roasted vegetable french bread pizza

Ecstasy. Pure ecstasy.

This recipe turned out even better than I had imagined. You know, when you take that first bite and you're not even done chewing before you have to let out a muffled "Woah..." This roasted vegetable french bread pizza with pesto and ricotta made me do that.

The pesto sinks into the bread and creates an almost garlic bread type base, the ricotta gets warm and creamy, and roasted vegetables are, well, they're just heavenly (one of my favorite things on the planet, actually)! I'm going to be making this one over and over and over.

The cost of this recipe got a little out of hand, but there are several ways you can rein it in. First, if you can find a farmers market, CSA, or some other cheap source of vegetables, that will help a lot. Produce prices at my local grocery store were a bit (okay, more like a lot) on the steep side. This might be a good recipe to stash until the peak of summer when produce is abundant and cheap. You can make your own pesto (use this parsley pesto recipe) and that should help. Also, you could make this on some homemade focaccia instead of French Bread, which would cut a big chunk from the price (although the crispy exterior and fluffy interior of French bread is pretty magical). And lastly, this pizza was actually quite filling, so you might get more like 8 servings out of it.

Oh boy, I can't wait until I get hungry again so that I can have more...

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taco pizza

I was sitting at work last weekend all bored and hungry when I was hit with two super strong cravings at once - tacos and pizza. I knew a taco pizza had to be in my near future. So, here it is. My version of the grade school lunchroom classic!

I decided to make this one a vegetarian pizza just because it seemed easier at the moment. To make it non-veg, just brown some ground beef (or chicken!) with taco seasoning and add it with the rest of the toppings.

I used a refried bean mixture as the "sauce" because I loved having a bean "sauce" on my hummus pizza. Another option would be to use straight taco sauce as the pizza sauce, and then sprinkle whole black beans on as a topping.

I cut costs by buying my cheese in bulk (the rest will be frozen) and making my own dough. I didn't include the dough instructions, but you can check them out here. Or, you can buy pre-made dough from your local pizzaria or grocery store.

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stromboli

What's better than pizza? Pizza in a different shape!

Okay, so stromboli isn't exactly like pizza, but it's pretty darn close. It's like a sauce-less pizza rolled up into a delicious coil... and I have to admit, the coil makes it really fun to eat. You can eat it plain (like I do) or dip each slice into sauce. It's great both ways.

This stromboli is only as expensive as the ingredients you decide to put inside of it. Ever since I made the salami Italian sandwiches back in December, I've wanted salami again. So, even though it was a lil'bit pricy, i sprung for it. I also used provolone cheese because it goes great with salami and some banana pepper rings that I had leftover in the fridge. It was PERFECT.

Oh, and FYI, I totally intended to make a big green salad after all of that gooey Jalapeno Popper Mac n' Cheese, but the grocery store was out of kale so I had to put the salad that I had planned on hold till my next day off, which is Wednesday. So, hang in there. I'll have something healthy soon. Promise.


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caramelized onion & mushroom white pizza

This recipe was a true labor of love. Sometimes food just taste better when you know you've put a lot of time into it.

It's not that this recipe was at all difficult, it just takes time. Between the fermenting dough and caramelized onions, you need to plan ahead for this one. But most of the time is spent letting the ingredients do their own thing while you go paint your toe nails, do your laundry, or watch Law & Order. So, don't be scared off by the length of it.

This pizza is truly awesome with it's garlicky cream sauce, sweet caramelized onions, and earthy sauteed mushrooms. Everything just goes together. And after calculating the cost, I have to say I was quite surprised. I expected the total to be twice as much and to have to explain that I was simply trying to use up a bag of onions that have been sitting on my counter for a couple weeks and a half pound of mushrooms that were starting to get wrinkly in my fridge. I guess I don't have to make excuses after all! It's an all around winner!

So, plan ahead to have a pizza night this Friday and mix up your dough the night before... you WON'T be disappointed!

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kale, swiss & tomato pizza

When I got this month's Bon Appetit magazine I realized that it had been way, way too long since I had made pizza. The cover has a beautiful picture of a hand made pizza and touts "Make Pizza Like a Pro." Of course, I opened that as fast as I possibly could.

I was delighted to find that the pizza dough recipe inside was almost the exact same recipe as the no-knead focaccia that I had been using for pizza dough (see no-knead pesto pizza). But, my pizza dough, as delicious as it is, never turned out like the picture on the magazine cover. So, I made a few small changes per the suggestions in the article.

