Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper Pizza

Before Adrian left home, I told him we were having pizza for dinner - it's my way of saying "have-anything-in-between-as-long-as-it's-not-the-same-as-dinner". He came home, told me he watched the guy tossed pizza at the Food Loft. He may have guessed I was trusting him with the crust rolling responsibility. Look what he did. Instead of the conventional circle, he made a country map. Australia?

Look aside, it's a good pizza. I prepared most of the ingredients a day ahead. It was all about putting things together come dinner time. You can use store bought sun-dried tomatoes instead of roasting your own. I just wanted to make sure those cherry tomatoes went for good use before they turned bad.

I loved the smell of the garlic as it was roasting. It kind of became obscure when mashed into paste with the roasted tomatoes. It was fun squeezing them out of the garlic cloves; they were so soft I didn't even have to use blender - just a few good mash. If I ever make this again, I'd be sure to use more onions: it didn't matter when I wasn't aware of it, but once I tasted how good it was, I wished there were more in every bite.

Ingredients:

• 1 pizza crust
  
• 1 head garlic, unpeeled, head sliced
  
• 1 yellow onion, sliced into rings
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup Oven-roasted herbed cherry tomatoes
• 1 roasted red bell pepper, cut into strips
  
• 6 ounces Mozzarella, grated
• 2 1/2 ounce Feta, crumbled
  
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
• 4 tablespoons basil, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Place garlic onto a baking dish and drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil. Place onion rings to a separate baking dish and coat with one tablespoon of olive oil. Bake in the oven until garlic is brown and soft; onions are tender - about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
2. Set oven to 250C. Using fingers, squeeze out roasted garlic cloves into a bowl; add tomatoes and mash into paste. Set aside.
3. Roll out pizza crust. Spread garlic paste evenly over crust. Layer with onions, bell pepper, Mozzarella and feta. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoons parsley and 2 tablespoons basil. Bake for 10 minutes; until cheeses turn golden brown and bubbly.
   
4. Remove from oven, top with the remaining parsley and basil.
   

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.

Homemade Herbed OVEN-Dried Tomatoes

Sun dried tomatoes are god sent. They go well with just about everything (oh well....); they are excellent for breakfast, quick bites, lunch and dinner!! In the very brief period since I started this blog, I already have 4 dishes featuring sun dried tomatoes. There's the Baked Egg with Duchess Potatoes, Breakfast Salad, Vegetarian Tortila Soup, and Herbed Goat Cheese with Mushroom Relish. If you think you are spending too much money on sun dried tomatoes, as my friend Pee Wee does in Dubai, try making them at home with oven. It doesn't take much effort, just a lot of time investment. It can take as long as 12 hours of low heat to dry in the oven. Once done, they can be stored refrigerated in olive oil for up to 3 months. You can also make basic sun dried tomatoes by omitting all the herbs (pepper included) and olive oil. I was told they stay indefinitely in sealed jar/ bag.

Ingredients:
1kg Roma Tomato (or any variety, cherry tomatoes are ok, too. less seeds is better)
salt and ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried marjoram
Bay leave
Black pepper corn
garlic, slivered
Olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 100C.

2.Trim and discard the stem ends of the tomatoes. Halve each tomato lengthwise. Arrange the tomatoes, cut side up, on the oven rack. Do not allow the tomatoes to touch one another. Sprinkle lightly with salt, ground black pepper, basil and marjoram

3. Place in the oven and bake until the tomatoes are shriveled and feel dry, anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. Check the tomatoes from time to time: They should remain rather flexible, not crispy/ brittle. Once dried, remove the tomatoes from the oven and let cool on cake racks.

4. Transfer tomatoes to a sterile jar. Soak with olive oil, garlic slivers, bay leave and black pepper corn.

This oven dried tomatoes are just as good as sun dried. If you insist to do old-fashioned, time-cosuming way, be my guest. Depending on your weather conditions, this could take anywhere from four days to two weeks:

Place halved tomatoes on a raised screen, lightly sprinkle with salt (and herbs if you like) and place in the hot sun until dry. You'll want to cover them with cheesecloth, raised, so it does not touch the tomatoes, to keep out any critters and provide proper ventilation. You will also need to bring them in during the night, lest the evening dew undo your drying process.