Friday, January 1, 2010

Vegetable Pizza


I recently bought a 10-inch pizza pan. I was really excited to try it but when I got home, I realised that it doesn't fit into my abysmally tiny oven. It does, however, fit into the convection oven. Now, going in, I already know pizzas are not meant to be baked in convection ovens. Convection ovens are not able to bake the bottom of the pizza to a crisp, which is terribly important. Having pizzas on my mind though, I thought I'd just give it a try.

Well, the pizza turned out alright. The bottom was, as expected, slightly under-baked. Next time, I'll put aside the pizza pan and just bake directly on my baking sheet in the conventional oven.

This recipe makes 1 15-inch pizza.

Ingredients:
-- Pizza dough --
3/4 teaspoon Instant yeast ; scant
1/2 cup Cold water
3/4 tablespoons Corn oil
1/2 tablespoon Sugar
1/12 teaspoon Garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/8 teaspoon Dry oregano leaves
1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
-- Topping --
1/2 cup marinara sauce
1 tablespoons parmesan ; grated
1/2 cups mozzarella ; grated
1 1/2 canned pineapple slices ; washed of their syrup and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 Canned mushrooms stems and pieces ; coarsely chopped
1/4 small Green pepper
1/2 Yellow onion

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients with about half of the flour, beating to a smooth batter. With a sturdy spoon work in remaining flour until you can toss it lightly on a floured surface and knead it until it feels elastic in texture.

Place it in an oiled bowl and roll around. Cover and leave until it rise to double in bulk, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 230°C. When dough has doubled, punch it down and shape it to fit pizza pan that have been greased and dusted in cornmeal.

Spoon the marinara sauce over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border around each pizza. Sprinkle the cheeses over the sauce. Arrange the pineapple pieces in a single layer over the cheeses. Sprinkle with the mushroom, pepper and onion. Bake the pizza until the crusts are crisp and brown on the bottom and the cheese is melted on top, about 12 minutes. Cut the pizza into wedges and serve immediately.


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