Pizza with Mushrooms and Creamed Onions

Hello there,

this pizza is quite an ugly duckling! It doesn’t look like much, but it tasted delicious. I especially liked that it’s not covered in huge amounts of melted cheese. Come to think of it, I also really liked that it’s not slathered with tomato sauce. In other words: it’s a pizza, which is generally awesome, but it’s a little different.
The recipe comes from Johanna Handschmann’s Italian Vegetarian Cooking. I followed it pretty strictly; except that I doubled it (my husband and I are both suckers for pizza, so leftovers were a must), and that I used veggie broth instead of wine (I’m not having alcohol at the moment; generally, however, I would use wine in this, and will do so next time I’m making it).
Due to a – totally unreasonable – sabotage of tomatoes on my husband’s part, I made half of the pizza without tomatoes, as you can see in the picture. Well, here we go:

Ingredients:
for one 12 inch pizza pan

for the dough:
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 2/3 cups flour
2 tbsps. olive oil

For the topping:
2 medium onions
2 tbsps. olive oil
3 1/2 oz. button mushrooms
6 tbsps. white or red wine
5 tbsps. cream
oregano, salt, and pepper to taste
2 medium tomatoes
1 cup freshly grated parmesan

Directions:
In a bowl, mix flour, salt, and yeast. Add olive oil and about 7 tbsps. warm water. Knead into a smooth dough (by hand or machine). If necessary, add a little more water. Let the dough rise for at least 30 mins.

In the meantime, peel the onions and slice them thinly. Wash and slice the mushrooms. Fry the onions in hot olive oil (in a large pan) for 3 to 4 mins., stirring all the time. Add the mushrooms; stir. Pour in wine and cream, stir. Add oregano (I used about 1 tsp. dry oregano), salt, and pepper to taste. Cook the mixture down over medium heat until the veggies are soft and the liquid has reduced.

Wash and slice the tomatoes.

Preheat your oven to 425° F. Grease a baking sheet and put it into your pizza pan.

Knead the risen dough very briefly, then spread it onto the baking sheet. Lay the tomato slices on the dough.

Stir the parmesan into the veggie mix, and spread this on the dough.

Bake the pizza for about 20 mins., until the topping is bubbly and the dough is crusty. Enjoy!!

I hope you have a wonderful, fun weekend. We have some good cooking planned, and some good hanging out and chilling. Those weekends are the best.

xoxo, F.

A New Beginning (and Couscous)

Hello world,

I have been absent for quite a while. Not that anyone cares – despite myself. I don’t like the idea of having started this blog and then letting it die. I want to make use of the advantages of regular blogging: reliability, a little mental excercise, fun, seeing your work grow. Which is why my new year resolution was to blog at least once a week, Fridays. And yes, that was my only resolution – my life will be changing quite a bit, and there’s so much I want to and should be doing, and I’d rather have one extra resolution that I’ll really try and stick with, than several that don’t last long.

Anyways, here comes a recipe for a veggie couscous with feta and parmesan cheese. It is from my new cookbook by Donna Hay which Santa brought me, and I love it. However, the original recipe suggested using store bought antipasti, but I scrapped that and fried some fresh vegetables instead. Not because I’m so sophisticated, but because it is cheaper.

Ingredients:
serves 2-3

1 cup couscous

1 large red bell pepper, cubed
2 big handfuls fresh mushrooms, halved
1 can artichoke hearts, drained, halved
1 garlic clove, chopped

olive oil

1 small handful parsley leaves, chopped

salt, pepper

1 cup feta cubes
grated parmesan to taste

Directions:

This is super easy. In a bowl, cover the couscous with boiling water (I’d say with approx. 1 2/3 cups), add a pinch of salt, stir, and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit until the grains have absorbed the water.

In a pan, fry the vegetables in olive oil until soft and nice. Remove from heat, add parsley, and season to taste.

Loosen the couscous with a spoon, and serve with veggies and cheeses.

Easy, right? And really good!

xoxo,
F.