A pizza will do the trick

The other day a friend wanted some company to the Farmers Market on Sunday morning. Although I was not in need of anything, it is always a treat to go IF you arrive early. And arrive early we did.

What I didn’t realise is that I would be the chief bag carrier, while my friend shopped and shopped and shopped. Ooo-eeey, those shoulder muscles! Yet it was a joy. She was shopping for a large family gathering that night, and I could tell the meal was going to be huge. Being of Italian extraction (my friend) added to the sense of food-occassion.

When I had a moment, I bought some sweeeeeet autumn cherry tomatoes, some rapé, and my favourite organic pizza dough. Squeezed them in on top of the other shopping. Day-dreamed of pizza.

Now I have to confess that during our scorchingly hot summer, I have not wanted to do a lot of cooking. My days in the heat started with cooling thick thick yoghurt and fruit, chopped and mixed through the yoghurt with maybe a drizzle of honey.

My afternoons began with a huge smoothie of fruit, nuts, LSA powder, linseed oil, evening primrose oil, turmeric, psyllium, an Ayurvedic tonic and anything else that took my fancy on the day. It is certainly a wonderful way to get your daily dose of so many things.

My evenings began with a wonderful wrap, with as many fresh veggies as I could stuff in, with some cheese or nut butters, plus anything else healthy that I could think of.

While I don’t recommend this for others (I am not a nutritionist), for me that combination made me feel great! Clearly it was right for my constitution and health level and the extreme heat. As an unintended side effect I lost a little weight as well without feeling hungry. (If I got hungry in between I ate nuts.)

But now the weather is cooler, and my body is asking me for other things, warming, energy providing foods. So after the expedition to the Farmer’s Market, I made pizza. And oven dried tomatoes. And cooked some rapé.

Haloumi Pizza with Oven Dried Tomatoes and Steamed Rapé

Source : inspired by the moment
Cuisine: Italian in style
Prep time: 10 mins + time to make dough and tomato sauce
Cooking time: 20mins
Serves: 4 – 6 people, depending how big you make it

ingredients
tomato pizza sauce – use a store-bought one, or, like me, make Lucullian’s Pomarolo (I make it in bulk and keep it in small containers in the freezer. It only takes a moment to make.
3 or 4 tomatoes, or more depending on the size of your pizza
250g haloumi
dried herbs (optional)
pizza dough (make Lucullian‘s, or buy a good, organic pizza dough – left over dough will store in the freezer, so make or buy plenty)
bunch of basil
extra virgin olive oil
half a handful of rocket or spinach leaves

method
Bring your pizza dough to room temperature. Roll or stretch it out to fit your pizza pan or tray. It can be a square tray or shallow metal dish if you don’t have a suitable round one. I don’t roll the dough – good dough will stretch and it is so easy to do.

Oil your tray lightly and stretch your pizza dough over it. Allow to rest for 5 minutes or so, and restretch if it has shrunk a little.

Very lightly oil the top of your dough and spread over several tablespoons of your tomato sauce.  Slice the tomatoes and layer them around the pizza on top of the sauce. If I am using roma tomatoes, I slice them lengthwise. You could use halved cherry tomatoes too.

Grate the haloumi and sprinkle it over the tomatoes. If using dried herbs, sprinkle these over the haloumi. You could also use fresh rosemary or thyme.

Bake in a 200C oven for 20 minutes.

While the pizza is baking, make some basil oil by blending up a bunch of basil with about 1/2 – 3/4 cup of olive oil. Add the oil slowly, until you have a consistency that will pour well, like a slightly thick salad dressing.

When the pizza is cooked, pour over the basil oil and top with the rocket leaves. Serve and enjoy!

Oven Dried Tomatoes

To oven dry tomatoes, see the recipe here.

Steamed Rapé

Source : inspired by the moment
Cuisine: Italian in style
Prep time: 4 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Serves: 4 – 6 people, depending how you use it

ingredients
Bunch of rapé (broccoli raab)
3 cloves garlic
Dried chilli or peperoncino (red pepper flakes)
squeeze lemon
extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper

ingredients
Peel and chop the garlic and sauté very gently in olive oil for about 10 minutes so the oil does infuse the flavours. You will need a very low heat for this. Don’t burn the garlic – if it begins to colour, go onto the next step.

Add the rapé to the pan with the oil and garlic, and gently sauté until it begins to wilt, about 3 minutes or so. Toss it so that it cooks evenly.

Add a little water, 1 to 2 tablespoons, cover the rapé with a lit and allow to steam on a  low-medium heat. Toss the greens with tongs every minute or so and allow it to steam for about 3 to 4 minutes.

When it is cooked, squeeze some fresh lemon juice on it, add salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle with some peperoncino or dried chilli. You can add some Parmigiano cheese too if you like. Serve and enjoy!

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