PIZZA!

Sunday, December 22
PIZZA!
Rating: 4.25
So. Seth’s sister sent us (alliteration much? Just be glad I didn’t give you her name, which also starts with an “S”) some pretty cool stuff for Christmas. Well, cool if you’re a couple of geeks. Which we are. First up was a Doctor Who salt and pepper shaker set. (I KNOW!) The TARDIS is the salt and a Dalek is the pepper. They are adorable and were part of my holiday cookie photos. Second was an Enterprise pizza cutter. Yes. The Starship Enterprise. NCC-1701. From the original series. I may have geeked out a little too much about this, but I grew up watching the show in reruns with my dad, and it honestly is what sparked my love for sci-fi. While I was cutting and Seth was taking pics, he was also playing the theme music from the original show. Because we are that geeky. So what about the pizza? Well, I have to start off by saying we’re a bit of a house divided when it comes to crust. Seth likes thin, crispy crust. I’m a native New Yorker, so I’m down with the thin, but crust should never, ever under any circumstances ever, EVER be crispy. Sigh. Seth usually wins this one because I love pizza so much, I’m the first to cave over the not having the right kind of crust. I always make my own crust (because NY’er) and when I make thin crust for Seth, it’s actually a fast dinner because the dough doesn’t need to rise. I have some basic notes I use as a loose recipe, but if you just search “thin, crispy pizza crust”, a bazillion hits will come up. This time I used white, all-purpose flour, but generally, I try to be healthier about it and use whole wheat pastry flour, which can be substituted for white in an even ratio. Just do NOT try to do a straight 1:1 swap for whole wheat flour or you’ll end up with a brick instead of crust. If you do substitute, the general rule is ¾ cup whole wheat for 1 cup white. Or just search for whole wheat crust recipes. Seth likes to make his own sauce, so we bought a bunch of not-in-season tomatoes. His favorite is what we call Zombie Sauce. No. It’s not made from zombies or brains (hello, those aren’t vegan), but it’s from The Vegan Zombie website, and it’s super yummy good. It takes some time, and we like to cook it for longer and then zap it with the immersion blender for a second, but it is soooooo worth the effort it takes to make it. We like a lot of veggies on our pizzas, so we lightly sautéed some broccoli and garlic, and used that as well as sliced tomato, black olives (kalamata olives are really good too), red onion and spinach. Sometimes we add green or banana peppers, too. Normally, we prefer Daiya mozzeralla, but they were out at the store, so we used Vegan Gourmet brand instead (it’s also quite good). Have a nice salad with your pizza and feel virtuous. Oh, and live long and prosper.