In Which There is Sauce and Toppings

New plan: because I like blogs that have some type of theme or purpose, I've decided I'm going to try to make a thing every day, and then write about it.  This thing may be a drawing, a humorous essay, a comic, a small sculpture of a penguin holding a single rose, an original song, a heartfelt recommendation, or a short story.  This is Day One, the first step in a journey of unknown length and destination.

Our journey begins, as all journeys do, with pizza.


Food never photographs well on my camera, so you're just going to have to take my word for it that this was delicious.

I make pizza from scratch with some regularity.  It's a great way to help clear out the vegetable drawer, and as long as some form of cheese can be uncovered, a satisfying and relatively quick dinner.  Here is my standard process:

1.  Make crust.  I use this recipe, which I'd recommend.  In this case, I doubled it, sprinkled some garlic powder on top, and baked it a bit before adding sauce, because otherwise it can be soggy.
2.  While your dough is proofing/resting/baking, make sauce.  Strain a can of diced tomatoes and run it through a food processor for a while.* Add a ton of raw chopped garlic, and then basil, oregano, and salt to taste.  (It's best with fresh chopped basil, but the dry stuff works okay, too.)
3.  Make veggie toppings: Saute onions, green peppers, and chopped broccoli in about a tablespoon of oil.  When the onions are nice and soft-looking, add the chopped mushrooms.  In a frying pan, mushrooms tend to act like little sponges, so if you need to add moisture, pour in a bit of hot water.**  When the mushrooms are nicely browned, throw in a good portion of chopped spinach.  Keep stirring until the spinach is wilted, but still a nice green color.  There's no need to cook the life out of it; the whole thing is going into the oven anyway.
4.  Optional (this was the first time I'd done it) meat toppings: Saute onions, green peppers until soft.  Add leftover chopped bratwurst***, and saute a bit more.
5.  Assemble pizza.  I used cheddar and feta cheese; it's never a given we're going to have mozzarella at hand, so you have to be a little flexible****.  As you can see in the picture, I prefer to mound the toppings on my half until that the pizza beneath it is barely visible and each bite is nearly as much vegetable as crust, but of course everyone has their own preferences.
6.  Bake at 450 until the cheese is melted and the toppings are a bit browned.


*If you have canned crushed tomatoes, they actually work a bit better, and you don't need to food process them.  Sadly, we don't keep any stocked in the co-op.  We tried to order some from our local bulk supplier once, and they sent us several giant cans of a terrifyingly uniform slop, halfway between tomato sauce and tomato paste.  The label insisted these were crushed tomatoes, so either there was a wacky mix-up at the local tomato cannery, or Gordon Food Services and I just don't see eye-to-eye on the definitions of basic words.


**Yes, the remaining oil will probably bubble/hiss/go a little nuts, but in my opinion, mushrooms retain their flavor better, and have a superior texture, when cooked in water.  The same thing goes for adding spinach to something, except you generally don't even need to bother with extra water.  Hat tip to former roommate Jenny Flack for putting me straight.

***I became a vegetarian, then learned how to cook.  I've got no regrets on either, but if I had it to do over again, I'd probably go the other way 'round, because now I have no idea how to prepare meat.  I'd originally made the bratwurst for a party this Sunday, and it was an experience best described as "harrowing."  I mean, under-cook vegetables, and they're a little crunchy; under-cook meat, and you and your loved ones could get food poisoning.  Also, I felt weird frying something that gave off fat as it fried.  In my experience, grease is something you add to the pan so that nothing gets burnt, not a sweaty byproduct produced by the very act of cooking.  The whole thing was so unfamiliar, it felt more like preparing alien food.  Also, sausage is generally a weird-looking thing, all splotchy and grub-shaped.  They smelled great, though, I'll admit it.  There, omnivores, are you happy now?


****I'm wondering now if the soggy crust factor could be eliminated by layering things Chicago-style--that is, cheese first, and then sauce.  Something to consider for next time, I suppose.  (As though I needed reasons to make more pizza...)