Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Homemade Pizzas are the Best

pizza night

The night before last, Mas and I took a nap at 5PM and accidentally slept until almost 10. Since we missed dinner and we knew we'd be up for several hours before getting back to sleep, we decided to make a big focaccia. I love Jamie Oliver's recipe in The Naked Chef, so I mixed it up and left it to rise while Mason sauteed some onions and mushrooms for toppings. After this huge late night snack (eaten while watching way too many episodes of DJH), I stuck the other half of the dough in the freezer for pizza. We split it in half last night and baked two pizzas, one for dinner and one for lunch/dinner today. Today's pizza was just made with leftovers we had in the fridge--pizza sauce, canned pineapple, black olives, garlic and some homemade tofu cashew ricotta, but last night's pizza was one of the best we've made yet. The crust was super thin and crisp, the sauce was homemade pesto and olive oil, and the toppings were all sauteed together--mushrooms, spinach, cabbage, garlic chives, basil and Vegefarm soy chicken. I also dolloped on the rest of the tofu ricotta, which is my new favorite pizza topping. It solidifies and turns a light golden color after baking. Next time, we're going to try mixing in more fresh herbs and spreading it over the entire crust as a mozzarella replacement.

Tofu Cashew Ricotta

1/2 pound extra firm tofu
1/4 c cashews
juice of 1 lemon
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 T nutritional yeast
2 tsp Penzey's pizza seasoning
1 tsp agave nectar
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Process cashews and garlic in food processor. Drain and pat tofu dry, then add to processor with lemon juice, nutritional yeast and spices. While processing, drizzle in agave and olive oil. Continue to process until thick, smooth and creamy.
(This is even better if you let it sit overnight and drain again before using.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This pizza looks awesome. Lately I have been wanting pizza at least once a week. I think it is what Arthur's baby brother in utero has been craving. Ha ha. Homemade pizza is the best.

jessy said...

that has got to be the most glorious looking pizza i've seen. damn, it's AWESOME! and you couldn't have picked better toppings! i love it! and thanks for the cheeze recipe, too!

superw00t!

Joanne said...

Wow! That looks like a hearty pizza! I made a delicious vegan chili tonight and added tempeh and two kinds of beans to it. I've made many variations of vegan chili but this one surpasses them all. I found it in the cookbook CalciYum!

Anonymous said...

must try! have been wanting to try homemade pizza. thanks for sharing this.