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| Fresh, gooey & delicious! |
At this point in the summer, our Optimistic Garden begins to
yield some of its initial bounty. It’s fantastically exciting to pick our first
little tomatoes, mint, chamomile, rhubarb, basil and peppers. This year we bought some unique hot pepper
plants: jalapeno, Kung Pao, Hot Banana, Chili and others. I actually picked the super-hot peppers wearirng
gloves! My favorite pepper plants are
the jalapeno purple peppers. They are
really beautiful, with little purple flowers and eggplant colored peppers. I
wondered though, at the wisdom of planting so many varieties of hot peppers. I
mean, what am I going to do with all the hot peppers we’re picking??
(Read: Sharon picked a pack of purple peppers). The rest of our “crops” don’t
take a lot of creativity to figure out how to use. The kids eat the little tomatoes as fast as I
can pick them! I use the mint and basil
for pesto and other recipes. I have started drying out the mint and storing it
in mason jars to use for mint tea (the chocolate mint is particularly awesome…think
peppermint patty tea), and have started to dry out the chamomile flowers but
haven’t yielded more than enough for a single, but superb, cup of fresh
chamomile tea.
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| Hungarian Black Jalapeno Peppers! (They're really purple though!) |
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| Chamomile tea anyone?? |
I have been very perplexed about those hot purple
peppers. I really wanted to find a
recipe that would not only highlight the great hot and spicy flavor of the
peppers, but would showcase the gorgeous color of the unusual peppers. Luckily inspiration struck when we were in LA
while walking down Pico Avenue. One
store had a menu taped to its window advertising a “cool” hot pizza using
marinara sauce, jalapeno peppers, and cheese.
Lightbulb moment!! What if I made
my ubiquitous pizza crust using whole wheat pastry flour (to make it a little
heartier), topped it with a light layer of our favorite marinara, finely diced
the fabulous purple jalapeno peppers and sprinkled them on top of the sauce, topped
that with some marinated fresh mozzarella cheese, then baked it on a
pizza stone for a super crispy crust?
Crazy right? Holy Cow – it was
insanely, awesomely, delicious!! Surprisingly,
the purple peppers weren’t quite as hot as I thought they were going to be, so
while the pizza was a little spicy it wasn’t “OMG get me a glass of water crazy
spicy” and in fact had a nice little spicy after taste.
While I was already making Gourmet Pizza, I figured…what
other kind of pizza can I make using ingredients from our Optimistic Garden? I had some Garden
Fresh Pesto in the fridge and extra whole wheat pastry flour pizza
dough. I spread a thin layer of the
super fresh tasting Garden
Fresh Pesto on the crust, placed a handful of Optimistic Garden green and
purple basil leaves on top of the pesto, then topped a single piece with Trader
Joes goat cheese feta (I wasn’t sure how the feta would go over with the
troops), and sprinkled the rest of the pizza with shredded pizza cheese. All I can say is good things happen when I
MacGyver in the kitchen (BH!). The pizza
was SO fresh tasting! I liked the feta cheese piece, and the crowd at home inhaled the rest. I was a little surprised that both pizzas
went over so well. I had also made some
more traditional pizzas too (just in case), but the hands down favorites were
the “gourmet” ones. Who would have thunk
it??
During the warm, sunny, Chicago summer days, we go outside
to tend to our Optimistic Garden and inspect the newly flowering plants. We make great optimistic plans for
what we will do with the bountiful harvest that our garden yields. More garden fresh pizza’s in the Matten
family’s future perhaps? B”H, it’s all
good.
You can find additional articles and recipes relating to
this blog via: Garden
Fresh Pesto and Pizza to the
Rescue.
Pizza
Dough
2 ½ - 3 cups whole
wheat pastry flour
1 cup apple juice (or warm water)
1 envelope rapid rise yeast (2 ½
teaspoons)
1 ½ tbsp olive
oil
½ tsp salt
Nonstick
vegetable spray
Combine apple juice and yeast. Allow mixture to sit for 3 minutes until
yeast is dissolved and starting to bubble.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, olive oil and
salt. Stir in apple juice/yeast, and
knead for 3-5 minutes until dough is smooth.
