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Admin
Jul
23
When in doubt, think Pizza
July 23, 2007 |
Gardening is an exercise in optimism. Sometimes,
it is a triumph of hope over experience.
- Marina Schinz
The In Season series is a web diary of the gardening successes and mishaps of two eternally hopeful novices. The ladybug above will lead you to previous posts in the series.
Let’s call a certain someone the ‘Gentleman Farmer’. He spends most evenings and weekends out in the yard. So, after dinner’s cooked and eaten, and the kitchen is getting cleared, I’m thinking, it’s time for a Margarita. I’m pouring myself a drink, when he disappears again. Shortly after, the kitchen counter is littered with strange things. I enquire: ‘What are they? How do you cook them?’.
“I’m not sure. Some kind of squash thing.” As the giant orange things he grew last year will attest, he loves to grow stuff he hasn’t heard about. Then he pops a CF card out of his camera. “It has some nice flowers. I took some pictures.”
I’m thinking, “Whatever the heck it is, we’ll just blanch it and throw it in the freezer.”
What am I thinking? The freezer is so full, I can’t open the door without hard frozen things raining on my toes.
So yeah, we gotta use them in a day or two. Plus there’s the pizza dough sitting in the fridge, ready to explode with the yeast action, ‘cos the freezer is full. With BLANCHED LETTUCE.
Yeah, blanched lettuce. That sordid saga some other day.
Back to Friday night. These were some of the things he plonked on the kitchen counter.
I’ve worked out a formula to deal with strange creatures I’ve never encountered before. It also works with familiar items, when you’re wondering what to fix quickly for dinner.
Put them on pizza dough. Most veggies taste nice on pizza, even eggplant. The only two that not even pizza can redeem are radishes and cabbage.
Crookneck squash is basically zucchini/courgettes with wrinkled skin. It tastes fantastic raw, sprinkled with salt and cayenne powder.
However, we needed to use up that pizza dough.
Basic Formula
Roll out a 12-inch round of pizza dough. We like ours fairly thin.
Prick it with a fork.
Smear it with sauce - no more than 3 or 4 tablespoons.
Top with grilled or sauteed veggies. Neither of us likes raw veggies on pizza.
Grate a smattering of cheese - two to three tablespoons. This step is optional. Cheeseless pizza tastes pretty good to me.
Our favourite cheeses for pizza - Fontina, Provolone, Gruyere, Goat’s Cheese, Boursin, Parmesan, Pecorino Romano, Asiago. No American cheeses. We don’t want bovine growth hormones, thank you very much.
Bake it in a pizza pan placed on a stone at 500F for 10-12 minutes.
The two things that can create a great dinner:
A Wicked Pizza Dough
A good pizza sauce
PIZZA SAUCE
It’s like the Fedex courier person who transports all the flavours. Spice it up. Adding the spices and herbs to the base instead of sprinkling them on top ensures that they do not get burnt while baking.
Things we use:
- Something tomatoey - spicy Indian tomato chutney, pasta sauce, even low-sodium or homemade ketchup works in a pinch.
- Pesto - basil pesto, nut pesto, sundried tomato and olive pesto, whatever you can conjure up in the food processor in a couple of minutes.
- Roasted red peppers in a jar - just puree them with some spices and herbs for a fantastic pizza base. Almonds and/or olives blended in make a creamier, more flavourful sauce. Chopped up roasted red peppers can be added to a pizza instead of sauce. It makes the pizza less soggy.
- For delicate veggies like zucchini and squashes, we like a white sauce, low in fat, and prepared in less than five minutes.
It’s basically a roux.
Roux (IPA: (pronounced like the English word “rue” ) is a mixture of wheat flour and fat. It is the basis of three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: Sauce bechamel, Sauce veloute, and Sauce Espagnole. Butter, vegetable oils, or lard are common fats used. It is used as a base for gravy, other sauces, souffles, soups and stews.
