Celebrate National Cheese Pizza Day on September with a Cheesy Pizza and Radicchio

Just Announced: Royal Rose Radicchio of Salinas is celebrating national Cheese Pizza Day September 5th with a special Cheese Trio Pizza recipe with fresh, hearty radicchio. End Quote

Salinas, CA (1888PressRelease) August 09, 2011 - Royal Rose Radicchio of Salinas, California is celebrating national Cheese Pizza Day September 5th with a special Cheese Trio Pizza recipe with fresh, hearty radicchio.

National Cheese Pizza Day is a day to enjoy one of America's favorite meals hesitation-free. Americans love cheese pizza! Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza each day or 350 slices per second. Each man, woman and child in America eats an average of 46 slices of pizza a year. There are over 5 billion pizzas sold worldwide each year. Cheese pizza is one of the most delicious foundations for healthy vegetables, like radicchio and Treviso, imaginable.

In 1889, Italian Queen Margherita visited Naples. In her honor, a bread maker dressed up his flatbread to reveal the Italian flag colors - red tomatoes, white mozzarella, and green basil and the margherita pizza was born. A national upscale pizza restaurant chain includes a variation of this Italian flag pizza on their menu; it features red radicchio, white frisee, and green arugula.

Radicchio is a natural topping for cheese pizzas, as it offers beautiful color, and a nutritional boost. Enjoy a cheese pizza from your favorite pizzeria this September 5th, or try this Cheese Trio & Radicchio Pizza recipe at home. Bon Appetito!

Cheese Trio & Radicchio Pizza
Ingredients
Crust:
2 balls(8 to 10 oz. each) favorite pizza dough
Flour as needed
Cornmeal as needed, if desired
6 oz. sun dried tomatoes in herbed olive oil, julienne-cut
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Topping:
4 oz. Royal Rose™ radicchio, coarsely shredded
4 oz. diced pancetta, proscuitto, or cooked bacon
4 oz. shredded Mozzarella
3 oz. shredded Fontina cheese
2 oz. crumbled Gorganzola cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
Methods/steps

Crust:
Heat oven to 475 F. Sprinkle flour on a clean smooth surface and stretch dough using your hand or rolling pin to flatten each ball to 1/2-inch thick circle. Transfer dough to spray-coated or cornmeal-dusted 12-inch pizza pans. Continue stretching to fit pans.
Reserve 3 tablespoons of herbed olive oil in a small bowl. Blend in garlic and red pepper flakes. Brush oil onto crusts. Bake 5 to 6 minutes, just until crust begins to brown.

Topping:
Top each crust with 3 oz. sun dried tomatoes, 2 oz. radicchio, 2 oz. pancetta, 2 oz. Mozzarella. 1.5 oz. Fontina, and 1 oz. Gorganzola. Bake additional 5 to 7 minutes until cheese melts and begins to brown. Remove from oven; sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

For more information:
Royal Rose, LLC
1120 Growers Street
Salinas, CA 93901
831-758-1957
831-758-6649
www.radicchio.com

Background on Royal Rose The Company:

The "Salad Bowl of the World" gained some much-needed color, flavor and crunch in 1993 with the formation of Royal Rose Radicchio of Salinas, Calif. It proved to be the perfect combination 'Old World vegetable meets New World agriculture power' and the results have been delicious.

Royal Rose took to growing and shipping four varieties of radicchio, a member of the chicory family that is revered in Italy and throughout Europe as a fresh, zesty addition to salads, pastas, pizzas and more. The vibrant color, pleasing bitterness and unmistakable crunch come together to form a unique addition to any meal.

It all started when Italian farmers Lucio Gomiero and Carlo Boscolo teamed up with growers in the Salinas Valley in the late 1980s. Gomiero, a winemaker by trade, had the idea of bringing Boscolo's proprietary seed varieties and 50 years of radicchio growing in Italy to the United States. Gomiero believed there was a new market for this unique and versatile vegetable.

With the packaged salad revolution about to explode, the timing couldn't have been better. Royal Rose turned a seasonal vegetable into a year-round treat, following the sun through four growing regions to supply the growing market with field-fresh radicchio.

Led by company president Dennis Donohue (who also happens to be current mayor of Salinas), Royal Rose's Fresher-Bigger-Better program reflects an ongoing commitment to educating consumers about the vegetable's versatility and freshness.

Royal Rose is also committed to education. Its new marketing campaign "What's A Salad Without Radicchio?" reflects an ongoing commitment to promoting and popularizing radicchio.

Radicchio has begun to enjoy mainstream acceptance by consumers. McDonald's now includes radicchio in its premium salads in many markets, and chefs all over the country have come to look beyond the salad, holding the versatile vegetable in high esteem and using it raw, grilled or sautéed and in a variety of specialized dishes.

Press Contact: Marci Bracco (831) 747-7455

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