Can you believe that it’s already the last week of October and that Halloween is on Friday!? Halloween has always been a fun holiday for me. I love everything from the decorating, to the costumes, the candy (of course), and making cute festive food like these Mini Spider Pizzas!

Holidays are a time that allow me to get creative with food and create food-art! Since Halloween is almost here and it just happens to fall on pizza Friday, I thought what better way to get in the spooky spirit than to use California Ripe Olives as the topping on these fun appetizer size pizzas!

Black olives are the perfect topping for these mini pizzas because you can make creepy black spiders with them. I always have a can of California Ripe Olives in my stash of pantry goods because they are so versatile for home chefs not to mention the perfect ingredient when you want to create some food-art!

To make the spiders I simply sliced some large whole black olives in half lengthwise, this made the body. I then took another olive and cut it in half (not lengthwise), this made the spider head. The final step was thinly slicing olives, then halving them for the spider legs. I recommend placing the black olive spiders on top of the mini pizzas after they have baked. Through trial and error I discovered that the spiders tend to spread and fall flat if they are baked.

Making these Mini Spider Pizzas is so easy that even kids can help! While I don’t have kids of my own, I’ve noticed that when they can help with cooking they tend to enjoy eating the food more. Black olives are a great choice for kids because they have great texture and even better flavor. They aren’t mushy or crunchy, but nice and firm.

The salty flavor of the olives goes perfectly on top of a cheese pizza, not to mention the dark black is a nice pop of color on top of the white mozzarella cheese. Plus, what kid doesn’t like to play with their food, and that’s exactly what they get to do when they make the black olive spiders! Before you send your trick-or-treaters out this Halloween, get them into the kitchen to help you make these fun and festive Mini Spider Pizzas!

Mini Spider Pizzas

Yield: 8-10 mini pizzas

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 28 minutes

Kid friendly, fun to make, Mini Spider Pizzas using delicious California Black Ripe Olives!

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Ingredients

• 1/2 pound pizza dough

For the Pizza Sauce

• 15 ounce can tomato sauce
• 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 1 t. dried basil
• 1 t. dried oregano
• 1 t. dried parsley
• 1/2 t. garlic powder
• 1/4 t. red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 t. balsamic vinegar

For the Toppings

• 1 cup part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 can large California Black Ripe Olives

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
3. Roll out the pizza dough and use a 3 inch round cookie cutter to cut out the mini pizzas.
4. Place the dough on the prepared baking sheet.
5. In a small bowl whisk together all of the pizza sauce ingredients, then spread a little bit of sauce on top of each mini pizza.
6. Top the pizzas with the shredded mozzarella then place in the oven to bake for about 8 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden.
7. Remove the mini pizzas from the oven and arrange the olives on top of them creating the spiders.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.