Remove dough from bowl and spray with non-stick vegetable spray. Return
dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap
or towel and allow dough to sit for at least 5 minutes. (Makes one 16” pizza crust or two thin 12”
pizza crusts)
Garden
Fresh Pesto
This
pesto has a little kick to it from the crushed red pepper. For a milder, less spicy pesto reduce or omit
the crushed red pepper and black pepper.
4 ripe
plum tomatoes, cubed
1 cup fresh parsley leaves
½ cup fresh
mint leaves
½ cup fresh
basil leaves
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
½ teaspoon black peper
⅓ cup extra
virgin olive oil
Combine all the ingredients, except the olive oil, in a food
processor bowl. Pulse until ingredients
are coarsely ground. Add the olive oil
and pulse until thoroughly combined. Transfer
to container with a lid and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes for flavors to
blend.
Spicy
Jalapeno Pizza with Fresh Marinated Mozzarella
(Makes
one 12” pizza)
½ recipe Pizza
Dough
¼ cup
marinara sauce
1 medium
jalapeno pepper finely diced
8 ounces
fresh marinated mozzarella cheese, sliced
Preheat oven
to 375° F Convection or 400° F Bake.
On a lightly
floured surface, roll pizza dough to a 12” round. If not using a pizza stone, lightly grease a
12” pizza pan with non-stick vegetable spray.
Place dough
on a round pizza stone or prepared pan.
Evenly spread marinara sauce over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the diced jalapeno
pepper. Top with the fresh marinated
mozzarella cheese. Bake for 20 minutes
until the cheese is completely melted and bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5
minutes before slicing.
Pesto
Pizza with Fresh Basil
(Makes
one 12” pizza)
½ recipe Pizza
Dough
¾ cup Garden
Fresh Pesto
¼ cup fresh
basil leaves
8 ounces shredded
pizza or part skim mozzarella cheese (or feta cheese)
On a lightly
floured surface, roll pizza dough to a 12” round. If not using a pizza stone, lightly grease a
12” pizza pan with non-stick vegetable spray.
Place dough
on a round pizza stone or prepared pan.
Evenly spread the pesto over the dough.
Sprinkle the dough with the fresh basil leaves. Top with the shredded cheese. Bake for 20 minutes until the cheese is
completely melted and bubbling. Remove
from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
Spicy Jalapeno Pizza with Fresh Marinated Mozzarella
Start with Dear Husbands favorite cheese...
Dice a spicy jalapeno pepper...I seeded
this one so it wouldn't be too hot!
(Purple ones are prettier!!)
Spread the sauce...
Top with the peppers...
Silly me...thought I could use only 1/2 a package
of cheese...wait and see what happens...
Who was I kidding??
Add the rest of the package for
heaven's sake!!
Much better!!
AMAZING!!!
That piece is MINE!!!
Pesto Pizza with Fresh Basil
Start with super fresh ingredients...
It doesn't get fresher than this!
After making the pesto, spread
it on the pizza. Not too much
or it will be too liquidy.
Top with fresh basil. Yes...
we're growing purple basil too!!
Top with your favorite cheese...
here's the feta (it was really good!)
Or...shredded cheese...
Bake until bubbly...
BEST PIZZA EVER!!
And now...
a little optimism from our garden...
So...
Here's what I do with my time....
(when I'm not writing the fabulous Kosher Everyday!)
Kosher Everyday
is dedicated to the memory of my father
Dr. Theodore
Saltzberg - Tuvia Ben Nachum Z”L
May his memory
be for a blessing - Yihi zichro baruch.
Look
for additional information about Edible Experience Kosher Everyday at www.koshereveryday.com,
aish.com,
Mishpacha Magazine’s Kosher Inspired Magazine,
The
Chicago Tribune Syndication,
or on Facebook at Edible Experience by Sharon
These
recipes are for sole, personal use of visitors to Sharon Matten -Edible
Experience Kosher Everyday. Edible Experience Kosher Everyday recipes are for
your enjoyment but are not to be posted or reprinted without express permission
from Sharon Matten. Thank you!!
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