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Share a Spoon - Veggie Pie

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Think Tank Momma



Welcome Smackers!

Share a Spoon 

is

VEGETARIAN

this week!

Michelle over at Momma's Pixie Dreams who owns three of the cutest little girls ever, asked for a vegetarian theme.  She's the hostess with the mostest this week so make sure you go love on her afta afta (best Mr. Miagi impression).

When I said it was vegetarian week to BDC, Kamden overheard me and almost had a melt down.  He was devastated and thought I meant we weren't eating meat all week.  I told the little carnivore to calm down, it was just one day.  Then he found out I was making pizza and he was completely fine with vegetarian after that.

It's funny, he doesn't realize how often we actually do go meatless.  I make a lot of pasta dishes.  A LOT.  Actually, it's kind of ridiculous how much pasta we eat.  Anycarbs, unless I make meatballs, or meat gravy (red sauce with meat), it's almost always a vegetarian meal.

That just goes to show you how well I hide the veggies much they pay attention.

So....PIZZA PIE al la vegetarian!

Pizza at home is soooooooo much better than delivery.  Plus, you control what goes into the sauce.  Now you can certainly buy pre-made sauce.  I really don't take any issue with it.  BUT....READ THE LABELS!

Big caution here.  Make sure, especially if you are going vegetarian, that there isn't meat in the sauce.  Even if it doesn't say meat sauce on the front.  READ THE LABEL.  There are some really great all natural sauces out there with no preservatives. No citric acid.  No from concentrate.  No MEAT.

Easy as Pie Dough:

1 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups of all purpose flour

In a mixer, or large bowl add warm water, sugar, salt and package of yeast.  Let the yeast foam.  Takes about 5 minutes.  Turn the mixer on low and add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.  Start adding the flour slowly a cup at a time.  When all flour has been incorporated turn the mixer on medium and let the mixer knead the dough for 5-6 minutes.  (If all the flour doesn't incorporate, drizzle the extra Tablespoon of olive oil in.)

If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, simply incorporate all the ingredients as discussed above with clean hands and knead the dough for about five minutes on a clean floured surface.

Add a couple of drizzles of olive oil around a clean deep bowl and add your dough ball to the bowl.  Make sure to coat all of the dough turning over once and then cover with a clean dish towel.  Allow the dough to rise for an hour or so until it doubles in size.


Now, I made two different pizzas.  One with a basil pesto for the sauce and the other with a sun-dried tomato pesto.

I made a fresh basil pesto but used a jarred sun-dried tomato pesto that I purchased at a specialty shop.  However, making a fresh one would be just as simple.  You could certainly also use a jarred pizza sauce that I talked about above.

Now, lots of people think they don't like pesto because all they have tried is some canned nastiness from the store.  While there are plenty of fresh pestos available out there, that stuff in a jar that looks...um...brown?  YUCK!

Fresh Basil Pesto:

1 handful (bunch) Italian Flatleaf Parsley
2 handfuls (bunches) Fresh Basil
3 large garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 lemon juiced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese (again no green can!)
1/2 pecans (I use them because I like them.  Substitute walnuts or pine nuts if you like.)
1/2 cup olive oil


Throw all the ingredients except the olive oil into the food processor.  Pulse a few times.  Turn the processor on and drizzle olive oil in until the pesto is creamy.



This pesto freezes great.  You can freeze it for up to 3 months.  It is great on pastas.  Boiled or roasted potatoes.  In salads, on panini sandwiches.

Assembling your pizzas.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface.  I made a round pizza and a  sheet pan pizza.  I always line the counter top with wax paper and flour that.  That way there is no flour clean up.  Just fold the wax paper up and throw it away.

Sprinkle the pizza pan or sheet pan with corn meal so your dough doesn't stick.


Press the dough out to the sides.  Dimple the center of the dough with your finger tips.

Drizzle the dough with olive oil and spread over the entire surface with a pastry brush.


