Italian night

LAST night I was craving pizza. I made a crust for me and my husband to each have our own because I believe less is more for pizza while be believes more is better. I make my pizza dough in the bread maker because honestly, I'm a little scared about making any type of yeast bread. My past attempts have failed miserably. So I get the bread maker to do it for me. All I have to do is put the ingredients in there and wait a couple hours and it magically transforms it into a beautiful pizza dough. For those of you who have a bread maker, I'm sure it came with it's own pizza dough recipe. You could make it form scratch too or just buy one from the store but that's no where near as fun. I served this with a Tuscan style kale salad for my own Italian themed dinner. 

Bread maker pizza dough
1/2 cups of beer or water
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil
4-1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp bread machine yeast

TOSS everything in the pan in the order listed and select your dough setting. When it's done just roll it out on a floured surface and place on a greased pizza pan or baking sheet. Top with whatever you wish. This recipe makes 3 good size individual pizzas or 2 big round ones. I froze the last 3d for later use. bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes or so. You could also thrown in some basil and oregano if you want.

For those braver then me pizza dough

2-1/2 to 3 cups flour

1 package active dry yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil

IN a large mixing bowl combine only 1-1/4 cups flour, the yeast, salt, water and oil. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat on high for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can

TURN out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6-8 minutes total). Divide dough in half, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. This makes four pizzas.

I used some pizza sauce that I made before hand but you don't have to. a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese is also delicious. I did both actually. Then I topped with sliced cherry tomatoes, sliced mini yellow peppers, sliced mushrooms, minced garlic, a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh cracked black pepper. I added some torn parsley leaves and shaved Parmesan when it came out of the oven. So simple and so good!

Pizza sauce
1 14.4 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp each dried oregano and basil or 1 tsp each fresh
salt and pepper to taste

COMBINE and refrigerate for a few hours or over night to let the flavours blend if you can but using right away won't hurt.


THIS is that Tuscan kale salad I mentioned earlier. Basically it tastes like caesar salad but with healthy kale instead. Kale has one of the highest antioxidant capacities of all fruits and vegetables so it turns this into a pretty healthy version of the classic caesar.

Tuscan kale salad
1 slice of whole wheat bread, toasted
6 Tbsp of finely grated Parmesan
Juice of one lemon
3 Tbsp of olive oil
3/4 tsp of anchovy paste or finely chopped anchovy
1 clove of grated garlic
fresh cracked black pepper
7 cups of torn fresh kale

TEAR toasted bread into small pieces and blend in a food processor until it reaches the consistency of course crumbs.
FOR the dressing, combine 2 Tbsp of the Parmesan, the lemon juice, olive oil, anchovy paste, garlic and pepper in the bottom of a large salad bowl. Put the torn kale in the same bowl and toss until everything is coated.
LET stand for 5 minutes and then add the bread crumbs and remaining parmesan. Toss well and drizzle with additional olive oil if you like.