For this recipe, you can either buy a loaf of focaccia bread, or make your own. If you make your own, be aware that—like any dough making—it’s time consuming. Probably better, but time consuming. I don’t have my own recipe for focaccia bread. I use one out of a cookbook, making sure to season it with plenty of olive oil and sea salt. I think the sea salt is an important ingredient here, so be sure to sprinkle a generous, but not ridiculous, amount on your dough. If you purchase a loaf, taste it before adding salt. You may find it doesn’t need more. Also, roasting one full eggplant and an entire carton of cherry tomatoes will give you enough vegetables for 2-3 pizzas. If you’re only making one, use the rest of the veggies in a sandwich, or in a pasta dish.

Ingredients:

1 small eggplant
1 package cherry tomatoes
1 ball of fresh mozzarella
fresh basil
focaccia loaf
artisanal sea salt
fresh ground pepper
olive oil
28 oz. can plum tomatoes
dried basil, thyme, marjoram, garlic
red wine, optional

Guidelines:

If you’re making your own focaccia bread, you’ll need to start it 5-6 hours in advance, because you must let it rise several times. Once it’s ready, shape the dough into an oiled 9×13 inch baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt. Bake it at the temperature the recipe indicates, but don’t let it go the full time. Take it out once the crust begins to brown.

If you’ve purchased the focaccia, you’re ready to go.

Get the eggplant sweating. Dice it up, and working in layers, place the eggplant in a colander, salting each layer. Place a heavy bowl or other object on top of the colander and let drain for 30-45 minutes. Pat the eggplant try, scatter it in a large baking dish, and drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over the top. Toss well. The salting and “sweating” of the eggplant helps break down the cell walls and releases the eggplant’s bitterness. Don’t skip this step!

Add the cherry tomatoes to the baking dish with the eggplant. Add another drizzle of olive oil and mix to combine.

Roast the eggplant and tomatoes in a 400 degree oven until the eggplant is melt-in-your-mouth soft, and the tomatoes have burst, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. I use a 28 oz. can of plum tomatoes. Heat them, along with a couple shakes of the dried herbs and a splash of red wine (optional), over medium heat. Break up the tomatoes as much as you can. Let simmer until the vegetables are finished roasting.

To assemble the pizza, spread a thin layer of sauce on top of the focaccia. Top with plenty of the roasted eggplant and tomatoes. Thinly slice the fresh mozzarella and place the slices on top of the vegetables. Bake in a 400 degree oven until the crust is set and the cheese is melted. This is terrible, but I have to admit I can’t remember how long it took. My guess is 20-25 minutes.

Top the pizza with fresh basil slivers and fresh ground pepper.

This recipe originated from “get rid of leftovers” night. On these nights, I stand in front of the fridge and pull out everything that needs to get eaten. Sometimes that amounts to eating grilled cheese with six spoonfuls of six different leftover side dishes. Other times, it means compiling all the produce that’s about to head south in a creative way. On this particular night, I had leftover pizza sauce and tortillas from Roasted Red Pepper and Mushroom Tortilla Pizzas. And really, that was about it. I rooted around the fridge and freezer a while longer and found some smoked cheddar, green onions, and a bag of frozen corn. I was getting closer to something, and since I really wanted to use up that pizza sauce, I figured another tortilla pizza was in order. From the fruit bowl, I pulled out an avocado and a tomato. That would do. I wasn’t sure if it would amount to much, but I put it together anyway and presented it to my husband in front of the tube. This is GOOD! he said. And I have to agree. Better, and easier, than the Roasted Red Pepper and Mushroom Tortilla Pizzas, too. You could also call this a pizza quesadilla, top it with another tortilla, an extra layer of cheese, “grill” it, and serve accordingly.

Ingredients:

*Note: I didn’t technically measure anything for this recipe. This one’s all about throwing stuff on. It’s just a pizza, anyhow. A five-year-old could do it! Well, except for the tortilla “grilling” part. You better handle that one.

