Socca Pizza & Keeping Cool

Hey hey. I hope everyone is keeping cool, wherever you may be. From the looks of it most of the country is experiencing some pretty toasty weather. I honestly can’t really complain because I drive to work, work in an office with AC and have AC at home. But if you don’t have those luxuries in this heat wave, I suggest you go jump in a body of water and then eat an ice cream cone, k?

Last night for dinner I made some Socca. Don’t know what it is? It’s pretty much a bread made with chickpea flour. This was my second attempt at making it, the first was a complete failure, and I’d say I’ve almost figured it out. In any case, it was mighty delicious topped with Italian seasoned diced tomatoes, goat cheese and fresh Basil.

{Socca}

• 3/4 chickpea flour
• 3/4 c water
• 2 T olive oil (I used only 2 t which may have contributed to the slight pan stickage I encountered)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Oil round cake pan very well.

Mix chickpea flour, water and olive oil with a wire whisk. Pour batter into round pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes until cracks form on top.

Carefully remove from pan by running knife along edges then flipping pan onto another plate. (Hopefully yours doesn’t stick!)

Serves 1-2

Like I said, I topped mine with tomatoes, goat cheese and fresh basil. I stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes to warm the tomatoes and cheese. Aside from the Socca being a bit under seasoned (next time I’ll add a touch of salt and perhaps some herbs), it was delicious! It had a bit of chew yet crumbled and held up to the toppings when sliced.

To celebrate my mostly successful Socca making attempt, I whipped up some banana soft serve.

I’m sure most know what banana soft serve is and how it’s made but if you don’t, it’s simply frozen chunks of ripe bananas pureed in the food processor until they achieve a soft-serve like consistency. It’s easy, tasty and the perfect solution for a lazy girl who wants ice cream but doesn’t want to go get it.

Plop some fresh berries on top and you have a cheap, frosty dessert to enjoy while watching:

I’m not ashamed.

Have you ever made/had Socca before? How did you prepare/eat it?

Pesto, Provolone & Egg Pizza

This is without a doubt the best pizza that has ever come out of my kitchen. It’s simple. It’s fresh. It uses few ingredients. And most importantly, it’s unlike any pizza I’ve made before. And by that I mean I’ve never had eggs on my pizza before.

My participation in Foodbuzz's Tastemaker program earned me the opportunity to receive a free dozen of Eggland's Best eggs. A coupon was delivered to my mailbox with the request that I produce an original recipe using the eggs. Though I don’t eat or make a ton of egg-based dishes, I was eager to come up with something.

When I decided to add the eggs to a pizza I realized I really didn’t want to make a pizza with a tomato sauce base. I remembered this pesto I recently picked up at the SOWA Open Market by Pestos With Panache. I figured it would make an excellent eggcellent (sorry) addition to my egg-topped pizza.

I started by making the pizza dough:

• 2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c cornmeal
• 1 envelope Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast
• 3/4 t salt
• 1 c very warm water (120 to 130 degrees)
• 2 T olive oil
• cornmeal for dusting pizza stone

Combine 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup cornmeal, undissolved yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Stir very warm water and olive oil into flour mixture. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4 to 6 minutes.

Roll dough into ball. Shape to fit desired pan/pizza stone. Bake crust at 400 for 10 minutes. Carefully remove from oven and top with:

• 4 T pesto, spread in thin even layer
• 5-6 slices of provolone cheese

Return to oven for another 8 minutes. Carefully remove again and crack 1 egg in each quadrant of the pizza (4 eggs total). VERY carefully return pizza to oven and cook for another 4 minutes until eggs are set. You could reduce this to just a couple of minutes if you like a runny egg.

Let pizza cool for a few minutes. Cut into 8 slices. Enjoy!

Chicken Spinach-Artichoke [Dip] Pizza & GIVEAWAY Winner

First off, my apologies.

The giveaway DID end on February 15th (Tuesday) but I completely forgot to choose a winner. Well, I did just ‘select’ a winner using random.org:

And the winner is:

Joanne! Send me your address girlie and your Green Giant Prize Package compliments of MyBlogSpark will be on its way!