The mixture is cooked by stirring over heat in a pot or pan. The fat is heated first, in the process melting it if necessary, then the flour is added, the mixture is stirred until the flour is incorporated and then cooked until at least the point where a raw flour taste is no longer apparent. The end result is a thickening and flavoring agent. The final results can range from the nearly white to the nearly black, depending on the length of time it is over the heat, and its intended use.
The usual rule for a roux is 1:1 flour to fat. We make a very low-fat version, and it works out fine.
GUILT-FREE WHITE PIZZA SAUCE
For one 12-inch pizza,
Fry 1 tablespoon all purpose flour in one teaspoon butter until it loses its raw smell. Add your spices. For this pizza, we used salt and cayenne (chilli) powder. Heat 1/3 cup milk in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the hot milk to the roux and whisk until there are no lumps and the sauce thickens considerably. In a few minutes, it will reduce to three or four tablespoons.
Put your fresh herbs in a microwave safe bowl and zap them on HIGH for 15 seconds to “wake” them up a bit. Add them to the sauce. You can add roasted/raw garlic, dried herbs, whatever you prefer.
We used pineapple sage and rosemary. Okay, the Pineapple Sage was my doing. I couldn’t resist the heady aroma when I smelt it in the nursery.
For this pizza, we chopped three 6-inch crookneck squashes into rings. We grilled them just until the pieces got grillmarks on one side. When the oven was pre-heating, we put in 1.5 cups sliced red onions and 4 garlic cloves to roast. Took them out after about 20 minutes, chopped up the garlic and added it to the sauce.
Smeared sauce on the wholewheat base, layered it with the onions, then the squash. Topped with 3 tablespoons grated Fontina cheese. Baked at 500 F for 11-12 minutes. Served with white wine.
Excellent. But then, we’ve never met a pizza we didn’t like.
- Bee
We’re sending this Guilt-Free White Pizza Sauce to Andrew @ Spittoon Extra for Waiter, There’s Something In My ….. Sauce.
Related posts
crookneck-squash, Dairy/Cheese, GARDENING, Onion/Shallot, pineapple-sage, pizza, Pumpkin/Squash, roasted-garlic, Rosemary, Sage, vegetarian recipes, Wheat, white-sauce
Garlic
I would have bowled with those veggies as pins ;). I’m still perplexed about you not liking to live in that home. J seems to having fun there.
i love them, the crookneck squashes
ah! and this indeed is the (promised) fantabulous zucchini/squash post. am floored
Do you blanch all the veggies before freezing?
except peas, yes. the peas will be used up very soon. maybe you need to blanch them as well. :-) not sure. basically things with a lot of moisture need to be blanched, mainly greens. - b.
Mouthwatering! Ever since you guys sent me pictures of yourself I have been dying to meet you in person and now I see this pizza and hope that when we meet you’ll be making this one!! LOL! Bee, Jai, I loved this post. Eating vegies from ones own garden is 100% more flavorful then from a store. Thanks for allowing us to share this!
The canadian Geese are looking so gorgeous I felt very bad you cut them and then BAKED them with the Pizza
Get that wicked pizza dough recipe out fast!!
Those canadian geese are beautiful!
wow. thats all
PS - that sage is beautiful!
I was laughing at the canadian geese label, it was so apt… they really are looking like geese… yah yah cant wait for the pizza dough recipe…
hey i wanted to say too that roux for a pizza sauce is a really good idea, i cant wait to try it out, thank you!
Delicious!!! A pizza with veggies from the garden..!!
That must be tasting heaven
Even I don’t like raw vegetables on my pizza. Check out http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2007/07/french-bread-pizza.html
:-)
This looks lovely and so appetizing!!
I always get to see and learn something new every time from your posts :)This crookneck squash is looking pretty and the pizza is superb. You store pizza dough in the fridge/freezer ? For how many days does it stay fresh ?
