I saw the cutest little salami “bowls” on Blueberriesandblessings.com yesterday. I thought they were so clever! I wanted to try my hand at these cute little “bowls”, and saw so many potential uses for them! So this first incarnation evolved literally as I threw it together for lunch today. The first time I made the little “bowls” exactly as she did. But 400º and 10 minutes was too hot for my oven. The first batch of “bowls” almost burned. Then I made them again but this time at 350º for only 6 minutes, which turned out to be just perfect in my oven. You only want to partially cook the salami to firm it up.

You can use any toppings, but I have provided the nutritional stats for the toppings I chose today for my crust-in-the-middle pizza muffins. You can use a slice of any low-carb bread you have on hand, or even cut up a low-carb tortilla, or a Joseph’s Oat Fiber/Flax Pita for the center crust layer. I used a slice of my Gluten-Free Focaccia Bread I had in my freezer (defrosting it first, of course). I wanted the bread layer real thin, so I sliced the bread less than ¼” thick laterally, so I ended up using only about 3/4 of a whole slice. I sliced the slice laterally one time and cut each thin layer into 4 small squares, using 6 of the 8 squares for my recipe.

The final pizza muffins were FANTASTIC! Not too salty, not too cheesy, not too gooey and easily hand held for eating.

It took 3 of these to fill me up at lunch, as I ate nothing else along with them. There are Just 4 bites in these. I used a square muffin pan for mine, but a round one will work just fine. This recipe makes six of these babies and serves two adults in my opinion. But as usual, I will provide per piece stats and you can judge what you think a serving size is. 🙂

In order for this to be suitable for Atkins Induction, you will have to use an Induction-friendly bread like Oopsie rolls or flax bread sliced thin. These are suitable for most Keto dieters. Primal folks will need to use a plan-suitable bread in the middle. These are not Paleo suitable.

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INGREDIENTS:

6 slices hard or Genoa salami (I used Hormel)

1 slice Gluten-Free Foccacia Bread

3 oz. pork breakfast sausage

1 oz. onion, finely chopped

6 tsp. (2 T.) tomato paste

3 oz. mozzarella, shredded (I find cheese very salty and use much less than some folks. Add more if you care to.)

1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning or crushed dried oregano leaves

½ oz. green bell pepper, sliced into 12 pieces

6 olives, sliced

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Push 1 slice of salami down into the slots of a muffin pan (square or round will work just fine). Pop pan into oven and bake for 6 minutes. Remove from oven. Brown the pork sausage and onion together in a non-stick skillet just until no longer pink. Remove from heat.

Now you’re ready to to construct your pizza muffins. Slice your bread laterally into 2 thinner slices and then slice each of those into 4 squares (you will use only 6 of the 8). Push one square of bread down firmly into each salami “bowl”. Trim if necessary to allow the bread to sit flat at the bottom of the salami “bowl”. Spread 1 tsp. tomato paste atop each bread slice. Sprinkle the sauce evenly with the Italian seasoning. Sprinkle about 1 tsp. mozzarella on each muffin next. Then 1/6 of the browned sausage and onion mixture. Than sprinkle 1 tsp. more cheese on top. The cheese acts as a binder for all the ingredients. Top with sliced olives (1 olive per muffin) and place 2 pieces of the bell pepper on each. Pop into a 350º oven for about 8-10 minutes or until they are lightly browning on top. Lift them gently out of the pan slots with a knife tip or fork and place on a plate. Serve at once.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 pizza muffins, each contains:

131 calories

23 g fat

2.38 g carbs, .60 g fiber, 1.78 g NET CARBS

335 mg sodium