“grilled” tortillas (1-2 per person)—see method and picture here, or method in guidelines below.
pizza sauce—recipe below
smoked cheddar cheese
green onions, sliced
corn kernels
avocado, diced
tomato, diced

“Mexi” Pizza Sauce:

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 can tomato sauce with a drizzle of olive oil, and 2-3 shakes each of the following spices: minced onion, garlic powder, oregano, and basil. Add 2 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp-1tbsp. adobo sauce, and fresh ground pepper to taste. Mix well and simmer on low until you’re ready to use it. Taste and adjust as necessary.

What is adobo sauce and where do I get it? Adobo sauce is what canned chipotle chilis are packed in. You can find a can of chipotles, which are smoked jalapenos, in the Latin/Hispanic/Mexican aisle if your grocery store.

Guidelines:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare the pizza sauce and “grill” your tortillas. By “grill,” I mean turn on your burner and place the tortillas, one at a time, directly on top. (I used my electric range, and it worked fine.) Grill for a minute or two on each side, or until the tortilla browns and puffs. Set tortillas aside.

Grate the smoked cheddar, dice the avocado and tomato, slice the green onions, and thaw your corn kernels, if using frozen.

Once the sauce is hot, you can begin preparing your pizzas. Top each tortilla with your desired amount of sauce, cheese, tomato, and corn. Reserve the avocado and green onions. Bake for 8-10 minutes on a pizza stone or pizza screen (to ensure a crispy crust), or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Remove from oven and top with the avocado and green onions.

Serve with an ear of fresh corn and a cold Negra Modelo, and you’ve got dinner in twenty minutes.

I was craving pizza the other night, but I didn’t have any pizza dough on hand, and I didn’t feel like a gut bomb from one of our local pizza joints. The solution? Tortillas. I’ve made tortilla pizzas a couple of times before, and thought they were very good, and light. Oh, and easy, too. There’s not all that dough mixing and rolling and rising and kneading and tossing and stretching and… I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Of course, homemade tortillas are superior, but if you’re looking for near instant gratification, like I was, the store-bought variety works just fine. Tortilla pizzas are also extremely kid friendly. Lay them on the counter and let the kids top them however they want. When the pizzas come out of the oven, cut them in fours, and they fit perfectly in kiddy hands. Woo hoo! Dinner in twenty minutes! Okay, thirty minutes, because who is ever *that* organized? Plus, there is roasting involved…

Ingredients:

soft taco size flour tortillas (approximately 2 per person)
aged white Cheddar (7 oz. will do about 8 pizzas)
red bell peppers (2 for 8 well-topped pizzas)
crimini mushrooms (2 small packs for 8 well-topped pizzas; or 1 pack of pre-sliced)
fresh thyme
pizza sauce (super simple recipe below)

Super Simple Pizza Sauce:

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 can tomato sauce with a drizzle of olive oil, and 2-3 shakes each of the following spices: minced onion, garlic powder, oregano, and basil. Add 1 tsp. cumin and fresh ground pepper to taste. Mix well and simmer on low until you’re ready to use it. Taste and adjust as necessary.

Guidelines:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Chop the red pepper and quarter the mushrooms. In a baking dish, combine the red peppers and mushrooms with several tablespoons of olive oil and fresh thyme. Toss. Place in oven and roast until the vegetables are softened and fragrant, about 15 minutes.

While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the pizza sauce and “grill” your tortillas. By “grill,” I mean turn on your burner and place the tortillas, one at a time, directly on top. (I used my electric range, and it worked fine.) Grill for a minute or two on each side, or until the tortilla browns and puffs. Set tortillas aside.

Grate the white Cheddar, and set aside some additional fresh thyme leaves.

Once the vegetables are done roasting, and the sauce is hot, you can begin preparing your pizzas. Top each tortilla with your desired amount of sauce, cheese, and vegetables. Bake for 8-10 minutes on a pizza stone or pizza screen (to ensure a crispy crust), or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Remove from oven and top with additional fresh thyme leaves.

Serve with a side salad and you’ve got dinner in a snap!

