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.

Pizza!

Hello!

Look at this:

Homemade pizza!
I make pizza pretty frequently, since it can be prepared well in advance, is easily adaptable to whatever food mood/ craving I happen to have, and makes good leftovers. Plus I always feel it doesn’t really take that long to make, except of course the dough should be given a couple of hours to rise. I know that some people feel uneasy about yeast doughs, but I have to admit I don’t get it. Or maybe I have just always been lucky – I cannot remember a single attempt that went wrong, wouldn’t rise or whatever. In any case, it’s just a dough. Anyways, here’s what I did:

Ingredients:
makes one large pizza, about the size of a baking tray; serves 4 or more

For the dough:
3 cups flour (I usually mix all-purpose and whole wheat)
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsps. dry yeast
2 tbsps. olive oil
warm water, approx. 1/2 cup

For the sauce:
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
5 tbsps. tomato paste
a handful of sundried tomatoes, chopped
salt, pepper, dried rosemary to taste
olive oil
red wine
water

For the topping:
1 bell pepper
1 can of artichoke hearts (net weight? maybe 1/2 pound)
grated cheese ad libitum
some fresh basil leaves

Directions:

In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, and yeast. Stir well. Add olive oil; start kneading. Add the water, one tablespoon at a time, kneading in between. Knead until you have a nice, smooth dough. Leave it in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and let sit and rise for a couple of hours. Of course, this depends on how you like your dough, and how much time/ patience you have: if you like your pizza crust thin, there’s no need for an overlong rising period. I usually let my dough sit for about 2 hours.

For the sauce, cover the sundried tomatoes with warm water and let sit for maybe 15 mins. In the meantime, heat some olive oil in a large pan. Add the chopped onion and garlic; stir. Drain the tomatoes and add to the pan. Add the tomato paste, stir well. Then carefully add some wine, water, or both. The idea is to turn that very concentrated tomato paste into a tomato sauce again. Add as much as liquid as you like, depending on how thick or thin you want the sauce to be. Let bubble for a couple of minutes, season strongly, and remove from heat.

On a lined baking tray, roll out the dough. Pinch with a fork several times in separate spots (jeez! how to describe this? the idea is to make sure the dough bakes evenly when in the oven, so one makes pinches across the dough rectangle). Let sit while you prepare the topping.

Wash the bell pepper and slice it into thin sections or small cubes. Drain and quarter the artichoke hearts.

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

Pour the sauce on the pizza crust and spread evenly. Add pepper slices and artichoke chunks. Cover with grated cheese and basil leaves. Bake for about 22 mins., until the cheese has melted and the crust looks done. Enjoy!

Is pizza unhealthy? I don’t know. I mean it’s basically bread, veggies, and cheese. Granted, a lot of cheese. I don’t know, I really don’t, but I tend to think that with whole wheat dough and not too much cheese, this is no too bad dinner choice. Hm???

Tomorrow: spicy rice w/ veggies. Until then: goodnight, eat well, and xoxo. F.