Tonight’s pizza (pizza on Friday night is pretty much a ritual of mine) was inspired by whatever I could find in the refrigerator. My two starting ingredients: Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (previously frozen because it’s so great I stock up) and a chicken breast.

After scouring (and throwing out too many expired condiments – I’m such a hoarder) the fridge shelves, I found some leftover Spinach-Artichoke (from Valentine’s Day dinner) and immediately knew this was going to be part of my pizza. The dip was home-made, though not by me (yes – by my Valentine !), so I can’t provide you with the recipe but it was cheesy and delicious.

I won’t give a recipe (because I didn’t really make anything per say) but basically my pizza was:

1/2 ball of TJ’s WW Pizza Dough

1/4 Spinach and Artichoke dip (warmed from fridge for maximum spreadablity – totally a made-up word)

1 sm. can of mushrooms, drained (what can I say, sometimes I’m a lazy girl… and canned ‘shrooms don’t have the “Earth-funk” taste that fresh do, IMO)

~ 1/4 Part-Skim Mozzarella, shredded

~6 oz Chicken Breast, cooked and shredded

Garlic Powder (optional, I cooked my chicken with it)

Onion Powder (optional, see above)

Flour for dusting, my pizza peel, my hands and my “rolling pin” aka empty wine bottle (cleaned to remove hair and dust bunnies)

Pile it all on rolled out dough. Dip then chicken, ‘shrooms. Top with cheese. Bake on pizza stone (optional) pre-heated to 425 degrees in oven.

Serves 1-2

Happy Friday (and long weekend if you are so lucky) and here’s a question, what has your ‘most innovative’ pizza topping ever been?

Thai Chicken Pizza

I will sum up this pizza in one word: addicting. The kind of addicting where you’re full after eating two slices but go on to eat two more. Even after that, you’ll still be thinking about this pizza before you go to sleep. Anxiously waiting for lunch time tomorrow to eat the leftovers.

You may even think to yourself (albeit briefly) “carrots aren’t so bad… when they are on top of an incredible cheesy, peanutty, pile of delicious". Yes, it’s true. My carrot-hating self didn’t even mind them on this pizza. I may have even enjoyed the crunch of them. Just a tiny bit.

Thai Chicken Pizza (adapted from allrecipes.com)

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

• 2/3 cup warm water (120 degrees F)  
• 1 packet pizza yeast
• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tsp sugar

Pizza Sauce

• 3 tablespoons RF peanut butter 
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons lower sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame chili oil
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons honey

Pizza Topping

• 1 boneless chicken breast half, cooked and sliced into thin strips
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 small fresh green chile pepper, finely chopped  
• 4 green onions, diced
• 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
• 1 carrot, peeled and grated
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Make pizza dough according to yeast packet directions. I used a package of pizza dough yeast which does not require time to let dough rise. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Roll out or press dough on a floured surface. Place on lightly oiled pizza pans (I actually cooked my pizza on a pizza stone but use your preferred method).
4. To make the peanut sauce, place peanut butter, rice vinegar, and soy sauce in a bowl. Add chili oil, ginger, and honey; whisk until smooth.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken, sesame seeds, paprika, chile peppers, salt, and 3 tablespoons of the peanut sauce. Mix until the chicken is evenly coated. Spread the remaining peanut sauce evenly over pizza dough. Top with chicken, green onions, and cheese.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned. Garnish with carrots and cilantro.

Butternut Squash Naan Pizza

Aka “brain food”, or so I hope. Why? Because I need to stay focused enough to make it through at least one lecture tonight. And take notes. All the while hoping that my mind doesn’t wander too much or I nod off. Or I get too distracted by this guy:

On to the pizza…

or should I call it, Naan-za? Or Pi-naan? You decide.

  Ingredients:

• 1 piece of whole wheat naan
• 1 cup of chopped butternut squash
• 1/4 red onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup feta
• olive oil, for brushing
• dried parsley, for garnish

I roasted the butternut squash first @425 for about 20 mins. I reduced the oven temperature to 375 and brushed the naan with olive oil. I put the onions on first, then the squash and finally the feta and a sprinkle of parsley. I left it in the oven for about 12 mins (checking every couple of minutes after 8 mins had passed).

Study time!

