Veggie Pizza or When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore

Pizza is one of the basic food groups in our home.  Unfortunately, it is usually some delivered pie from a local place.  Expensive and not very good, yet we keep ordering thinking to ourselves that maybe, just maybe we will be wowed this time.  Never works.

While scanning other blogs I came across a dough recipe and decided to make pizza at home with tons of flavor and loaded with some of our favorite things.

I got the dough rolled out and started layering on the goodies. 

And layering...

For this colorful version I opted for what turned into way too many toppings.  Don't get me wrong, it was tasty; however, we already know how we are going to tweak it.  Because there will be a next time...

Start with the dough recipe. Once you have it rolled out you can top as your choose.   Instead of marina we opted to use black olive tapenade.  I then dotted ricotta and chopped roasted garlic over it.  Next came sliced roasted red pepper, feta, and carmelized sweet onion.  I continued with mozzarella and spinach.  I know, I know, that is a whole lot of items each with intense flavors on their own.  Combined it was a happy sensory overload.  We liked it but our favorite part was this...

I cooked these onions down for almost a full hour in a olive oil and butter with a sprinkle of sea salt and a generous dose of fresh ground pepper.  It turned out to be the best part and next time we are going to eliminate the olive tapenade and use olive oil in its place.  We will probably also go with a smattering of feta and a mozzarella.

The whole thing was popped into a 500 degree oven and fifteen minutes later dinner was ready.  I did; however, allow it to sit for five minutes so it would cut a bit better.  All in all, a good pizza that will not be completely repeated.  I'll keep you posted about how round two goes....

Homemade Ricotta or Blessed are the cheesemakers

I am channeling my inner Monty Python....  Seriously. 
(Audience members at the back of the crowd having trouble hearing the Sermon on the Mount.)
"What was that?"
"I don't know.  I was too busy talking to Bignose."
"I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers'."
"Ah, what's so special about the cheesemakers?"
"Well, obviously, it's not meant to be taken literally.  It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."
~ Monty Python's Life of Brian

Ahhh, now that I've gotten that out of my system I am prepared to carry on.

Kase, fromage, cheese, (sorry, much to Ingo's chagrin I cannot get the Umlaut for over the "a" in kase).  We adore cheese.  A few years ago our fridge died.  We were not as concerned about actually buying a new one.  On the contrary, we were devastated that we lost over $50.00 worth of cheese.  It still brings a tear to our eyes.

As much as we love cheese, I never once thought I would actually attempt to make it.  We can easily go to Whole Foods or Fresh Market and get many delectable choices.  Even better, we can visit the Bloomy Rind at Nashville's farmer's market.  However, I found a ricotta recipe that I wanted to try to see if it would be good for our homemade pizzas or some kind of baked pasta venture.

It worked fabulously!  The texture was just right and the flavor was what I was hoping for - just creamy enough, just salty enough and begging for a place on tomorrow's dinner.  Right now my little friend is taking a much deserved rest in the fridge awaiting its destiny as part of tomorrow's evening meal.

So blessed are the cheesemakers of which I am now one.