Sunday, December 14, 2008

Dark Days Challenge - Local Pizza!

OK, so according to google maps King Arthur Flour is 247 miles from my house, so we're going with a local food shed of 250 miles! Rock on. It's a bit of a stretch, but I want to use the vital wheat gluten to make seitan count as local. I love KAF anyway because it is a great company.

I also joined a CSA for 2009 and will be picking up a surprise package every week of all kinds of locally grown veggies and fruit when it's finally in season-OK around June. It'll be like an iron chef challenge every week!

A CSA (community supported agriculture) is where a farm sells shares of produce before the season starts. Then when the produce is harvested, the farmer packs up a box of whatever is picked each week of the growing season and gives it out to the participants. I pay money in December so the farmer can buy the seeds and stuff, then around June, I'll pick up a box of fruit and veggies each week. It works out to about $40 a week for veggies, fruit, and corn. Find one near you...http://www.localharvest.org/


So today's local meal is going to be pizza! Since I don't have any tomatoes saved from summer, I'm going back to my trusty pesto that reared it's head in last week's spaghetti squash. Also roasting a carnival squash.


Basic pizza dough recipe


1 cup water
1-2 TBS olive oil (optional)
1-2 tsp sugar (optional)
3 Cups all purpose flour
3 TBS vital wheat gluten (optional)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp or 1 packet yeast



Mix all ingredients together and knead until smooth elastic ball forms. Coat large bowl with olive oil and place in kneaded dough. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down and knead briefly into ball. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. For 4 personal pizzas, divide dough into 4 pieces and roll out to desired thickness. Place on baking sheet, top with sauce and (vegan) cheese and desired toppings. Bake 10 min.


Pesto
1 Heaping (Lovin') Spoonfull each
Chopped basil (mine was frozen with olive oil)
Nut butter (I used almond from Tierra Farms)
Olive oil
Big pinch or so of salt
1 clove of garlic


The lighting in my kitchen bites, but pizza 1 is mashed squash spread on the dough and dollops of pesto and pizza 2 is the bizarro version with pesto spread on the dough and pieces of roasted squash on top. Both are sprinkled with Penzey's Pizza seasoning.

11 comments:

Tara said...

Congrats on joining a CSA! They're a lot of fun. That pizza looks marvelous!

Bex said...

I love that kaf is so near by as well. They have great flour and I'm eating local!
that pizza looks awesome. I'm still in search of my idea pizza dough so I'm going to give yours a try.

Anonymous said...

That looks yummy! I want to make pizza now......

Gina said...

Mmmm...your pizza looks delicious!! Have fun with the CSA, I would love to join one.

Joanna said...

that pizza looks bangin, girl!! i've never had pesto and i really need to try it.

what is CSA? i've never heard of this fruit/veggie delicious.

Jenn said...

Jo-I updated the post with community supported agriculture info. Yeah I had to google that.
One of the farmer's market vendors does it in my area.

jessy said...

oh man, i'm so jealousfaced that you got to join a CSA. dan & i have been on waitlists (for 2 separate CSAs) for about 2 years now! we're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll get on a CSA this year! your local pizza looks DIVINE! it's perfect! and now i want pizza, too! ahahaha! yay!

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Oooh pesto pizza! Oh man, you just made me un-sick of food! Really! You did!! YAY!!

For the Love of Guava said...

That's where I found my CSA too! Ooh... and good easy pizza dough... I was just thinking some pesto tofu ricotta pizza sounded delish...

Alexandra (lean and strong) said...

Pesto pizza is just too good! I'm gng to try your dough as well, as the one I always make is very temperamental. :)

Anonymous said...

Pesto pizza! Ahhh, that's something that never occurred to me (yeah, I'm slow) and I've been wanting to make local pizza for a while now. Thanks for the idea :-) I'll use your pizza dough too, the inspiration of it all. Enjoy your CSA - I'm in a year-round one and it makes things so much more structured, and the relationship with the farmers makes it so special.