The Pizza Experiment

We love homemade pizza in our house. It can be topped with anything. It can be served alone or with a side. It is filling. It is comfort food. And now…it is experimental. For the next year, we are going to make pizza every Saturday night inspired by fresh and, where possible, local ingredients. And we will document it here.

Saturday, March 26, 2011 – Green & Red: Pesto, Spinach, Apple & Red Pepper topped with Mozza. Mmmm was tasty.

Saturday, March 12 & Saturday, March 19 - We didn’t skip twos week making and eating pizza. I just didn’t document it. Well over a week later, I don’t really remember either – I remember one had some faux crab (Pollack) on it. It wasn’t a winner.

Saturday, March 5, 2011 - Baked Potato: With a craving of baked potatoes as the inspiration this pizza had a pesto base, russet potatoes, purple onion, bacon, some steamed broccoli and mozzerella.

Saturday, February 26, 2011 - It Ain’t Easy Being Green: basil pesto with zucchini, artichokes, and asparagus with feta and some white wine (left over from a Love, Me event).

Saturday, February 19, 2011 - The Fancy Brunch: Prosciutto and Steamed Asparagus with Mozzerella and a quick poached egg.

Saturday, February 13, 2011 - The Joker: A named this pizza b/c it was green (pesto) and purple (eggplant) with red (pepper) smiles.

Saturday, February 5, 2011 - Shrimply Delicious: A mediterreanian style pizza with purple onion,  zucchini, yellow pepper, sundried tomatoes, shrimp and feta.

Saturday, January 29, 2011 - Purple Pizza Eater: Purple Onion and Eggplant (with a yellow pepper for good measure) on some left-over Paul Newman tomato sauce on whole wheat crust. Eggplant and purple onion = good. (Oh yeah - some Stella Artois!)

Saturday, January 22, 2011 - The Winter Sweet Spot: Sweet Potato, Red Apple, Spinach withShallots and Rosemary.

Note: The black dots on our crust are poppyseeds. We put a sprinkling of cornmeal and poppyseeds on our crust. Super tasty.

Saturday, January 15, 2011 - Non-Traditional Sausage Pizza: Our take on the traditional sausage, mushroom, and peppers pizza using our favorite veggie “faux” sausage.

Saturday, January 8, 2011 - Mediterrean “Chicken” – sundried tomato pesto, sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, spinach, mushroom, and faux chicken. (no photos)

January 2011 – Oh dear pizza experiment, we haven’t forgotten you. In fact, we have been treasuring our Saturday nights together very VERY much. Our five year old has come to know that Saturday IS pizza night. She has become quite the connoiseur and critic. She even helped make the dough last weekend. It is me, pizza experiment who has lagged. I have not been taking pictures and posting them nor did I remember to blog about them. For shame! It was just so crazy all of November and December that moments to blog and take photographs were left in the retail Christmas dust. But we are back refreshed in 2011. Alas, there is not picture but I have made it here to talk about some of most fond experiments thus far. A few weeks ago, I came across some packages of tiny wee cherry tomatoes on a sale rack that looks, well, not dip worthy but certainly still red, rosy and ready for eating. I slow roasted said tomatoes and we had a delicious pizza of oven roasted tomatoes, with smoked salmon on pesto with mozzerella. Delightful! There have also been a number of pear varieties – pear and ham, pear and brie, pear with onion and spinach. Those have been very well received. Other favorites include The Italia, The Morris, and our very first pizza The Traditional Margherita.

Before we get to far into 2011, I wanted to take this opportunity and Thank You for a great 2010 start to this family tradition. We love it so much we even contemplated having pizza for Christmas dinner because December 25th fell on a Saturday. Now that’s love.

-C, A, E, O.

Saturday, October 30 – take-out - after our first “big girl” birthday party for our now 5 year old, we were in no shape to cook. A quick and dirty take-out served its purpose – fill bellies and no dishes.

Saturday, October 23 – The Italia – One of the favorites so far: eggplant, tomato, and mozzerella on pesto on the best crust so far (from one of my tried and true cookbooks).

Saturday, October 16 - Momma has take out pizza with Love, Me volunteers before we open for Nocturne. Dad and Millie have peppers, artichoke and feta on pesto pizza.

Saturday, October 10 – The L&K classic – This has become a classic in the LaShomb Kingston household: pesto, zucchini, onion, peppers, artichoke hearts, black olives, and sundried tomatoes.

Saturday, October 2 – The Roast – I took a standard dish (roasted balsamic vinegar veggies) and piled them on our pizza. I wasn’t wowed. I had some high expectations when it was in my head but as I was pouring my roasted veggies – complete with carrot – onto the dough, I began to doubt my inspiration. No pics.

Saturday, September 25 – The Fall Back – Our house runneth over with snotty noses, hacky coughs, and no energy. Our pizza consisted of what might be considered fall back basics – pesto, onion, zucchini, peppers, mushrooms and feta on a Pillsbury crust. Simple. Good. I didn’t take a picture.

Saturday, September 18 – Brie Pearific – With some post-store reception brie and some local pears we made up this delicious pizza: homemade crust, pesto, red onion, pears, light spinkling of basil and brie.

Saturday, September 11 – Preservation Pizza – A clean up the fridge/pantry pizza with a bit o’ this and a bit o’ that: spinach, onion, mushrooms, sundried tomato, artichoke hearts, black olives, feta. Good but nothing to write home about. I haven’t even downloaded the photos.

Saturday, September 4 – Beeting Earl – Using what was in the fridge and wondering if this pizza would have to be BBQed post Hurricane Earl. (We didn’t lose power and so a traditional oven was used.) A homemade no-rise crust topped with A’s homemade tomato sauce (ooooooh) with sweet onion, zucchini, artichoke hearts, beet (fresh not pickled) and feta.

Saturday, August 28 – The Italian – Italian Sausage from the Dartmouth Farmers Market inspired this one. Italian Sausage (1/2 and the other 1/2 was veggie “chicken”), zucchini (from the market), peppers, spinach on tomato sauce and topped with Mozzerella. Photographed with blue hydrangea from our yard.

Saturday, August 22 – The Morris – a hommage to Morris East where I first discovered peaches on a pizza (Sauteed garlic rainbow swiss chard and Annapolis Valley peaches with Mozzerrella on rustic pesto – Olive Oil, rough-cut basil, garlic and grated parmesan – on a frozen Sobey`s pizza dough)

Saturday, August 15 – The Sophia Loren (Tomato, Italian Eggplant, Zucchini, Mozzerrella on Pesto a storebought Pillsbury Crust (timesaver)

Saturday, August 7 – Traditional Margherita (Tomato, Basil, Mozzerrella & storebought Pillsbury Pizza Crust because we were in a rush)