Project food blog cook-off continues, and has almost wrapped up for the month of April! Which means I have a lot of blogging to do… The fourth recipe I made for the cook-off was Stephan Cooks’ “Perfect Sausage Pizza.” I have to agree with what he said—”the ingredients have to be the best.” I couldn’t get the ingredients he did (fresh Italian sweet sausage from Manhattan’s Little Italy) but I did my best. I made homemade dough (a slightly different version than the one he posts), used “real” mozzarella, fresh basil, and baby grape tomatoes. As for the sausage, I used Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian, which I’ve always enjoyed. I would definitely make this pizza again, using the same methods save one. I would chop the sausage after browning, because the sausage I used is not fresh enough to crumble on its own, and I think I’d like the pizza better with smaller bits of sausage. Otherwise, this is damn good pizza. I love the roasted tomatoes and fresh basil.

Find the full recipe at Stephen Cooks’ food blog. Click here.

I’ve almost perfected my dough making skills. Granted, I often cheat and let the bread maker do most of the work for me, but there is still the task of forming the dough into that perfect pie shape. Which is no easy task, if you ask me. When I first started making my own pizza, I often resorted to the rolling pin to try and work the dough. I’m not sure why this doesn’t work, but I think it has something to do with the elasticity of pizza dough, and the size of the pin. I’d roll in one direction, start going in another, and the dough would spring right back. Infuriating. Eventually, I’d get it stretched, but the dough wouldn’t be round, and it was often full of holes. Sure, it may have tasted the same, but I wanted beauty for goodness sake!

I began thinking about how they stretch the dough in the pizza places. I wasn’t going to throw it in the air like they did (and I’m still not), but I borrowed a few concepts from them. First, when you take you dough to your (floured) workspace, punch the round ball flat. Then, pick up the dough and toss it from hand to hand. You will start to feel it extend. Once the edges of the dough are overlapping your fingertips, grab the dough by the edges with both hands and work the dough while turning it clockwise. It will start to stretch significantly. At this point, I put it back on my floured work surface. It should be relatively circle-like. If not, practice, practice! From here, I work the excess dough in the center toward the edge, using my fist. Again work in a clockwise rotation. This will give you a nice, thick crust all the way around the edge of your pizza, with the classic thinner crust in the middle.

It took me a dozen or two pizzas to figure out this technique, and I was thrilled when I went to make Barbeque Chicken Pizza the other night and my dough came out perfectly. (Fine. Relatively perfect.) There are still a few things I need to do differently, however. I need to use 1.5 lbs. of dough for 1 large pizza. Not 1 lb. Not two. 1.5. I think that’s the magic number. And I need to cook the pizza on the bottom rack of my oven, so I get that crispy crust I like. Then, it truly will be perfect.

Now, go make Barbeque Chicken Pizza, and try your hand and making your own dough.

Barbeque Chicken Pizza

You will need:

1.5 lbs. of your favorite pizza dough
½ bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce
1 lb. cooked chicken, cut into chunks
1 lb. Monterey jack or fontina cheese, grated
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and set oven rack to the bottom. Roll out dough as specified above and place on a large pizza pan. (This particular recipe was made using a metal pizza pan. Adjust your baking time and temperature accordingly if you use stone.) Prebake it for 2-3 minutes, just to help set the crust. Remove dough from oven. Punch down the middle if it rose.

Spread the crust with barbeque sauce. Top with grated cheese.

Toss the chicken chunks with remaining barbeque sauce and spread evenly on top of cheese.

Add diced tomatoes and sliced onions.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and the crust is beginning to brown.

It was a recipe for sausage and broccoli penne that inspired this pizza. I prepared the pasta dish first, and though good, I didn’t care for the heavy cream in the sauce or the texture it created when tossed with the pasta. I’m a lightweight that way. The sausage and broccoli, however, made an excellent combination, so I thought: why not try it on pizza? With a crisp crust and a simple garlic and Parmesan cream sauce. A light garlic and Parmesan cream sauce.

I also played around with the crust a bit. Dough made with white flour felt too, well, white. It was almost tasteless when put up against the toppings. One hundred percent whole wheat dough is too dense and doesn’t roll well, so I made a dough using both wheat and white flour, and it came out just right. You can taste the nuttiness of the wheat, but it’s not like eating a rock.