From Farm to Table

Last weekend we went to the Winter Garden farmer's market and decided it would be fun to get different vegetables to use to make our own pizza. We made pizza last spring and it brought us back to our blissful days in Italy because it tasted like the delicious pizza we ate when we were in Rome. Thin, crunchy crust, fresh tomatoes and basil, you get the picture.

We borrowed a Pizza and Wine cookbook from Tyler's parents and also took their pizza stone (we'll have to make you pizza next time you come to visit!) and last night we mustered up the energy to create a beautiful and delicious masterpiece with fresh ingredients from the farmer's market.

I made the dough during the day because it had to rise a few times. It was very easy because all I had to do was mix the yeast, water, flour, and salt in a mixer, let it rise for one hour, and then break it into individual balls and let it rise for 45 minutes. We put the left over dough in the freezer and already have plans to make a BBQ chicken pizza in the future.

Then came the sauce. We used tomatoes from the farmer's market and pureed them and then added olive oil, oregano, and sea salt. How easy is that? The fresh tomatoes spelled amazing and the olive oil gave it a beautiful color (maybe I've been watching a little too much food network...)

I rolled out the dough and then we strategically arranged it on top of four spatulas. Why the spatulas, you might ask? Well, this is where a pizza peel would come in handy but we had to make do since we forgot to get one. Last spring when we made the pizza we ran into the problem of how to transfer an already assembled, uncooked pizza, to a hot pizza stone already in the oven. Well, it was quite a mess but we managed somehow. So this time we thought the spatulas would help and it worked much better, but we'll have to get a pizza peel to make it even better for our next pizza making adventure.

Then came the fun part: assembling the pizza. This is where Tyler comes in, he is the pro at chopping vegetables and designing the pizza. Tyler sauteed small red potatoes from the farmer's market in olive oil to cook them to a nice soft texture. Next he sauteed mushrooms and chopped up a yellow and orange bell pepper, also from the farmer's market. We had saved a few strips of bacon from our breakfast last weekend and we used a mix of mozzarella and shaved Parmesan cheese. The pizza looked amazing even before it went into the oven.

The homemade pizza dough, rolled out to about a half inch thick, cooked beautifully on the pizza stone. It came out crispy and brown and all the fresh ingredients were beautiful. Tyler topped the cooked pizza with cut up arugula which gave the pizza a finished look and also added a nice flavor. And finally, because everything in Italy is finished with this ingredient, Tyler sprinkled a small amount of olive oil on top.

We devoured the pizza and thankfully had enough dough and vegetables left to make a second pizza that we'll have for dinner another night. We love to cook together and enjoy the process of making the food about as much as we enjoy eating the finished product!