Roasted Veggie Pizza

I was on a mission. I wanted pizza. I had the supplies lying around the kitchen- yeast, whole wheat flour, a fridge full of veggies. It was all down to making it. I've never made it before. I had the concept down, but I've never dug my hands into a bowl full of dough and made it. The crust scared me. Yeast? I've never worked with yeast! It was time to be fearless.



It was quite a success. It wasn't perfect (the crust was a little crispier than I like), but it was damn good.

I got the pizza dough recipe from Giada de Laurentiis. I followed it exactly and it turned out really, really tough. It took nearly an extra half cup of water to make it pliable. I think I would add in a half cup of olive oil instead of an extra half cup of water next time. I would also like to note that you don't need a bread maker or a mixer or anything fancy to make this pizza dough...just clean hands and a kitchen counter.


While the dough was rising, I got to work on the toppings. I decided on caramelized onions, zucchini, eggplant and roasted red pepper.

I started with the caramelized onions because they take the longest. Just slice up some onions and cook in a pan over low/medium low heat with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. You need a bit of patience to make caramelized onions. They take nearly an hour. But once they are done, they are remarkably good.



While the onions were caramelizing, I worked on roasting eggplant and zucchini in the oven with some olive oil and salt. I also browned a couple mushrooms that were sitting in the fridge. I then roasted a red bell pepper on the stove. I was a little nervous because I've never done it on a gas oven. But, it turned out beautifully. It took about 10 mins. After the skin is charred, cover it in foil and let it rest for 20 mins. Trapping the steam in the foil allows the skin to just "fluff" off the pepper. After that, you can de-seed and slice it up.





My toppings plate...


After I rolled out (read "pressed out") my dough, I was ready to build my pizza. I started with the caramelized onions as my base and then loaded all the veggies on top.


It took quite a bit of work, but it was really worth it. The pizza was delicious. I ate about half of it for an early dinner. It was slightly sweet from the onions and meaty and filling from the eggplant and mushrooms. It did take quite a while but, I would do it again. I felt a sense of accomplishment from making the pizza from scratch. If nothing else, it's opened up the world of bread baking to me.