TWD: Eastern Mediterranean Pizza

 Great Pizza, easy dough!

The base for this pizza is a pita bread. For a yeasted bread I thought it's relatively easy to handle, two rising/resting periods not more. That's ok.

The Eastern Mediterranean Pizza comes with a tomato topping, some pine nuts and a lot of spices. I added some goat cheese, omitted the lamb (no meat in this house) and gave it some zucchini instead.


I made half the recipe and ended up with for smaller pizzas, just enough for four people for a soccer-
watching-snack. I had some dough-leftovers which I mixed up wit fresh spices and made plain mini-pitas from it (sorry, no pictures). Both - the pizza and the pitas - were really great in taste, even the day after.

Baking time was a bit longer than in the recipe, but maybe the 7,8 mins in the recipe would have even been enough.

To find out about the reciep, have a look at Dorie Greenspans book on p. 156!

TWD: Pizza with Onion Confit

The Pizza with Onion Confit is one of the reasons I like the "new" book (in fact, it is really not that new at all, anymore...) - making also savory dishes from time to time is really a nice change and after all the Christmas-sweets just right.

I made the Onion Confit with pearl onion, because I had leftovers from the New Years-eve raclette. I know, this is a bit like betraying, because I might be the only one without red swollen and tearful eyes. But the pickles had to vanish and if I find an easy way out - I confess - I take it.

It was pretty easy to cook, but takes some time, about an hour. The red wine and vinegar give the onions a wonderful, dark red/violet colour. Instead of wine-vinegar and cream de cassis I used cassis-vinegar. I felt really clever when I found the small bottle of cassis vinegar and had this smart idea. :o]

The pizza dough is not too difficult. It was my first pizza but turned out fine. I can imagine including some more herbs in the dough next time. Because I have a pizza function in my oven, the baking sheet has to go into the middle of it, not in the lower third. Something I learned...

For the topping I used the onion confit, sour cream, cocktail tomatos, black olive rings and salmon. And some seasoning, of course. How delicious!

I am eager to find out about all the different variations of toppings the group made!

Our host this week ist Paul of The Boy Can Bake - obviously one of the few men in the group. Head over to his blog to find out about the recipe, or buy the book by Dorie Greenspan! (it's on pp 159/160).

TWD: Pizza Rustica

It's Tuesday-with-Dorie-tuesday again and again I almost missed it. Maybe I should start baking something else in the weeks inbetween, because the 2-weekly-routine is just not made for me. Last time, I forgot to leave my link, this time, I almost forgot to blog.

Here is my Pizza Rustica attempt. I like that the new book includes also savory dishes and it perfectly fits the lenten season (I avoid sweets and alcohol during this time). As I don't eat meat I tried a vegetarian version, adding up more of the cheeses and a lot of spices, because the bacon would have brought a lot of salt and flavour I had to replace. (I wouldn't say I am vegetarian - I eat fish. And I would never say that I strictly deny meat always and forever. I just want it to be "worth" it, when I eat it. So, if it happens I eat some meat twice a year, that's still fine with me, but I want it to be "something special")

The "pizza" (I would rather call it a quiche, or tarte) was pretty pretty easy in the making and turned out fine. I liked the taste but am not completely satisfied with just putting in more cheese. I saw that some others used spinach or other vegetables. Dried tomatoes might be a good alternative, too.

If you want to find out about the original recipe, have a look into "Baking with Julia" by Dorie Greenspan (pp 430 and 431) or turn to the blogs of our hosts this week, Emily of Capitol Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home.