Four-Cheeses Pizza withTwo Toppings

Here's to put the pizza dough to test. I must say I am very pleased and proud of my first pizza, the crust to be more specific. The biggest compliment came when Adrian said his mother used to make pizza but she could never get the crust right. Call it rivalry if you may. His mother, however, is my source of inspiration (or challenge?). Adrian has this childhood memory of wholesome home cooked foods by his Swiss mother: tart, pie, jam, French toast etc. I guess I'm just helping my husband to relive the good old time.

Four-Cheeses Pizza with Homemade Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

• 1 6 oz pizza dough
• Homemade Tomato Salsa
• 1 oz Fontina, grated
• 1 oz Mozzarella, grated
• 1 oz Goat cheese, grated
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced
• 1 Tablespoon Parmesan, grated

1. Preheat oven to 250C. Lightly flour the back of baking tray.
   
2. Dip pizza dough in a bowl of flour. Shake off the excess. Using a rolling pin, roll the pizza dough into a 8" round, with the edges slightly thicker than the inner circle.
   
3. Brush the inner circle with tomato salsa and top with Fontina, Mozzarella and Goat cheeses. Sprinkle with thyme leaves and oregano. Top with Parmesan.
4. Place it on the back of floured baking tray. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until it turns brown.

Four-Cheeses Pizza with Homemade Pesto and Oven-Dried Tomatoes

I got Adrian to contribute to this pizza: flipping and tossing. Peter Reinhart would have approved.

Unlike the on that I made with rolling pin - thin throughout -, this pizza crust is somehow puffy like Indian puri, and crispy like biscuit. Must be the skilled pizza dough tossing.

Ingredients:

(makes for one 8" pizza)

• Pesto
• Oven-dried tomatoes
• 1 oz Fontina Cheese, grated
  
• 1 oz Mozzarella, grated
  
• 4 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 oz Goat cheese, grated
  
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
• 1teaspoon fresh oregano, minced
• 1 Tablespoon Parmesan, grated
  

Basil and Pecan Pesto
Go here for the pesto recipe.


Oven Dried Tomatoes:

(makes for one 8" pizza)

This recipe is not unlike the Herbed Oven Dried Tomatoes except it uses fresh thyme instead of basil and marjoram. I bake it for a mere 60 minutes instead of the full-on 6-12 hours needed for a "real" oven dried tomatoes. I used cherry tomatoes simply because that's what I got. Any tomato varieties would work.

• 6 cherry tomatoes
  
• extra-virgin olive oil
  
• fresh thyme leaves, minced
  
• 1 garlic cloves, crushed
• sea salt
• ground black pepper
• sugar
  

1. Preheat the over to 150C. In a pot of boiling water, blanch tomatoes. Drain and refresh in ice water. Drain. Peel, core, cut into halves, and remove seeds.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together olive oil, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. Taste and season as needed. Toss and coat tomatoes with the oil mixture.
   
3. Arrange tomatoes, cut side down, in a baking pan. Drizzle with the excess oil mixture. Sprinkle sugar evenly over tomatoes.
4. Bake until the tomatoes begin to shrivel, about 1 hour. When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, transfer to a container. Pour olive oil over and cover the container. Refrigerate and use as needed.

Dress the pizza as above except substitute Homemade Tomato Salsa with Pesto; add Oven-Dried Tomatoes around the inner circle after pesto; arrange fresh tomatoes before goat cheese; and top with fresh basil leaves after baking.