qui si mangia la pizza!

mediterranean pizza

not quite pizza margherita

Qui si mangia la pizza -- Here we eat pizza.  Lots of it.  My fiance's mother makes pizza all the time and always seems to have some on hand in the freezer for a quick lunch or snack.  Her Sicilian style pizza has a thick crust and toppings ranging from anchovies, tomatoes, a sprinkling of parmesan, to tomatoes, roasted peppers, spinach, onions, and mushrooms.  She also throws on crumbled Italian sausage sometimes.  It's always easy on the cheese (which is mostly from our urging because my fiance is somewhat lactose intolerant and we're also trying to eat less saturated fat).  The other interesting thing is she doesn't use an American style "pizza sauce" - usually just olive oil, spices, and diced tomatoes.  I like all types of pizza but when I make it, I usually do it the American way with lots of sauce and handfuls of shredded mozzarella.  I have been determined to get a good sauce recipe and to work on my crust, which always seems to turn out flat, dense, and chewy.  This past week, I had quite a success with both a sauce and a crust.  

I found the sauce recipe on cooks.com.  I was attracted to it because it's simple -- just collect the ingredients, dump in a blender, and "buzz."  I don't have a setting on my blender for "buzzing" but I like the word choice and my puree button worked just fine.  A couple of notes about this recipe: I don't know what "pear shaped tomatoes" are.  I used canned, diced ones.  Also, I didn't have fresh basil or oregano (see an upcoming post on My Balcony Garden) so I substituted dried ones and it worked fine.  I used 1 tablespoon dried sweet basil and 1 teaspoon oregano.  And I used closer to 4 cloves of minced garlic.  This sauce was so good -- I will definitely make it again.

HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE

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1 (28 oz.) can pear shaped tomatoes (puree)
1/4 c. tomato paste
2 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. snipped fresh basil
2 tsp. snipped fresh oregano
2 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Combine all ingredients in a blender; buzz until smooth. Makes 3 cups. (I used about 3/4 cup of sauce on each pizza and froze the rest.)

Now, onto the crust.  Here is a link to the recipe I used, from Annie's Eats.  I broke in my new stand mixer (wedding gift!) with this dough and I liked how this recipe guides you through the process of using the stand mixer and tells you when to switch to which attachment, etc.  I only had whole wheat flour on hand so that was what I used.  While this crust turned out great (I think my problem before was I wasn't letting the dough rise long enough), I found it to be a little salty given my choice of toppings (see below).  Next time, I would use less salt and maybe even omit it altogether.  Also, I didn't have cornmeal on hand so I floured the baking sheet instead.

The recipe made enough dough for two pizzas, so I made a mediterranean one and a plain cheese one.  Here are my favorite toppings for a mediterranean pizza:

• sundried tomatoes
• olives
• or, dollops of tapenade
• marinated artichoke hearts
• capers
• roasted red peppers

And a final note about the cheese.  I bought low-fat mozzarella cheese from Trader Joe's.  It was a 12-ounce bag and only had 3 grams of fat per serving.  I used the entire bag on two pizzas.  It melted better than I thought it would, but it was still kind of rubbery in texture.  The price you pay for low fat!  I will still be buying that again though, because it was much more tasty than the fat free kind.