January 13, 2010

* Disclaimer - Paul set up this post for me, but these initial sentences are my thoughts, not his even though his name is on the bottom of the post:  I know that it seems like a lot of these posts are probably about food in some way or another, but really I'm okay with that.  Because it is the one thing that changes a lot from day to day.  Or at least, I have been working on changing it up.  But I'm feeling slightly concerned because working for a law firm is getting progressively more intense.  And I have been staffed on a really cool case that everyone is saying will require me to work really long hours.  As if lawyer's hours aren't long enough already, right?  Not that I'm super concerned - I knew going into law that it wasn't an easy 9-5 job.  But still, it might make Blog365 more difficult and these posts may become increasingly more mundane.  Particularly when I get home at 9:00 pm and feel like ding-twaddy and just want to let my hair down and take out my contact lenses. 

But for tonight, since training was over at 4:00 pm, I was able to come home and make a pizza which I really wanted to do before the Job takes over my life.  Granted, I have been reading background material for a case I am staffed on all night long except for maybe 40 minutes of cooking, eating, and break time, but still.

Anyway, vegetarian whole wheat pizza is one of my favorite dinners.  Its super easy to make, I can use up a ton of random vegetables sitting in the fridge, and it tastes light and healthy and delicious.  I always, always, always have zucchini on it though because that has been my favorite pizza topping ever since I had zucchini pizza in Florence, Italy a couple years ago. 

That's one big pizza-pie.  Not really though - just visual tricks of photography.  If you go back to the first photo, you can tell that this is about the size of a medium pizza. 

Amy's Half Whole Wheat Vegetarian Pizza

1 cup warm water
1-2 Tbsp honey
2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups flour (I use half whole wheat and half white - the original recipe called for all whole wheat)

1/2 jar pesto sauce
Mozzerella cheese

Stir honey into warm water, then stir in yeast and allow to proof.  Add oil, salt, and flour and stir to combine, then knead until smooth - about five minutes.  Shape dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled boil to rise for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Wash and slice vegetables - I like zucchini, mushrooms, green onions, peppers (red or yellow preferably, but green are good too), tomatoes, etc. 

Roll out dough to fit a pizza pan or whatever shape you want.  Spread 1/2 a jar of pesto sauce onto the dough, then top with vegetables and sprinkle with mozzerella cheese.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until crust has browned and cheese is melted.