Post the recipe of the wicked pizza dough soon
it lasts for a couple months atleast. we use it up much before that, so i’m not sure. - b.
The squash looks like beautiful swans or should I say geese,swaying out their slender necks..beautiful.Pizza with squash?I will try when you get that pizza dough recipe out of your fridge into your post.:)
You just gave me a brilliant idea
wow squash look so beautifull! brillaiant idea for pizzas
A really lovely post. The geese are so graceful!
Great posts
love the yellow squash
the geese and the pizza
Hey guys this is not fair, come on share some of that unconventional pizza stuff. Watch out the pizza police is after you!!
How come Meeta is so lucky to have seen you in pictures?
What about me?
Love all your posts and Jai sure have a bigger green thumb than me. Any time sharing your gardening tips?
Hey same as Pintoo…what about me…:(…
not able to say which is more beautiful…the flowers look so perfect…like an art and the veggie…no word to explain…pizza of course goes to say i am a lover of pizza..so you can give me anything by the name of pizza…
Srivalli
http://www.cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com
hey same as pintoo and srivalli, what about me toooo… next post should be yur pics…pleeeeeeeeeez
)
(or I wont send you what I promised to send you…
you have an amazing veggie garden I suppose. that pizza looks beautiful.
Ok I am reeling in the aftermath of Harry Potter 7…and suddenly ‘Crookneck Squash’ sounds like it could be the name of a character from the books (Crookneck squash –Goblin at Gringotts or Crookneck Squash — department-of-pulling-stuck-wizards-out-of-muggle-sewers)
Goodlooking Pizza! Love the idea of using roux for sauce
what a happy geese family that is
looks more like a swan family to me 
my zuchini is taking it’s own sweet time…. but then .. Gardening is an exercise in optimism 
They do look like beautiful colorful swans!:))
Great sauce for that event.I made one,realized that it’s not “sauce”!!Oh well…there is always another event!;D
Pizza of course is loaded with meat for us,enjoy the veggies one too.
I love roasted veggies on pizza - i love roasted veggies *full stop*. The pizza looks lovely and loved the one about the squashes looking like geese…
The pics look so beautiful… and the recipe is also so different with the squash and the sauces…. thanks for sharing… will try it out sometime…
That flowers are so beautiful. That pizza looks yummy and delicious. i want to try this. Thanks for sharing.
I am so happy to see the “guilt free” on ur pizza dish …very satisfactory for dieters….and very convincing to serve..hey those canadian geese snaps are really awesome…different perspective of looking at veggies *_*
After all your produce…you still want to move to the city and live in an apartment ?
wow!!!! this looks like such a healthy treat! bee n Jai you have got a green thumb, I have some tulsi seeds from india, Im scared to even touch them ,worried if i plant them will they sprout….
ah ah ! nice photos.. hmm pizza is my all time fav. different with the squash and the sauces. I know only regular pizza…..i will try definitely
You can start a Pizza series with all yr…. ahh.. what can I say ..wierd? innovations… I enjoy reading them all
Bee and Jai,
Simply superb. Love the pictures (especially Canadian Geese), and your writeup was so delightful to read. Can’t wait for the next installment of In Season.
The pizza looks great, and you are right, I have never met one that I didn’t like yet. Some are best friends, and others simply acquaintances, but no enemies.
Kanch
You guys are just amazing! Can’t wait for the wicked pizza dough recipe!
I love pizza and this is great and yes any veggie tastes good with pizaa.nice post.
Jai- I love yellow crooknecks! My grandmother always grew them, but now I only see them once in awhile in the farmers’ markets. If you let them ripen totally until pumpkin season, they can be dried like other gourds I believe- the “warts” become more pronounced as they grow.
Bee- great pizza-making tips. You make it sound like a quick, easy meal to make!
thanks pelicano, the plant is going bonkers up to now…so i’ll let 2 or 3 mature over time and keep plucking the rest. –jai
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