Vegetable Pizza

We both love Vegetable Pizza. Recently, for a get together with friends, one of my dear friend made Pizza from scratch topped with Artichokes, Olives and Mushrooms. I felt it was the yummiest one I had eaten; it had a very gourmet flavour. She shared the recipe with me and vouched for the Jamie Oliver touch to the Pizza dough. I tried this at home; the flavour was very cheesy, gourmet and my choice of cheese meshed beautifully with the vegetables. Both of us love trying and tasting various cheese, especially European ones and this recipe just served the purpose right.

Jamie Oliver opines that the dough be prepared 24 hours in advance for better results, it can be stored in a cling wrap in the fridge and used the next day. I was tempted and gave a resting time of couple of hours. I was amazed at how little amount of planning yields the perfect Pizza.

~ Vegetable Pizza ~
Preparation time: 6 hours
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Size: 8" Pizza

Ingredients:
Pizza Dough -
All Purpose Flour - 4 cups
Extra Virgin Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Salt - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 2 tsp
Luke warm water - 1 and 1/2 cups
High active yeast - 1 sachet ~ approx. 1/2 oz.

Pizza toppings -
Black pitted Olives - 1/2 cup
Mushroom (sliced baby Portobello) - 1/2 cup
Green Bell Pepper - 1/2 cup
Green Olives (optional) - 1/2 cup

Pizza Sauce -
Crushed Tomato (medium) - 2
Parsley - 1 teaspoon
Mixed herbs (Rosemary, Thyme) - 1/2 teaspoon
Oregano - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt
*** Grind to a smooth paste in blender and discard the juice, retain the pulp mix ***
*** One can also use Marinara sauce - store bought ***

For garnish - Red chilli flakes, Oregano, Garlic powder
Cheese - shredded Mozzarella (80%) and shredded Monterrey Jack (20%)

Method:

Pizza Dough - Mix the wet ingredients of olive oil, water and yeast. Water should be lukewarm and not hot. Allow the yeast to form a bubbly froth for 10 minutes. Add the dry ingredients now which is flour, salt and sugar. Stir gently with a fork and knead to a smooth pliable dough to form a ball. Coat with a teaspoon of olive oil finally and cover with a wet cloth and leave in a warm oven for an hour with the light on. After an hour the dough will double up in volume. Punch it to let out the air and knead again. The dough will be elastic now. Dust the work surface with flour, roll out a Pizza of desired shape and transfer to a cookie tray lined with foil. Dust the foil with olive oil and flour. Proceed with the toppings.

Pizza Toppings - Roll out a 8" pizza out of the dough. Gently press the entire edge with 1" gap to provide elevation for the pizza toppings not to spill out. Prick the fork evenly into the pizza dough. This prevents the pizza from puffing up in the oven. Pre-heat the oven at 425 F. Add the sauce now leaving 1" border. Sprinkle liberally with Oregano. Add the toppings of Bell Peppers, Mushrooms and Black olives. Sprinkle olive oil liberally. Seal the vegetables with cheese of choice. Add the cheese with low melting point first and finally seal with cheese of high melting point. Bake in the oven at 425 F for 40 - 45 minutes.

Plating - Garnish with oregano, garlic powder and red chilli flakes. Enjoy with soda or beverage of choice.

Note - Use cheese which can withstand high melting point in the oven. I prefer Mozzarella or Parmesan blended with flavoured cheese like Monterrey Jack or Fontina which also melts perfectly (all shredded). Whole milk cheese has high moisture and melts well for a nice tasting Pizza. Use Olive oil in dough as well on topping as it gives the necessary gourmet flavour to the Pizza. Bread flour works better instead of All Purpose flour and gives the desired crispness to the base. I used All Purpose flour for the Pizza dough.

California Pizza Kitchen - Crispy Thin Crust: Margherita

There are times when you feel like just crossing your legs, stare at the ceiling and do nothing. I made Pizza on one such occasion recently. Bought one reay-to-eat from local Shoprite, stashed some Kalamata Pitted Black Olives and Giorgio Mushroom pieces. Added some pieces of Chicken Patties on top for extra crunch and bite flavours; Baked for 20 minutes and presto! My pizza is ready.

Hold on! It was not so easy! I had kept the oven to pre-heat and to my horrors within a few minutes the kitchen stovetop area was full of smoke. Our apt has smoke sensors. The kitchen was full of smoke, alarm was festering my ears! P and I were running around to fix and stop the alarm lest the water sprinklers begin to shower! Finally, after 10 minutes situation was under control. P was very helpful, thanks to him, we realised the root cause was a BBQ grill rack lying in the oven which had grease on it. Sigh! After 5 minutes of alarm and 30 minutes of fire-fighting, we finally dug into this yummy Pizza.!!

This ready-to-eat was not a pleasant experience! ;-)

Recipe Source: California Pizza Kitchen - 12 " pizza

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

Pitted Black Kalamata Olives - 15 Olives (chopped and sliced)

Mushrooms (canned) - 1 can (I used Giorgio)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Stash the pizza in the oven and allow to bake for around 15 minutes; We like it crispy so we allowed the Pizza to bake for some more time.

Garnish with Red Chilli flakes, Oregano seasoning and Basil herb. Serve hot with cool summer juices and mocktails.

Pampering with Cheese Pasta

I consider Cheese as a total comfort food. Cheese has this innane sublime quality to lift my spirits especially when it’s a tiring day. I was frantically hunting through my pantry stock to check what I can cook and dish out in 10 minutes flat (this is my highest saturation time when I am hungry). I found Sunfeast Pasta packet lying in the jar. I quickly picked the packet and began my cooking process. Next time around, would try to create my own sauce and cook pasta. Since I was feeling lazy this time aound, I decided to take the short cut route

Serves: 1-2 individuals

Ingredients:
Water – 2 C
Pasta pack – 100 gms
Cheese slice – 1 slice
Herbs – ¼ t

Method:
1.Unpack the pasta content in a pot of boiling water.
2.Add the tastemaker sauce and stir vigourously.
3.Caution: Do not leave the pot unattended. The stirring process
ensures that the sauce does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
4.Stir for around 8 minutes on low flame.
5.Add cheese slice and herbs and continue stirring. When the volume
decreases to half, discontinue and put off the flame and allow the pasta
to settle.
6.After a minute, transfer to serving dish.
7.Serve with bread sticks if you will. Serve when its piping hot.