Bar Review and Pizza Night

It felt like a long week. I had a ton of work to do and I finally feel caught up. I needed a boost this afternoon while working on a tedious lab assignment…

Oh, hi there SOYJOY sample! I have to admit, I’ve tried their bars before and was not wowed but this supposedly new and improved bar was pretty good!

It was banana flavored and sort of reminded me of banana bread. The texture of SOYJOY always takes me a few bites to get over, but the flavor was real tasting and not artificial.

After submitting my lab (!) and taking a little powernap (hey, I deserved it!)… it was time for pizza!

Not one, but FOUR blurry pictures of my pizza… grrr!  In real life, it was a good lookin’ ‘za, I swear!

I roasted 2 cups of chopped butternut squash coated in olive oil, garlic powder and cayenne pepper in the oven for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. While that was happening, I rolled out a ball of Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I brushed on a few tbs of Roasted Garlic EVOO and when the squash was ready (slightly browned), spread it over the dough. Then came the sprinkling of crumbled feta (about 4 oz.) and some freshly grated parmesan, 1/3 of a chopped red onion and some crushed red pepper. I baked it on a pizza stone at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.

It was incredible. So much flavor… if it wasn’t for the fact that I got sucked into Sons of Anarchy, I probably would have devoured the whole thing!

So glad I didn’t, now there’s some for lunch tomorrow! Night!

Pesto & Butternut Squash Pizza

So last night I made a pizza for dinner, it took longer than I anticipated and a late start didn’t help matters but I finally settled in with a couple of slices around 10 PM and it was love at first bite. I loosely followed a recipe I found on another blog and went to town preparing my butternut squash, pesto pizza. I was pretty psyched to use my newly acquired pizza stone (thanks to my mom)!

Here’s the recipe (makes one 15inch pizza):
Ball of whole wheat pizza dough
2 slices lean turkey bacon* optional
1 cup pesto prepared (or you can make your own... I was lazy)
4 slices provolone cheese
parmesan cheese (for grating on top)
olive oil
sugar
20 oz butternut squash (half of a squash or one bag frozen as I used)
1 can diced tomatoes (I used tomatoes seasoned with oregano and garlic)
oregano

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Toss thawed squash (or if you use fresh, dice it into cubes) with sugar (I used just a pinch) and olive oil (a quick drizzle). Roast for 20 minutes, stirring once half way through. *I cooked the turkey bacon in the oven at the same time*
2. Once squash is done, raise the oven temperature to 450. Roll out the pizza dough onto a floured pizza pan. Top with provolone cheese and tomatoes. Mix butternut squash with pesto and crumbled bacon and pour onto the top of the pizza. Top with oregano and parmesan cheese. Bake for 25 minutes.

Though I absolutely loved the end result, I’d make a few changes next time. I’d definitely make my own pesto (which was the plan but then time and hunger intervened) and use fresh butternut squash. Though the frozen squash held up well, it got a bit mushy during the mixing process and changed my pizza a bit aesthetically from what I was imagining. Oh well. I did think that the turkey bacon was a nice touch… I just added it because I had some in the fridge and welcomed the addition.

 

 

So it wasn’t the prettiest pizza but it was hearty and full of flavor. This recipe has inspired me to dream up other non-traditional pizza toppings!

A new ignition?

It’s my first day of vacation and I’m already up and at ‘em. The car dealership called and informed that I will need a new ignition which means new programmed keys and all the locks in my car have to be changed. So I will NOT be driving to Maine today. Fortunately, mom wanted to see us badly enough that she is on her way down here to pick puppy and I up.

While we’re patiently waiting, I thought I’d talk about the awesome pizza from the other night. There were two pizzas, in fact, each one very different and tasty. The first was a roasted vegetable affair with a light brushing of olive oil and balsamic rather than a sauce. It was topped with green tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, sundried tomatoes and a hearty portion of goat cheese. There are no photos because it just didn’t stick around long enough for that to happen.

Enter pizza #2. This one, a buffalo-sweet potato-blue cheese pizza, I discovered here. It was SO good. I essentially followed her recipe but I only used half a ball of whole wheat pizza dough.  This picture is a strong argument for my need of a new camera.

I’m off to pack for the trip and give puppy a quick bath!