Pizza from the Garden

When I pass pizza dough in the Italian market or even the whole wheat ones at Trader Joe's it is often hard for me to resist. I love making my own dough, but this bag of pre-made dough makes for a super quick weeknight dinner and is so much cheaper than ordering pizza.

Pizza From the Garden
To make Pizza, put the cold dough onto a well oiled sheet pan and cover with plastic wrap. let sit in a warm area until it is very soft and has risen considerably. Press the dough out to the edges of the pan with your finger tips. Top with whatever you like and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven.

The pizza pictured is rubbed with olive oil, dotted with fresh ricotta cheese, herbs, finely chopped kale, and sliced tomatoes from the garden (big red onions and tiny sun gold cherry tomatoes) and sprinkled with some Pecorino Romano cheese.  Bake until golden on the edges, rotating pans to different racks in the oven as needed to cook the bottoms and tops evenly.

Do you make pizza at home? What else do you do with pre-made pizza dough?

The End of Summer: Meals from the Garden

First I must apologize that it has been a long while since I have written anything for my blog. I have missed it, and missed sharing food and thoughts with you all. I have been trying to create more balance and joy in my life and staying off my computer and spending more time with family and doing things like art and dance have been key to that shift. Writing and blogging about food also bring me so much joy, so now, I am getting started again so stay tuned for more posts and let me know if there is anything you are wanting to hear/learn about. 

Since it has been a while, I thought it would be nice to share what has gone in my garden all summer. As usually it is an over crowded and weedy (but productive) bunch of raised beds and a beautiful tangle of tomato plants I generally refer to as the "Tomato Forest". In spring I can never believe that the tomato plants will actually get as large as they do, and want to plant as many of them as possible. 

Mostly we eat copious amounts of salad from our garden, fresh greens, cucumbers, numerous kinds of tomatoes and herbs, but there are occasional zucchini heavy cooked recipes and many kinds of raw or cooked kale dishes like the Pumpkin Seed Pesto Pasta below and the Pizza from the Garden here. I hope you all have had a rejuvenating summer and gotten to eat some delicious food along the way. It is nice to be back. - Tagan

 

Dinner on the front stoop: in the summer our dinning table grows into a family game table/paper collection spot, and all meals take place outside. At dusk the backyard often has too many mosquitos (yes there are mosquitos in the city) so we often eat on the front stoop, dragging out big bowls of food and cold bottles of water, on occasion our cutting board makes it out there piled with fresh sliced deliciousness from the garden, making us feel rich in it's abundance. 

Sliced Tomatoes with Crispy Onions and Garlic: cook onions over medium low heat in plenty of oil and salt until light golden, add garlic cook until tender and onions are nicely browned, drizzle over fresh cut tomatoes, serve with anything.

 Pumpkinseed Pesto (below with Kale and Pasta): Finely chop or puree toasted pumpkin seeds, good olive oil and a little salt, add basil and any other greens you have (kale is good but has a strong flavor, spinach is great as it has a mild flavor and makes a bright green pesto), pulse or chop until you have a fine paste. Add either finely grated cheese (Romano is my favorite) or miso if you don't want dairy, add a little lemon zest and adjust the salt and pepper and you are done. Obviously pesto is great on pasta, but it's also great with eggs and on toast.

One last gem are the little pumpkins and gourds that volunteered themselves from our compost this year. We spread the seedlings around the garden in spring and wondered what kind of squash would appear, amazingly we got little oval pumpkins, ghost white gourds and carnival squash.

A gift from the garden, and pure joy for the family. When I look out the window onto my backyard garden I am overcome with gratitude for the food it provides and the blessing of this little piece of land in my life. 

If you have a garden or dream of one, please share your favorite foods...