First, I used only all-purpose flour instead of the all-purpose and whole wheat combo that I usually do. I don't like sacrificing my whole wheat flour, but I gotta be honest, it does make a huge difference in the texture. The dough was soft, supple, and had fantastic gluten formation, which allowed me to stretch the dough nice and thin.

Second, I actually turned my oven up to 500 degrees. I tried this once before, but it took forever and I didn't have the patience, so I have been cooking my pizzas at about 425-450. In the back of my head I knew that the oven needed to be as hot as possible, yet I always compromised this step. Never again. Lastly, to make up for the fact that the oven was only 500 degrees and not hotter, I moved my oven rack up to the top third of my oven to try to capture as much heat as possible. Pizzas need to cook hot and FAST.

And that's how I finally achieved a real, pizzaria type crust. Crunchy and flakey on the outside, chewy but not dense on the inside. It was perfect.


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thai chicken pizza

Due to poor planning on my part, I only came out of this weekend with one recipe to post... but boy, oh boy, is it a GOOD one!! These little individual Thai chicken pizzas on homemade naan bread are just heavenly. ...to say the least.

I made my pizzas on homemade naan, but if you don't want to make a batch, you can always use store bought naan or even pita bread. But if you haven't tried this naan recipe yet, you definitely should. It's soft, light, fluffy, and full of flavor.

I tried to keep it simple with the ingredients and toppings because, if you ask me, there's nothing worse about making homemade pizzas than to have them be really complicated. If you want to go a step or two further and try some more toppings, try pineapple, jalapeno, Thai basil, or green onion. If you want an extra special peanut sauce for the base (instead of the super quick version that I made here), check out this peanut sauce recipe.

Lastly, I have all of the ingredients/toppings for these pizzas stored in individual containers in my fridge. This way, I can quickly top and cook a pizza "to order" and have them hot and fresh! These pizzas are so easy and delicious! I will be making them again!

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pesto focaccia pizza

I'm addicted to pizza, I really am... but I make no apologies for it. The endless variety of flavor and texture means that the good just keeps coming.

The only problem with homemade pizza is the dough. You've got to knead, you've got to let it rise and rest... it's hours in the making. Not good. And that's why on Friday night when I'm about to topple over from exhaustion, I sometimes stop and buy a frozen pizza. *sigh* Yes, I admit to the occasional frozen pizza.

But I think I just found a good alternative - no-knead focaccia. In the morning before work, I just mix up a batch of the no-knead focaccia bread, let it ferment while I'm at work, and then when I get home all it needs is to be stretched, topped, and popped in the oven.

I peeked at the ingredient list on the last frozen pizza that I bought and the crust alone had about twenty different items on it. I'm really not freaked out by long ingredient lists or unpronounceable ingredients, but that just seemed excessive. This dough has four ingredients - including water.

Mixing the dough before work takes less than five minutes. It doesn't matter if the dough is too wet or too dry, you just go with it. If you don't even have five minutes, measure the dry ingredients the night before and just add the water in the morning. You *can* completely mix the dough the night before and let it ferment almost 24 hours but I think the flavor texture is best between 8-16 hours so I do it in the morning.

This recipe makes two pizzas. I have also successfully halved the recipe.

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thick & rich pizza sauce

I've made pizza sauce before but I wanted to make one that was even thicker and richer because I had big plans to dip things in it ("things" being pizzadillas). Dipping sauces have to be really thick or else they won't hang on to whatever is being dunked in them.

This is definitely my new go-to sauce for pizzas but you can also use it for any red sauce application. Meatball subs, eggplant or chicken parmesan, or just for dipping breadsticks. it's a quick, easy, all-purpose red sauce.

This recipe makes enough for two large pizzas or about 12 dipping portions. The sauce freezes great so go ahead and freeze half of it and then you won't have to make a batch the next time you want a pizza!

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pizzadillas

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I've been BUSY lately. So, when I finally got a day off, I wanted something quick, delicious, and satisfying. I had not been meeting my quesadilla quota lately but I was kinda craving pizza... so I decided to have both!

These pizzadillas would be a really fun snack for a kids party. Put the ingredients, or "toppings", out and let the kids build their own pizzadillas. Then just crisp them up in the skillet, slice them, and let the kids dip the wedges in the sauce! I have to admit... I feel kind of giddy like a kid when I'm eating them too :P

I chose "supreme" like toppings but you could do anything. Make it vegetarian, greek, pepperoni-lovers, cheap, expensive, whatever. Keep the toppings prepped and in resealable containers in the fridge and then just build the pizzadillas fresh each time. They only take about 5-7 minutes in the skillet!

