Apple Spinach Feta Pizza - Recipe

Pizza is another one of my staple recipes. I make my own sauce and dough. I have yet to try making my own cheese. It's on my list - again perhaps when I have my own kitchen.

When I asked Jeff what I should make for dinner this week his answer was pizza. I generally just kind of wing my pizza dough. But this time I decided to use a recipe I saw in Earth to Table. It looks beautiful in their pictures. But the method was kind of odd. It said to use the hook attachment on my Kitchen Aid. I don't have a hook attachment or a Kitchen Aid so I just mixed it the old fashion way. The weird part was instead of mixing in all the water and then adding flour until the dough was the right consistency, the recipe says to add all the flour and then work in extra water. This is really hard to do by hand; super sticky and I never got a great constancy.

I was pretty disappointed in the results. The dough was tough, chewy, dry and I missed the hearty flavor I get from adding in whole grains. This recipe was all white flour.

I was not disappointed with the toppings. Homemade pizza sauce is easy and oh so tasty. I'll put the recipe at the bottom of the post. Now on to the exciting part, I chose feta, spinach and apples for the toppings.

 

I had some fun making this animated gif on gifninja.com. 

1. Crust
2. Sauce
3. Apple and Cheeses (Feta, Provolone, Parmesean)
4. Spinach
5. Finished Pizza

Making the animated gif was really easy and surprisingly quick. 

But back to the food.  Yum.  The sweet crunch of the apple with the salty sharp feta cheese and the stretchy stringy provolone makes this my favorite vegetarian pizza.  The spinach really just adds some nice green color and makes the pizza look healthier.  There is probably only a tiny nutrition boost with the spinach.  But I'll take what I can get.

Quick and Easy Tomato Pizza Sauce

1 can diced tomatoes (15oz)
1 can tomato paste (6oz)
1 medium carrot, grated
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon - the secret ingredient
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon honey (optional)
Salt to taste (1/2 teaspoon or so)

Step 1: Sauté the onions in a little bit of olive oil until transparent. Then add in the shredded carrots. Keep sautéing until the carrots start to soften. You may need to add a little water so things don't get dry and burn. 

Step 2:  Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste and all the spices.    The cinnamon may seem a little odd, but it adds more smell than flavor.  It goes well with any topping, but it is particularly good with the apple.  Add enough water to the pan to make it saucy, cover and let simmer.  If you have the right amount of water the sauce will make big bubbly plops.  That's why you have to cover the sauce so it doesn't plop and splatter sauce everywhere.  This needs to simmer for a while now for everything to cook together.  Taste your sauce to see where it's at.  If it tastes too acidic add a teaspoon of sugar to balance things out.  If it just tastes too bland add a little more salt.
 
Step 3:  You can be done at this point, but if you want a smoother sauce you can let the sauce cool and then puree it a bit in a blender or food processor or if you have an immersion blender this is the perfect time to employ it. 

This recipe makes enough sauce for two 14" pizzas.

I'll put up my pizza dough recipe the next time I make it.  I promise it's tasty and much easier to make by hand than the Earth to Table one.