Pizza

I have always liked pizza and was trying to resign myself to avoiding it as often as possible when I discovered I could make very good, in fact better, pizza without floating all the ingredients in cheese.

I started out by frying a few cloves of garlic in a 4-6 tbs of good-quality olive oil. Then I removed the browned garlic and added greens (like spinach or arugula) to the oil and cooked it until good and wilted. When done I mixed in the brown garlic bits and spread it on top of a prepared pizza dough (precook for 5 mins in a 375 degree oven).

Next I added a bunch of vegetables, and I mean a pile. I added carmelized onions, brine-cured olives, roasted red bell peppers, thinly sliced tomatoes (with their seeds removed), leftover grilled zucchini and/or eggplant, and mushrooms toasted to remove their water.

Finally, I drizzle everything with olive oil and shake on some garlic powder, salt, and brewer's yeast. Then I stick it in the oven and cook it until the crust is browned on the bottom. Afterwards it goes under the broiler to roast the vegetables a bit. When it comes out of the oven I add oregano and red pepper flakes and some finishing salt.

Now, when I grill I often toss on extra vegetables with a fridge-clearing pizza in mind. I also try to keep frozen whole-wheat doughs on-hand.

Other good additions are...

tapenade, marinated artichokes (I like those made by Pastene), marinated and grilled eggplant, hot peppers, grilled until soft fennel, small-cut lightly pre-cooked broccoli, and maybe one of those imitation meat products.

When you hit the right combination of ingredients your pizza will look, smell, and taste fantastic and that is the way food should be.