Also, the "toppings" make excellent toppings for salads, so if they're already prepped in your fridge...

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hummus & grilled vegetable pizza

I know it sounds weird, hummus on a pizza? Well, back in the day when I was slingin' pizzas at Whole Foods, we made a special vegan pizza using hummus as a replacement for the sauce and cheese. We didn't really ever get any requests for this pizza but we made it a few times just for fun. So, what was it like? GOOOOOOOOOOD!

The hummus just kind of works because it's thick and rich like cheese and it's almost as moist as sauce. Not to mention, hummus has LOADS of flavor. I guess you can just think about it like dipping some pita into hummus and then eating some roasted vegetables in the same bite. See? It does make sense.

Anyway, I made this pizza from scratch using this dough recipe and this hummus recipe. So, it did take a while to make but I was able to make both the hummus and the roasted vegetables during the rise time for the dough. This is a great rainy summer day project.

If you don't want to go through the trouble of making the dough, check with your local pizzeria to see if they sell raw dough balls. Also, check the frozen section of the grocery store. Sometimes pizza dough balls are sold frozen. They just need to be thawed and stretched then they're ready to go!


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honey wheat pizza dough

October is national pizza month! I don't remember where I read that or if it is even legit but who cares, it's a good enough excuse to make some pizza!

After finding that I still have high cholesterol, I have a renewed motivation to eat a bit healthier... of course, this would normally clash with my big plans to celebrate national pizza month but I found a way to make it work. I WON'T give up my pizza.

Instead of making normal pizza dough I decided to inject a little (well, a lot actually) of fiber by making a honey wheat dough. The grocery store was out of regular whole wheat flour so I had to buy an itty bitty bag of fancy, expensive stone ground whole wheat flour. In the end, I was really happy with the purchase. The stone ground flour has a lot more texture and flavor than regular whole wheat flour. Feel free to use either one in the recipe.

Some people shrug off making 50/50 wheat/white breads and doughs thinking it won't make enough of a difference. Well, according to the nutrition label on my stone ground flour, 1/4 cup contains 4g of fiber. I used a whole cup in the recipe which means that I injected 16 grams of fiber into the pizza or 2 grams per slice (if cut into 8)... and that's just the dough, not the vegetable toppings. I think that is significant.

Regardless of the fiber content, I like this dough WAY better than my original pizza dough recipe. It is fluffier with a crisper crust. It was just perfect.


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spicy hawaiian pizza

After making a refrigerator full of pizzas last week, I almost forgot to post this one.

It's funny how your taste buds change as you get older. For the first, oh, 25 years of my life the thought of pineapple on a pizza made me gag (and not many foods do). Then, somehow, the tables turned. Without notice I suddenly craved pineapple on pizza. Weird, I know but that's also how I came to love V8 juice.

Anyway. Hawaiian pizzas (pineapple and ham) have sooo many possibilities. One of my favorites is to spice it up with a little bit of jalapeno, which I have done here. If you have a few extra pennies, buy some feta and sprinkle it on there for a little saltiness (salty, sweet and spicy is the triple threat of deliciousness).

If fresh jalapenos are a little too spicy for you, try pickled jalapenos instead. If ANY jalapeno is too spicy, use a little fresh red onion to juxtapose the sweet pineapple.


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breakfast pizza

I've been experimenting with sauce and dough this past week which means that I eventually had to make some actual pizzas. I decided on two recipes, breakfast pizza being the first. If you've never heard of breakfast pizza, you may be thinking to yourself "ewww, egg on pizza?" but don't knock it 'till you try it, folks.

When I worked in the pizza biz we made breakfast pizza all the time, the most popular being a super greasy bacon, sausage, egg and cheese pie. Because I have an aversion to large amounts of grease, my favorite one to make was egg, spinach, tomato, artichoke hearts and feta. Those ingredients are a little too expensive for me to spring for at home so I made a hybrid of the two. Use whatever ingredients you can find at a good price, keeping in mind that whatever is good in an omelet will also be good on a breakfast pizza.

My breakfast pizza consists of eggs, cheese, ham, tomato and green onion. After a bit of comparison shopping I was able to find some thick sliced ham for a decent price: $2.98 for 16 oz. (compare that to pre-packaged deli sliced ham that is usually $3+ for only 9 oz.). I only needed 3 oz. to totally cover my pizza and I will be using some on another pizza later this week. The remainder (about 10 oz. or so) will be frozen for later use. It pays to shop around.


