• Great summer pizza ideas

    Posted on June 22nd, 2010 Saver Queen 8 comments

    When I wrote my post, “On the Bruce,” what I didn’t say is that when I came home from my second Bruce trail trek, I came home famished, and was able to satisfy a great craving for pizza in less than 15 minutes. I’ve written before about how to make pizza in batches and freeze it (I actually wrote about batch cooking in general, but it generated a lengthy discussion in the comments section on pizza, specifically.) Pizza is not hard to make, but there are lots of tips to make it even easier. In addition to cooking in batches and freezing the pizzas, you can also save time by prepping the ingredients at once. If you have a busy week coming up, prep a bunch of veggies and cheese in advance, and then assemble when you’re ready to eat. If you make spaghetti sauce, preserve some for your pizza - or make a roasted garlic puree. ( I’ve mentioned before that I love roasted garlic puree as an alternative to pizza sauce.) It will last in the fridge for days.  You can also make up a full pizza, cover, and refrigerate for a day or so.  The pizza doesn’t need to be baked immediately. This can be a handy trick, especially if you’re cooking for company or planning ahead for days when you have almost no time to cook. The day I wrote, “On the Bruce,” I came home to do just that - bake a pizza that I had sitting in the fridge.  It turned out to be one of my finest creations yet:

    Portabello mushrooms, zucchini, rosemary, roasted garlic puree, and a blend of real parmesan and mozzarella (heavy on the parm).  Gorgerous.

    Simple pizzas can taste really good, too. I recently made a pizza with my own spaghetti sauce, mozerella and lots of fresh basil.  Perfect opportunity to use the basil from my herb garden.

    I noticed that my sister recently tweeted about some pizza toppings she likes, and thought I’d share them with you too, because they sound damn good:

    1. Carmelized Vidalia onions, heirloom tomatoes, artisan proscuitto, fresh mozzarella, baby arugula, fresh basil & homemade sauce
    2. Sauteed green garlic, wild mushrooms & sausage w fresh mozzarella and homemade tomato sauce.
    3. Benedictine blue cheese, carmelized Vidalia onions, proscuitto & homemade fig jam.

    Sounds great! What I love about pizzas is that you can be totally creative, often using what is sitting around in your fridge and pantry.  I love that a delicious pizza can be made out of very little, and that cheap ingredients - herbs, onions, garlic - can go so far in adding amazing flavour.

    What is your favourite homemade pizza idea?

    Recipes
     

    8 responses to “Great summer pizza ideas”

    1. Michelle June 23rd, 2010 at 12:40

      We generally go with pizzas on tandoori bread. The toppings are pretty standard fare as follows: tomato sauce, mozza/cheddar cheese blend, mixed coloured peppers, vidalia onion, hot peppers for me and son, olives for husband and daughter, and usually we have leftover BBQ chicken breast floating around that everyone LOVES added to pizzas. Oh, and turkey pepperoni too. Pop them in the oven (tried on the BBQ, but didn’t cook quite right) and bam, relatively homemade pizzas ready in 20 mins or less. I’m not a good dough/pastry maker, so I admit defeat and go with the whole wheat tandoori bread as my default. The rest is all me right? :-)

    2. E June 24th, 2010 at 11:31

      I’m not as imaginative or diligent as you are SQ (or any of the others on here). My pizza craving is satisfied with some store bought pita bread (I do hate the Superstore pita bread but alas beggers can’t be choosy), canned pizza sauce, pre-packaged shredded cheese, diced onions and green olives. It’s boring compared to what I’ve been reading on here, but when I throw into a toaster oven, it’s ready in 5 minutes. :D Thin and cripsy pizza that’s yummy in the tummy.

    3. Catherine June 24th, 2010 at 15:22

      Just made pizza on Sunday - hubby loves it - so thought it apropos for Father’s Day. He loves ‘meat lover’ - yuk! So I used pepperoni, crispy bacon, fried hamburger (would have used spicy sausage…but the best before date was Saturday - what’s with that?) mushrooms, pepper, onion, goat cheese, mozz. cheese. I usually roast garlic…but has anyone else noticed that garlic these days is terrible? I usually use tomato paste with added oregano and basil.
      Here’s my crust recipe. You can put this in the fridge and make the pizza later. And, you can make up the pizza as SQ suggests and put it in the freezer. I actually made one pizza on Sunday. Wrapped the leftover dough in saran. Then the next day just made a cheese roll to serve with soup that night.

      Set oven for 450F if baking right away.

      Put in bowl:
      1/2 cup warm water
      2 pkg. quick rise yeast
      1 tablespoon honey
      Mix
      Add:
      3 tablespoons olive oil
      Mix
      Add:
      3 cups flour (I use bread flour)one cup at a time
      Add:
      2 teaspoons salt
      Knead 10 minutes. I use my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook.
      Add a bit more warm water to get to right consistency.
      Put 1 tablespoon olive oil into large bowl. Swirl with hand all over inside.
      Make dough into a ball - put in bowl turning it over and over so all coated.
      Cover bowl with a damp towel.
      Rest 30 minutes.

      Cut dough in half - there is enough for 2 pizzas on cookie sheets
      You can sprinkle sheets with corn meal - but, my family likes it without.

      Roll dough out to approximate size of sheet.
      Stretch to fit. Put on sauce and toppings.
      You can brush the edge with olive oil.

      Bake at 450F for 15 minutes.

      Enjoy!

    4. E June 25th, 2010 at 09:03

      @Catherine: If you’re able to, maybe check out organic garlic. I have bought it a couple times and noticed it lasts much longer than the Superstore stuff. I don’t know why, but it just doesn’t sprout as quickly. Maybe it tastes better too. It could be that the organic stuff maybe more local than the other which comes from China, and much like Mandarin oranges around X-mas, likely sits in warehouses overseas for a while then shipped in containers over the sea.

    5. Catherine June 25th, 2010 at 14:11

      Thanks for the idea E! I’ll look for it.
      There is also a shop on the way to London, ON called something like ‘The Garlic Bulb’ so next time hubby heads that way I want him to stop and check it out.

    6. Christine June 28th, 2010 at 16:23

      That first pizza sounds awesome. Love Vidalia onions. I bought books on pizza and batch freezing. Unfortunately, I’ve had them for 2 years and have yet to make a pizza to eat. :0

      Maybe its something i could put on my summer-do list.

    7. Catherine June 28th, 2010 at 17:01

      I’m probably way behind the rest of you…but I just found out that Fleishman’s has a yeast for making pizza dough. When you stretch it out in the pan - it doesn’t spring back. Had to travel to the city to buy it…but I had a 50 cent coupon off - and now I can’t wait to try it. Anyone out there use it? I always buy special bread flour to make my dough as well.
      Also….one of the girls at work this a.m. said that her very favourite pizza is bruchetta pizza. Never thought of it! Wouldn’t that be delish? I’m going to try it next time.

    8. Benjamin Bankruptcy June 28th, 2010 at 20:35

      E - the best way I’ve found to store garlic is to roast it, make it into a paste and then set it ice cube trays or, mince it really well and mix it with vinegar (like a garlic pickle)

      Personally my favourite cheap friday night pizza is a potato and rosemary!

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