How I cook

Since subscribing to the CSA, I’ve changed how I cook quite a bit. No longer am I enslaved to the ingredients in one recipe. Now I mix and match recipes and ingredients all willy-nilly. After a while you get an idea what veggies can be combinded or subbed, regardless of what the recipe calls for.

Last night I made a pizza from scratch. It was very tasty. I realized that I had used bits of three different recipes, and made up quite a bit more. I’ve included the final recipe below with links to the contributing recipes. I’m lame and have no pictures.

Caramelized Onion and Fennel Pizza

Pizza dough from this recipe
Roasted cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves from Smitten Kitchen recipe
2 medium onions, sliced thinly
1 fennel bulb, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon each olive oil, water, and balsamic vinegar
2/3 C ricotta cheese
1/4 C finely grated parmesan
Fresh mozzarella, sliced
Olive oil

Make dough (I use a bread machine) and set aside, covered. You may need to punch it down once or twice as it will rise while you’re preparing the other ingredients.

Preheat oven to 425 with pizza stone.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan on medium high heat. Add onions and fennel and cook for five minutes. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently. When onions are golden, add water and vinegar and reduce completely. (This is taken from a recipe for Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes – I couldn’t re-find it on the internet.)

Combine several roasted mashed garlic cloves with ricotta and parmesan cheese.

Roll or throw pizza dough to even thickness and place on a pizza peel generously coated with corn meal. Brush with olive oil. Spread ricotta mixture evenly. Layer onion/fennel mixture over ricotta. Cover with slices of mozzarella, and add roasted tomatoes on the top.

Bake on pizza stone for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden. Remove from stone with pizza peel, allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.