White Pizza with Baby Arugula

My son loves arugula. I grow arugula in my garden during summer and whenever I make pasta, I grab handful of leaves and add it to the dish. For my son, any pasta dish becomes a winner when arugula is added. Recently I bought a pack of organic baby arugula. This time for a change, I wanted to use it as a topping for Pizza, as the dough I made that weekend was lying in the fridge.

I have adapted this recipe from Ina Garten.





Ingredients

Home made Pizza dough
Garlic
Dried Basil Leaves
Olive Oil


Method:

To make Garlic Oil:-

Take olive oil, sliced garlic, dried basil leaves and red pepper flakes in a small saucepan and cook it over low heat. Make sure the garlic doesn't burn. Set this aside.



Toss the baby arugula with lemon, salt and pepper and keep it aside.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Stretch the dough into an 8-inch circle. Brush circles with the garlic oil.









Sprinkle the pizzas evenly with Monterey Jack and Mozzarella cheese.





Bake the pizzas for 8 minutes until the cheeses begin to melt. Pull the pizza out from the oven; Sprinkle the seasoned arugula on top and bake for another 2 minutes.

Home Made Pizza

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour - 3 cups
Active dry yeast - 1 packet
Warm water - 1 cup (microwave for 30 secs)
Olive oil - 2 tbs
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/4 tsp

Topping

Thinly sliced Bell Peppers,Onions and Jalepenos
Pizza Sauce


Method

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water. Wait for about 5 minutes until you see some bubbles. Combine the flour with the salt on a working surface. I did mine on a wide bottomed nonstick pan. Pour oil and the yeast mixture slowly to the flour and mix it well to blend .

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic (as you would do for chappati). Sprinkle little flour if the dough is very sticky. Make it as a smooth ball. Keep the dough in a bowl . Cover it with the cling wrap and set it in a warm place till the dough doubled in volume, about an hour. If it's a sunny day the dough rises very quickly.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Divide the dough into two equal balls to make 12" thin crust pies. I kept the dough to sit again for another 40 minutes which is optional. Take one ball, flattened it with the rolling pin or with your fingers (I used both) into a disk. Stretch it gently to make a nice round pie. Transfer in to a pizza pan. Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce over the pie. Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese or combination of cheeses on top. Spread the sliced vegetables on top.




Bake it for about 10 to 15 minutes or until is cheese is bubbly and the crust is crisp.

Slice the pie into 8 equal pieces using a pizza wheel and serve hot.

Enjoy with your loved ones.




Notes:
I find it very easy to stretch the home made dough than the store bought one. If your dough shrinks back while stretching, let it sit out for some time and then try stretching it out.

Pizza with Sweet Peppers and Jalapeño

Semi-Homemade Pizza

Who would ever dislike pizza, especially if made at home?. My family enjoyed the pizza that I made with the store bought dough this evening. Yes, it came out really yummizza! This is the second time I am trying with store bought dough. First time it didn't come out well. May be because I didn't let the dough sit to reach the room temperature before rolling it.




Ingredients

Pizza dough - 1 pack
Yellow Onion - 1 sliced in rounds
Jalapeño - 3 finely sliced in rounds
Shredded Mozzarella - 3/4 of a pack
Pizza Sauce - 1/4 cup

Method.

First roll out the pizza dough. To prevent the dough sticking to the surface, lightly dust the surface with flour. I just tried to imitate the professional pizza makers (roll out with both my hands) and I succeeded a bit. If you can't do that turn the pizza dough into a ball and using a rolling pin, roll the dough to a nice circle as you do for paratha.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease the pan with oil. Place the rolled pizza dough on the pan. Smear pizza sauce evenly on top of the dough and sprinkle the Mozzarella cheese liberally (like an extra cheese topping). Finally top it of with onions and Jalapeño peppers and bake it for 15 mts or to perfection.