Meatless Monday: Vegetarian Pizza

Some time ago Mary and I decided we would take a small step toward healthier eating.  We decided to limit red meat to twice weekly and include one meatless day per week.  The remainder could be fish and poultry.  Then the challenge became to come up with meatless meals we enjoy, satisfy us, and not feel deprived.  One of those is a homemade meatless pizza, described here along with a wine pairing that is just fantastic.  Here's Mary, talking about making the pizza.  This week was Meatless Monday.

I’ve been making my own pizza crust for 10 years. It isn’t exactly like pizza parlor crust, but we think it’s delicious. It has a nice combination of doughy texture and a little crunch.  I use whole grain flour and NO sugar, so that’s a little different than most recipes. I found Fleischmann’s® Pizza Crust Yeast, and I follow directions on the back of the packet, leaving out the sugar. It’s SO easy! You can knead it in the food processor, but I prefer doing it by hand. After I knead the dough, I shape it and let it rest a while. Then I pat it out and stretch it to the size crust I want. I cook the plain dough in the oven for just 5 minutes at 350° so it’s easy to handle. We bought a pizza stone and a pizza peel – I highly recommend having these!

Sauce is spread thinly. Mozzarella is sprinkled on top, then whatever veggies you like. I did half-and-half with mushrooms/onions/garlic on Brian’s half and artichoke hearts on mine. Then just keep layering: tomatoes and/or sun-dried tomatoes, bell peppers, olives, whatever!

More mozzarella cheese goes on top, and into the 450° oven on the preheated stone for 15 minutes. Voilà!

The stone is really important to the finished product.  It gives the crust that great crunch, but doesn't overcook the rest of the crust or the pizza.  When finished, use a wooden peel to remove and handle the pizza.  You can put flour or corn meal on the peel to keep it smooth and easy to slide under the pizza.

Brian here again.  We paired the pizza with a delightful wine from the Languedoc, the southwest region of France, known for blends of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, and other varieties.  Here's wife and wine.  Aren't they cute?

The producer is Abbaye de Tholomies from a specific appellation in the Languedoc called Minervois.  This bottle was from the 2004 vintage, a blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre.  It had ripe fruit aromas and flavors of dark berry, plum, perhaps some licorice, a little mocha or chocolate, but adequately balanced, not hot with too much alcohol. The palate was medium to full in body with smooth tannins and low to medium acidity. It was modestly complex with a medium finish. All in all, a nice weeknight pizza wine. 14.0% alcohol.  We paid $25 for this wine.

Do you have vegetarian meals you would like to suggest?  Post them here!  We'd love to hear your ideas and maybe others would, too.

That's it for this post.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Post your comments and tell us what you think of the blog.  Suggest ideas for future blog posts.

Cheers,
Mary and Brian