There is a slight risk that our little blog will descend into an exclusively pizza and ice-cream affair, hold on... what's wrong with that exactly?! We've been experimenting with lots of new flavours and combinations on both fronts recently, and generally having an excellent time doing so! This Friday night was no exception with a delightful new veggie pizza as a result. The added bonus of this week's experiment was that we used some leftover pizza dough from the freezer. We were a little concerned that maybe we wouldn't achieve the same lightness as with a fresh dough but largely our fears weren't realised.
By now you should be familiar with the slightly unorthodox way we like to cook our pizzas in order to try to capture that pizza oven crispiness (what, you're not? Well you better check out this post to find out more!) To this we've added our specially homemade pesto, a lovely tomato sauce, roasted aubergines and courgettes, a few sundried tomatoes and a generous helping of Lactofree cheese. Now here's how you do it...
So, follow our original post for the pizza dough recipe as well as the low down on the cooking methodology. Top tip: the longer you leave the dough to prove, the better it gets! We usually leave it for at least 8 hours, so we'll knock up some dough before going off to work. Once you've got your dough ready to go, and have made a nice light tomato sauce, fry some thinly sliced aubergine and courgette (around half an aubergine and half a courgette will do nicely, in 8-10 slices) in a little olive oil. Then it's time to make some pesto. We've been working on this recipe for a while, flexing it to precisely the requirements of the recipe (sometimes runnier, sometimes a bit thicker). Start by toasting a handful (around 10-15g) pinenuts either in a pre-heated oven for 5-7 minutes or in a frying pan, until they start to change colour. Bash 15g fresh basil in a pestle and mortar (removing any stalks), add in one clove crushed garlic and the pinenuts and bash some more! Add in a tiny pinch of salt and enough extra virgin olive oil to get a runny consistency (suitable for spreading on a pizza base).
Now, for construction. Roll your pizza dough out to a circle that will fit in your frying pan. Get the frying pan nicely hot and toss in your base. Cook for 3-4 minutes then remove the pan from the heat temporarily to give yourself enough time to add the toppings. Firstly, spread the pizza base with pesto, then add the tomato sauce. Scatter with the roasted vegetables and 6-8 sundried tomatoes before adding the around 150g grated Lactofree cheese. Put the pan back on the heat and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Place the pan under a pre-heated grill and cook for 5-7 minutes until the cheese bubbles. Serve with a green salad and a nice glass of wine.