Thursday, October 18, 2007

Zucchini-feta pizza

I don't have much else to say so I will just tell you about some food I made over the weekend. I wish I had some of it right now.

Zucchini-feta pizza with pine nuts and basil

Before you start, heat your oven to 375 degrees.

The crust
1 c very warm water
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5 c all-purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt

Mix water, yeast, sugar and oil. Add all-purpose flour and stir to make a "sponge" - meaning, let the yeast bubble up before you go to the next step. Which is adding the whole wheat flour and salt. Stir it in - soon it will be easier to oil up your hands and knead it a bit. This is enough dough for two thin pizza crusts. If you are only making one pizza (using the amounts I am giving below), save half the dough in the freezer for next time.

The pizza
2 small or 1 large zucchini, sliced very thin (use a mandoline if you can)
salt
2 tsp chopped fresh basil
Black pepper
1/3 c pine nuts
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese

Lay the sliced zucchini out in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and let it sit. When you see moisture beading up on the surface, blot it off (I used a paper towel). This keeps the zucchini from expelling all its water when you cook it and causing your crust to get soggy.

Now arrange the zucchini slices nicely on the pizza crust. Sprinkle with basil and pepper, then pine nuts and feta.

Bake it at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

Incidentally, when I did this Friday night, I used the other half of the dough to make a plain cheese pizza for the kids with leftover marinara sauce (no meat). Good solution for the pickypoos.

Also incidentally, do you think it would be a good idea if I made a separate category for vegetarian recipes? Would you use it?

6 comments:

Caroline said...

sounds great!

SalGal said...

Dude, you got my message about Dec. 21st, right?

Kristine said...

I always like to see what's cooking at your house...although some of the ingredients aren't sold anywhere near here (podunkville). I would vote for leaving them here.

Oh, and you might be interested in this site: www.cuisinenie.blogspot.com
She's got a lot in her June archives, and my mouth waters reading her recipes.

Unknown said...

Kristine I KNOW you can get pine nuts (pinons) - if not at the store, then organize an expedition to get them wild! And feta is in almost every grocery store now. If you weren't looking for it you might not find it ... but I bet you could. I just get my pine nuts and feta at Costco - they are not that fancy!

If not you could use any soft or crumbly cheese - maybe a cotija would be good?

Thanks for the blog reference; I will have to check it out!

Sally, I did not in fact get your msg ... I will try to remember to call you later.

Kristine said...

My kids were so excited to learn that pinons grow in the wild here. There are some right across the street, in fact.
And yes, I have seen feta around...I'm just not too fond of the taste in salads (which is how I have had it in the past).
I was actually thinking about some of the past recipes that you have posted...like the edamame, the thai seasonings and the pickled ginger...but I may well be wrong. Albertsons has quite a variety of things to choose from, and we've actually got a specialty shop in town..."The Curious Kumquat" and they would special order anything in I wanted. I guess I've just dismissed getting the ingredients because of the "difficulty" I associate with it. (No Trader Joe's nearby!) And holy cow, just making dinner at this point is a good thing for me...heaven forbid I have to actually THINK about it!
Again, I still vote for your recipes to be here. Maybe someday I'll get really brave.

Unknown said...

Later note: I did this again with whole wheat tortillas instead of pizza crust. It worked great and cut most of the prep time!