Add three heaping spoonfuls of the pesto to the pizza dough.



I sprinkle with a little Parmesan and then add the toppings.

For the basil pesto pizza, I spread several teaspoons of ricotta cheese.  Then top with a mix of Smoked Provolone and Mozzarella.

For the sun-dried tomato pesto, I chopped a seeded large tomato, 1/4 of a medium red onion and stirred in a heaping tablespoon of the basil pesto to make a bruschetta topping.  Top with the same mix of Provolone and Mozzarella. 

Bake in a 500 degree screaming hot oven for 10-15 minutes.  Your oven may be different then mine.  Keep an eye on the pizza.  The oven is HOT!  (If you have a pizza stone, cook the pizza as you normally would on your preheated stone.





That's it.  Slice and serve.  I promise, you will not miss the meat.

Now three things:
 
1 - Leave me some love.
2 - Go love Michelle Pixie.
3 - Link up your vegetarian recipes.

LOVE!




18 comments:

Unknown said...

We have a pizza stone and love to make home made pizzas. My fave is to make a base, add boccoccini, cherry tomatos and spinach. Yum.

Kim of Mo Betta said...

I LOVE pesto!! I miss my fresh basil from the garden already. One of my favorite pizzas is spinach, pesto and feta...I didn't even think to include that one with today's post. Your pizzas look yummy!

June said...

I just showed Ward the pictures and he said "Oooh that looks good"
AND it does!!

YUMMY!

Have a great day B!!

Liz Mays said...

Holy cow, that looks FANTASTIC!

Michelle Pixie said...

YUM!! YUM!! YUM!! We do a homemade vegetarian pizza here too but I always use olive oil and tomatoes diced up as small as I can get them as my base with a little shredded mozzarella so things don't slide around and then build up from there with onions, broccoli, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, zucchini, or whatever veggies you happen to be in the mood for. I am super intrigued by the pesto sauce as I don't think I've ever had pesto that I can recall...I am going to make this one for sure it seems pretty easy! :)

Andrea said...

Oh man. That looks so good. I think I need to move in with you. Seriously. My meals are not even remotely close to this delicious. Or this pretty. Love it. Pizza makes me happy. Must be the cheese. And tomatoes. And well, yeah, everything!

Babes Mami said...

We use the same pizza dough recipe! Alos, we just ate chicken pesto pizza earlier this week. I love homemade pizza and sauce and it makes the hubs happy, one of the few things I can do! Yum!

Foodies Unite said...

This is great and I love the #shareaspoon idea! Off to check out Michelle and the other recipes now!

Nancy C said...

We do homemade pizza at our house at least once a week. These will be on the list for sure. Thank you for feeding my family (and my creativity).

Holly Lefevre said...

Pesto on pizza....to die for. I had a recipe...kids won the fight today. I am looking forward to reading everyone's

Anonymous said...

I love making my own pizza. Its fun! I usually make a big one for the grown ups and little personal ones for the boys. Then I let them put on their own toppings and stuff.

Next week is my turn for SAS right?

Salt said...

You are a serious rockstar in the kitchen. I have never tried to make my own pizza because the whole concept of it seemed to difficult. You made it seem so do-able!

Maybe I should do something like this for our Sunday football party!

gayle said...

That looks so delicious!! You are an awesome cook!! I need to take lessons from you!!

drollgirl said...

YUM YUM YUM!!!

full disclosure: my one and only attempt to make pizza dough and use a pizza stone was a DISASTER. and i ended up throwing the pizza and the stone in the trash. i was so mad! i am sure it was my fault, and i need to try it again!

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Kim of Mo Betta said...

Somebody got a makeover! Looks great!

Ducky said...

OOOOH! Wowie! I love it!!!! *wiggling with excitement*

The header is fantastic!

Claudya Martinez said...

My husband makes us pizza and I love it. I really like it with very thin slices of red and yellow peppers and red onions.

BTW, the blog is looking great.