From The North Grove's Kitchen: Homemade Pizza with Roasted Vegetables

It was a full house in Food Demo this week! Shelley was our guest demonstrator and she walked us through how to make both a pizza crust and pizza sauce from scratch. She also showed us how to make pizza using a store bought crust!

Makes: 2 pizzas

Pizza Dough Ingredients:

• 1 and ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast

• ½ teaspoon sugar

• ¼ cup warm water

• 3 and ½ cups all –purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons salt

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon room temperature water

• Cooking spray

Pizza Sauce Ingredients:

• ½ cup tomato sauce

• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

• ¼ teaspoon granulated sugar (optional)

• ¼ teaspoon salt

Pizza Toppings:

• 1 to 2 cups of raw OR roasted vegetables (ex. mushrooms, onions, bell peppers)

• 1 cup cheese, grated or crumbled (feta, mozzarella, cheddar)

Directions:

1. Prepare pizza crust:

• In a small bowl, stir together the yeast, sugar and warm water. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the flour to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Sprinkle the salt over the flour and mix on low speed for 15 seconds to distribute the salt.

• Add the olive oil, room temperature water, and yeast mixture and mix on low speed for 1 to 2 minutes, then increase the speed to medium and mix until a ball of dough forms, about 5 minutes.

• Spray a medium bowl with cooking spray. Shape the dough into a ball and set it in the bowl seam side down. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

2. Roast Vegetables until tender (click here for how)

3. Prepare Sauce: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning.

4. Putting it all together:

• When the dough is almost risen, place a cast-iron pizza stone on the centre rack oven the oven and preheat the oven to 510 degrees F

• Divide the dough into two pieces and tear two pieces of parchment paper, about 30 cm long. On each piece of parchment stretch the dough and top with about ¼ cup of sauce, ¼ to ½ cup vegetables and cheese.

• Carefully transfer the parchment and your pizza to the heated pizza stone. Bake for 3 minutes, remove parchment and bake for another 5 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

If you want to share any photos of your cooking or have any questions please feel free to get in touch with Melissa at mrankin@thenorthgrove.ca