This week's DDC challenge has a vegetarian twist! To be honest - while I was shopping for local ingredients from Breezy Willow I spotted some sausages. No no no (as my 4yo would say) I kept to the constraints of the challenge, but my darling husband did not. He was overcome with sausage and made a tandem pizza...what a punk! If you're interested in the rule breaking meal - check out my Pizza Two Ways post.
Time to talk veg.
Isn't she pretty? Almost too perfect to eat....
Over the weekend I raided my pantry and found a jar of roasted pequillo peppers (that I grew, roasted & canned), a jar of homemade tomato sauce (same story), and a nice jar of oregano - it smells heavenly. I needed cheese...that's when I headed to Breezy Willow and fell into meaty temptation.
In all the only non-local ingredients are yeast, salt, semolina, olive oil and a teensy tiny bit of mozzerella. Here's how I did it:
Ingredients: For the dough ¼ cup white wine ¾ cup warm water 1 ½ ounces yeast 1 tablespoon honey 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons of semolina
For the sauce - 1 jar of homemade tomato sauce
For the toppings - 1 jar of roasted red peppers, drained, patted dry & sliced - 1 lb of feta cheese broken up - 2-3 slices of mozzerella cheese - 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
Method: For the dough we love Mario Batali's recipe & stick to it -Combine wine, water and yeast in a large bowl and stir until dissolved. Add the honey, salt and olive oil and mix thoroughly. Start by adding 1 cup of flour and make a wet paste. Add remaining flour and incorporate. -Place dough on a lightly floured board and knead for 2 to 3 minutes. -Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise for 45 minutes -Roll out the dough into your desired shape & sprinkle with semolina -In a hot skillit, brown the dough on each side (can also be grilled)
For the sauce -Warm up the sauce over a gentle simmer, only use enough sauce to coat the pie. You are not using the whole jar!
Top it & Broil it -spoon sauce over the pizza then layer on the mozzerella, feta and roasted red peppers -broil the pizza until its bubbly then top with the oregano (crush it in our hand while you sprinkle it)
Check out the pics below to see most of the steps of the dough process. As you can see, I had little helpers again!
The pizza really was divine and we had enough leftover to freeze. I cannot wait to open it up for lunch this weekend! As I use up all of the items I canned, dried & preserved last summer I can't believe spring is just around the corner.
And right now I'm in the process of starting all over again. As I type little tomato, pepper, onion, kale, and chervil seeds are sprouting in my basement!