No-name pizza

I had an odd craving for pizza yesterday. I don't normally crave something like that, but I've been eating so much soup and stew-like meals lately that I probably just wanted to eat something with my hands. (I could try that with my soup, but it would not end well.) Since I don't have a go-to takeout option like some siblings do, I decided to make my own and headed to the Italian market to get some fixings. I didn't really have a clear idea of what I wanted to make, and some of the ingredients that I bought didn't even make it on the pizza*, so it's a miracle that it ended up being even remotely edible.

Pizza


I made the pizza dough recipe from the Williams-Sonoma cookbook "Eating by Color" that B gave me for xmas. This one called for active dry yeast instead of instant and needed a bit more time for rising (compared to the previous recipe that I used), but the result was quite good. Next time I'll try adding some herbs to the dough -- or perhaps infusing the olive oil with aromatics. Plus, I'll try to roll it out even thinner (although that's tough when the dough wants to contract back into a ball).

When I was at the market I saw an interesting jar of hot eggplant spread, and decided to use it instead of making a tomato sauce. Luckily I tried it first, since one small bit on my tongue caused my eyes to water. The flavour was good though, so I just diluted the heat with some tomato paste and smeared it on. I topped that with some minced shallots and sliced onions, followed by some mushrooms that were hanging around in the fridge. I had picked up some dry cured chorizo from the market, but since I am still dealing with the fallout of the xmas season (yes thighs, I'm looking at you) I just sliced up about a third of one sausage and added some ham instead. (Not a lean alternative, but I'm trying to finish it off -- and the two pork based toppings almost qualifies this as a Chief Wiggums special.) I finished it off with some sauteed kale and freshly ground pepper and stuck it in the over @ 475 for 12 minutes. I grated just a tad of parmesan on the top when it came out of the oven, and served it up. The result? Not bad. It didn't end up being overly spicy, so next time I'd up the amount of hot eggplant spread on the base and try mixing up the veggies and meat on top. Perhaps a seafood variant?

* This included some kalamata olives that I bought at the market. I should've tried one first, but I've become complacent with my olive selection lately. They were so bad that they're headed for the bin. That'll teach me to cheat on my little Greek corner store ;-)