I have to confess, this is not a pizza best made in March. Created it in July last year, when organic tomatoes at our local farm market were hitting their peak. Why post now, when luscious tomatoes are still four months away?
A pizza challenge is being held by Vermont Rolling Pins. Love participating in fun challenges and wouldn’t mind winning a hand-crafted pizza tool, so with my sister’s encouragement, decided to get my creative pizza recipes posted. A BONUS: Our FWB readers get to enjoy them, too! (See the end of the article for the scoop on the pizza contest.)
PIZZA CRUST (Options):
1 pizza dough (1-1/3 to 1-1/2 lb/680 to 750 g), at room temperature or make your own from scratch.
Comment: I used a Vicolo brand organic cornmeal pizza dough crust, which doesn’t require any extra prep.
TOPPING:
1/2 cup (125 mL) creamy goat cheese Chevre
3-5 tablespoons of Olive Tapenade
1/2 organic Purple Onion, sliced into rings
Several organic Green Onions, rinsed then slice the tops (save stalks for another dish)
1 stalk organic Celery, washed & sliced into chunks
2 organic Golden Tomatoes, washed and sliced into rounds
1 roasted Red Pepper, sliced thinly
1 cup (250 mL) or more, grated Swiss & Cheddar cheeses
Fresh cracked Black Pepper
Ground Roasted Chipotle Pepper
Herb or Sea Salt to taste
INSTRUCTIONS:
~ Shape dough into ball by pulling side down and folding into bottom at center; cover with tea towel and let rest for 20 minutes. (OR use a pre-made pizza crust of your choice.)
~ On lightly floured surface, shape dough by pressing down with fingertips, then pulling at edges to stretch (or use rolling pin, letting dough relax between rollings as necessary), into 14-inch/35 cm round to fit pizza pan or into 16- x 12-inch/40 x 30 cm rectangle to fit baking sheet. Sprinkle cornmeal evenly over pan; lay dough in pan.
~ Spread chevre evenly over dough; top with several generous spoonfuls of olive tapenade.
~ Place the onion slices evenly over the top.
~ Sprinkle surface with green onions and chopped celery.
~ Dash on some ground chipotle and fresh cracked black pepper, followed by the grated Swiss & Cheddar cheeses.
~ Top off the pizza with attractively arranged roasted red pepper slices.
Comment: The Viccolo crusts are small, so these layers of ingredients make quite a colorful pile.
~ Bake in a 425F/220C oven until bottom of crust is golden, 12 to 15 minutes for the pre-made crust. Follow package instructions for a yeast-raised dough.
SERVES: 2
Makes a quick tasty dinner served with salad or soup. This is a lovely way to serve your veggies, featuring farmers market bounty. Might even get a fussy eater to give vegetables a try. ENJOY!
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INSPIRATION: 2nd Annual “Vermont Rolling Pins Pie Recipe Challenge”
Calling all pizza makers! Vermont Rolling Pins is holding our second annual pie recipe contest! The winner chooses any pizza tool item on http://www.vermontrollingpins.com/pizza/pizza_tools.shtml
Email your best pizza crust and/or topping choices by March 13, 2012. If you don’t make your own crust, email in your favorite pizza toppings. It’s so simple! Think original, but also tasty! Our pie making club members will be trying the best. Please note if your recipe is original or taken from a cookbook, website, blog, etc.
Send in your pizza topping and/or pizza crust recipes via email to vermontrollingpins@gmail.com
7 thoughts on “Summer Rainbow Homemade Organic Pizza”
This looks delicious but since I am allergic to corn, wheat and other grains, I need a different flour to make the crust. I need a substitute for the cheese also, like a vegetable variety, not soy, from a whole food or health food store.
Maybe you Cynthe or someone else out there viewing this post would have some ideas.
Thank you.
Darn! Was just in the middle of writing you a reply, Linda. Accidentally went to another blog site and lost what I had written to you. Oh, well. Here goes again:
I am not a gluten-free recipe expert. There are many bloggers who ARE due to the current Paleo food rage and folks who have to eat gluten-free because of Celiac’s disease.
Did a quickie web search tonight using these search terms ‘grain free pizza crust’ Found 3 sites for you to check out:
1. Perfect Cauliflower Pizza Crust
2. No Grain Pizza Crust
3. 9 Creative Paleo Pizza Crusts
In terms of cheese, I personally don’t like non-dairy cheese. I’d rather do without cheese than eat it. Are you off just cow’s milk or ALL dairy cheeses? My husband is sensitive to cow’s milk, but really loves some of the excellent goat cheeses available now. We use creamy goat Chevre on some of our creative pizzas, it can be spread underneath your veggies or added as dollops on top. We also have access to locally made goat milk jack and cheddar, which both taste great and grate well. Tart and salty, sheep’s milk feta would be another excellent idea.
OR forget cheese and sprinkle your veggies with toasted pine nuts or almonds or walnuts. Or use nut butters for flavoring under your veggie toppings. Be creative! There are LOTS of great flavor combos you can come up with.
Cynthe, Thanks for these website recommendations.
Linda
Cynthe, I appreciate your recommendations for places to go to look for grain free pizza crusts.
Linda
Thanks Cynthe
My husband ate Chinese pine nuts and had a horrible metallic taste in his mouth for weeks after. He did some research and it is a very common affliction caused only by Chinese pine nuts! Who knew? I have a terrible time sourcing USA pine nuts here. I guess I need a road trip to Seattle! Thank-you for the great recipes for pizza! Love and think of you and Bill often!
Kate ~ I had read about that reaction, too, but didn’t know it was only to Chinese pine nuts. I, too, have trouble finding pignolas sourced from other parts of the world. More and more information is coming out on China’s toxic environment and heavy metals poisoning of products sent to the USA. Avoid Chinese products, especially foods and supplements!!