Green Tomato Pine Nut Pizza

I love pizza night. Tall Cool One loves pizza, as long as it doesn’t have anchovies on it. I think you can put anything you want on a pizza. This one was especially flavorsome.

Whip up your own pizza crust or buy one of those pre-made ones. Whip up your own pizza sauce or buy a jar of pre-made.

Pizza Toppings
1 cup pizza sauce
¾ cup mozzarella cheese
¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp pine nuts
15-20 slices pepperoni
2 small green tomatoes, sliced

Pizza Crust

2½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp Italian seasoning

½ tsp garlic powder

1 package (1½ tsp.) active dry yeast

¾ cup hot water (120º-103º)

1 TBSP oil

In a large bowl combine ¾ cup flour, seasoning, garlic powder and yeast; blend well. Mix hot water and oil together and combine with flour mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened then mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add ¾ cup flour to form stiff dough.

On floured surface, kneed in ¼ - ½cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic (3-5 minutes). Place dough in greased bowl, twirling around to coat; cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place (80º-85º) for 30-40 minutes or until double in size.

Punch dough down several times to remove all air bubbles. Pat or roll out on pizza stone to form crust. Let rest for 10 minutes before adding toppings.

Pizza Sauce
½ cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium tomato, chopped
6 oz tomato paste
8 oz tomato sauce
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil leaves
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until tender; add remaining ingredients and simmer on low for 30 minutes being sure to stir often. Cool before spreading on pizza dough.

Preheat oven to 400º. Spread sauce on dough, top with cheeses, pine nuts, pepperoni and sliced green tomato. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning. Bake at 400º for 23-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before slicing.

© Crackerberries 2009

Thin Crust Pizza

Usually when we make pizza together I do the crust and Tall Cool One cuts up the veggies and finds anything and everything that we have leftover to go on it. For some reason, (full moon?) the crust wasn't working for me this time so Tall Cool One rolled out the dough and I did the topping search. (Let me just say, when he gets the toppings, it's way better than mine). You wanna talk about a loaded pizza... you should try one of his. NO ANCHOVIES, please.



However, once we starting eating this one, there was just something different about the crust. Like one of those thin crust pizza's you get at Pizza Hut, but way better. I found later that Tall Cool One added his own twist to the recipe. Here it is:
THIN PIZZA CRUST

2½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp garlic powder
1 pkg .(1½ tsp.) active dry yeast
¾ cup hot water (120º-103º)
1 TBSP oil

In a large bowl combine ¾ cup flour, seasoning, garlic powder and yeast. Blend well. Mix hot water and oil together and combine with flour mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened then mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add ¾ cup flour to form stiff dough.

On floured surface, kneed in ¼ - ½cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic (3-5 minutes). Place dough in greased bowl, twirling around to coat; cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place (80º-85º) four 30-40 minutes or until double in size.

Preheat oven to 400º. Place pizza stone in oven to preheat.

Punch dough down several times to remove all air bubbles. Roll out the dough (or toss in the air…whatever your preference) to form large pizza pie circle; this is when the trick comes in… as Tall Cool One was rolling and pressing the dough out, he added another ½ cup of flour to the dough. It is a good idea to do this on a large cutting board or other movable surface so that you can just flip it on to the pizza stone when you are ready to add the toppings.

After you have added the sauce (this is another recipe), cheeses and any other toppings, bake in oven for 18-25 minutes. Let cool about 5 minutes before cutting.
© Crackerberries 2009