Greek Vegetarian Pizza

This is one of our family's all time favorite pizzas...and we eat a lot of different varieties of pizza!!  I have been making this for close to five years now- so long that I don't even have the recipe anymore...it took me a while to search it out online so I could properly source it here!  It's so simple and so adaptable that as long as you have the few main ingredients you can add whatever else looks/sounds good at the moment. Fresh tomatoes, olives, capers, etc. etc etc....

taken w. phone camera again!! even w. the low budge photography doesn't it look absolutely delicious?!?

Feel free to use a store bought pizza dough- however it's sooooo easy to make your very own, and honestly it's sooo much tastier!!  So please do try! I will post the recipe I swear by (and I have tried many) below along with a link to making a perfect homemade pizza crust every time-

Ingredients

• pizza dough (recipe below or store bought)
• 1/2 cup prepared basil pesto
• 3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and chopped
• 3 cups torn spinach leaves
• 1/2 red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Keep pizza stone in pizza as it pre-heats.
2. Roll out pizza dough, spread with pesto leaving a thin rim around the circumfrence .   Top pizza in the following order: tomatoes, spinach, red onion, feta, and oregano. Bake until spinach wilts and cheese starts to brown, about 15 minutes.
3. Remove pizza from oven and drizzle with oil, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, slice and serve. 

Source: Allrecipes.com- Greek Vegetarian Pizza

If I did not make myself very clear in the paragraph above I implore you to please at least try to make your own dough...usethe tips/tricks included in this link  and you too will never buy a boboli again!!

Basic Pizza Dough

Yield: enough dough for 2 medium pizzas or 4 calzones

Ingredients:
½ cup warm water
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
4 cups (22 oz.) bread flour, plus more for dusting
1½ tsp. salt
1¼ cup water, at room temperature
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:
--Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup.  Sprinkle the yeast over the top.  

--In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the bread flour and salt, mixing briefly to blend.  

--Measure the room temperature water into the measuring cup with the yeast-water mixture.  

--With the mixer on low speed, pour in the yeast-water mixture as well as the olive oil.  Mix until a cohesive dough is formed.  Switch to the dough hook.  Knead on low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  

--Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 1½-2 hours.

--Press down the dough to deflate it.  Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces.  Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball.  (If freezing the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze at this point.)  Cover with a damp cloth.  Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.

Source:  Annie Eats

Now go make some pizza!!!

Enjoy!

xo

Andrea 

"P" is for Panini!!

As the executive chef of a vegetarian family I often get asked "what do you feed your family for dinner????"  you know....bc there is nothing else on the planet to feed your family besides meat and potatoes??? Don't worry...I won't get all PETA on your a$$...however I will share these two cute little buttons..bc well they are cute and if somehow posting these two cute buttons in this one little post encourages just one person to go meat free for even one day that will make me happy. 

Now aren't they cute??? 










I'm done, I promise!!  Now...where were we??  Oh, Paninis!  So over the past two weeks I've made two versions of a panini.  I'll start with last weeks- please bare with me...as both of these masterpieces on a plate are my own "creations" and I use that word in quotes bc I am positive I am not the first or only person to make this sandwich...I just didn't lift these off a cooking blog, or even use a recipe when making them.  Therefore, I don't have real measurements....but they are so easy you really do not need measurements...just ingredients and assemble and voila'!  You have yourself a Panini!!

Spinach, Pesto, Mozzarella & Roasted Red Pepper Panini

Ingredients
bread (ciabatta, Focaccia, sandwich rolls, Everyday Bread, etc)
basil pesto
mozzarella (fresh I find is the best!) but regular works too
baby spinach
sliced roasted red peppers
whatever else you think would taste yummy, some versions I have made in the past included broiled eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, roasted broccoli, caramelized onions, etc, etc.)

Directions

1. Slice bread/rolls/ etc.
2. Smear pesto on one (or both) sides of sandwich
3. layer a handful of baby spinach, sliced roasted red peppers and a few slices of cheese, top with top half of roll/bread etc.
4. Cook in fancy panini press...or if you are like me, place on grill pan over med/high heat.  This is where it starts to get tricky...so pay attention...place a tea kettle filled with water on top of sandwiches...see illustration below as this is an extremely advanced technique but works wonderfully!  Smushes the sandwhich down nice and thin while making those panini lines that add so much flavor (haha!)  Check after a few minutes, flip sandwich which should be decently pressed at this point and place tea kettle back on top.
5. Once both sides are grilled and insides are nice and ooey gooey take off grill pan, slice and enjoy!

taken w/  cell phone camera- fancy...as fancy as this panini press-don't be jealous

Grilled Pepper & Onion Panini w. Garlic Aioli and Feta

I have been making this sandwich for so long...I know I got it from somewhere but I cannot for the life of me remember where, possibly allrecipes.com but I don't know the name of the sandwich and at this point I'm pretty sure I'm not following the original recipe anyways :)

Ingredients
bread (ciabatta, Focaccia, sandwich rolls, Everyday Bread, etc)
red bell pepper
yellow bell pepper
orange bell pepper
green bell pepper
red or yellow onion
crumbled feta
garlic, minced
lemon juice
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper

Directions

1. Slice bell peppers and onions, sprinkle with a little EVOO (hellooooo Rachel Ray!) salt and pepper, mix to cover all the veggies
2. Grill onions and peppers on grill pan over med/high heat until they are at your desired done-ness, like black and charred? great!  like them barely cooked nice and crispy?  fantastic!!  Get distracted and forget about them so they end up black and charred?? no biggie...you meant to do that.
3. While veggies are grilling time to make the garlic aioli... put a few spoonfulls of mayo in a small bowl.  Mix in lemon juice and garlic.  Taste it, add more of whatever you think will make it better, I tend to like it more garlicy then lemony but whatever floats your boat.
4. Spread garlic aioli on one or both sides of bread, top with mounds of grilled veggies, sprinkle on crumbled feta...top with the other half of bread and smush down a bit so it stays in place.
5.  Place sandwich on fancy panini press or grill pan over med/high heat (I use the same pan as I used for grilling the veggies)  and top sandwich's with tea kettle filled with water. 
6. Flip panini- place tea kettle on again.
7. Once both sides are grilled and panini is pressed nice and thin take off pan, slice and serve!



Enjoy!
xoxo
Andrea