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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Colorful Spring Pizza

One of the first things we did when I returned from my 3 week business trip, is head to the Downtown Phoenix Farmer's Market. I couldn't wait to pick up some fresh, local veggies to get back on track with healthier eating. I sometimes get so carried away that we can't fit everything in the refrigerator, and this trip was certainly no exception!

Nothing like a fridge full of veggies to inspire some new creations. After several weeks of missing pizza night, we decided to showcase some of the fresh vegetables on a homemade pizza. Obviously the yellow tomatoes would be the highlight of the dish, but what else to add to it? Fresh roasted orange pepper? Check. Wilted Spinach? Check. Fresh onion lightly sauteed? Check. How about some shittake mushrooms? Sure, twist my arm. Top it all off with mozzarella and a sprinkling of feta, capers, and a little topping of basil from the garden, and we could give any pizza joint in town a run for its money. Or at least we think so.



No real recipe here. We used Eating Well's recipe for Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. And, while we have mastered pizza dough, I haven't ever made my own pizza sauce. (Please don't drop your jaws in horror.) I'd be open to recipes if anyone has a good one. So,usually, we use Trader Joe's pizza sauce, but this time we used the Kroeger brand (in a pinch, couldn't get to TJ's.) It worked, but it wasn't nearly as good.

For you purists out there, you may think that nothing goes together better than pizza and a beer. But here at Paws and Pours, we beg to differ. A combination of a bold red wine to pair with the pizza sounded like a good idea. ....

Enter in the Coppola Rosso red blend. This California red blend was a perfect match for our veggie pizza. (We forgot to photograph it.) I pick this one up every so often, because the winery was fun to visit. Playing the soundtrack from the Godfather, we had a whole theme going on.

What is your favorite pizza combination?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Yum! This looks awesome! I'm with you on the wine. I don't think anything goes better with pizza than a nice glass of red. Our pizza night is tomorrow and I can't wait!

Oh and I do make my own sauce. Its a little time intensive but so worth it and it makes enough for about 6 pizzas depending on how much sauce you like on your pie. It freezes great so I always make extra to store. Its on my blog if you want to check it out. I make tomatoes concasselike we learned in that knife skills class! ;)

Karen said...

My favorite homemade pizza topping is carmelized onions with goat cheese. I'll put that on half and on the other half I'll put sundried tomatoes for my hubby. He is not a fan of the carmelized onions. That's okay, more for me!

You've inspired me to make pizza this week. Thanks for the great post.

Anonymous said...

Looks great. My favorite pizza, to my husband's chagrin is a hawaiian combo with pineapple. I love it.

LisaRene said...

Beer with greasy tomato sauce and cheese laden bar pizza might be a match made in heaven but not homemade flatbread with fresh vegetables, quality cheese and fresh herbs, this definitely deserves a nice wine!

I bet one of the reasons commercial pizza sauce is so tasty is that the herbs and spices have had a lot of time to blend together. We are having flatbread night tomorrow and I'm about to make a red sauce for one of them, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Very glad you enjoyed the "polenta tofu veggie bake". I was quite pleased with the results when I made it, particularly considering how healthy and low calorie it is - I'm all about that!

Happy anniversary!

Anonymous said...

I thought the Coppola Rosso was pretty good too -- definitely a good match for pizza.

LisaRene said...

Ok, I made a red sauce and was very happy with it. Basically I prepared a non-chunky pasta sauce by sauteing a large clove of minced garlic with 2 T. minced carrot (for sweetness) in 1 T. olive oil for about 5 minutes. I added a 15-oz can tomato sauce and about 1 tsp dried basil and salt and pepper to taste and let it simmer with the lid askew for an hour. After it cooled, I stirred in 1 T. fresh dill, minced (I was making a dill pizza, but any fresh herb would do) and refrigerated over night to blend the flavors.

Simple and tasty!

Sarah said...

Hi Mo!

Your pizza looks beautiful, I love lots of fresh vegetables on my pizza, with homemade whole wheat crust.

It's difficult to choose a favorite pizza combination- so many delicious ones!
I'd say my most recent favorite would be mozzarella, gorgonzola dolce, roasted corn, red onion, cilantro, and tomatoes. I highly recommend you try it.

Thank you for visiting my blog; you take beautiful pictures and I'm intrigued by some of your recipes. My godparents and grandparents live in Scottsdale so I know Phoenix pretty well. Not too far from the Bay Area and Wine Country! I've always wanted to visit WA wine country, I look forward to reading about your adventures.