toppings. 

Actor Drew Barrymore is also an admirer of the pizza-salad marriage. Barrymore's method is probably the easiest one out there, because you don't have to cook anything. In a TikTok video, she orders a take-out pizza and salad, scrapes the toppings off the pizza, places them in the salad, and mixes it all together. Homemade or from a restaurant, on top of each other or on the side, pizza and salad are relationship goals.