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pizza sauce

I can't very well go on an obsessive pizza spree if I don't make my own sauce, right? Right. Well, not only is pizza sauce super easy to make but it's also less expensive than the store brand (what, you're not surprised?).

I like slightly chunky pizza sauce so I used diced tomatoes in mine but if you like a smoother sauce, pick up some crushed tomatoes instead. The funny thing about crushed tomatoes is that they really look like they've been pureed rather than crushed. So, don't let the name fool you. Crushed tomatoes will give you a smooth sauce.

This recipe makes enough for 3 to 4 large pizzas, depending on how much sauce you like. If you're not one to make three pizzas at one time, simply freeze the rest in individual freezer bags. The sauce thaws in a jiffy so you'll have some ready the next time you're in the pizza mood.


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pizza dough

After much contemplating, I decided to make pizza as the first Budget Bytes meal in my new home. I know it sounds cheesy, but pizza really is my favorite food. It has endless possibilities and usually includes my favorite things: bread, tomatoes and cheese.

I've made a few pizzas for Budget Bytes already but I used pre-made pizza dough to save time. One ball of the pre-made dough cost me $2.79... now that I've actually crunched the numbers and figured out how much it costs to make that same ball of dough, I'm kinda kicking myself. Yeah, I knew it would be less expensive to make my own but... wow, less than 50 cents?!

Sure, it takes a little bit of work (my triceps are sore from kneading three batches during my recipe experimentation) but you can make a few batches at a time and freeze it for later use. Plus, all of the sweat inducing kneading will make you feel less guilty about eating the pizza later!

The recipe that I finally went with was the most basic (from Alton Brown) and is very close to what I used when I worked in the pizza world. Basically, all you do is combine yeast, sugar, water, flour salt and olive oil. That's it. If you want you can use some whole wheat flour, high-gluten or bread flour or mix in some herbs like garlic or basil. This recipe begs for experimentation.

The kneading process may take a little practice but if you mess it up all you've lost is 37 cents and burned a few calories. Not a bad deal. So lets get to it!


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bbq chicken pizzas

This may be the quickest, most delicious BBQ chicken pizza that you'll ever make. I know it was for me. I don't usually buy pre-baked pizza crusts (it's pretty expensive compared to homemade) but I've got places to go and people to see this weekend so I took a HUGE short cut and bought the ready-made crusts. Don't worry, if you like to make your own crust or buy dough from your local pizzaria (like I usually do), you can still make this recipe. It will take a tad bit longer but be a lot less expensive! Later this summer I will be getting into some serious bread making and will surely make lots of pizza dough so stay tuned for that. Until then, it's the pre-made stuff... which is still delicious, by the way.

I had some frozen chicken breasts in my freezer (buying them in 5 lb. packs saves you at least $1 per pound) so I pulled one out to use for the pizzas. This chicken breast was pretty massive, weighing in at .75 lb. At first I didn't think that one would be enough for two pizzas (I was thinking more like .5 lb. per pizza) but It turned out to be quite a bit of meat. If you have smaller chicken breasts (.5 lb. each), you could probably still use just one.


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greek pizza

I love pizza... so many flavors and textures, the possibilities are endless. This week I made a Greek pizza (or at least that's what I'm calling it) that uses olive oil and spices instead of a red sauce. On the seasoned crust I piled on mozzarella cheese and six additional toppings (spinach, goat cheese, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, artichoke hearts and pepperoni). A six topping pizza like this would cost $16.99 at the pizzaria where I bought the dough but I made it for almost half that cost! I set the serving size at 2 slices (or 1/4 of the whole pie) but I found it to be really filling and if it were served with a side or two one slice would definitely be enough. The pepperoni are optional (this would make a great vegetarian pizza) but I happened to have some left over and you know how I like to use up leftovers...


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spinach and goat cheese pizza

I'll tell you a secret: when I'm not making this blog, I make gourmet pizzas for 8 hours, 3 days a week! This is one that I make for myself because it is just so freakin good! As I mentioned earlier, I splurged this week on goat cheese because I found it on sale for $4.99/11 oz.! This is something I would love to make when getting together with friends and a bottle of wine. Wine and pizza are so great together... so long as it's good pizza (like this) and not the grease soaked 30 minute delivery kind ;)

Spinach and Goat cheese Pizza



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