Cheeseless Pizza

It sounds like pure heresy, no?

Unfortunately, my little girl is dairy-intolerant.  She's also a little iffy with soy foods and I'm not a fan of pretend foods, so a store-bought cheese substitute (which is usually soy-based) is out.  And that soy cheeze stuff doesn't melt well anyway.

So I went looking for *something* that would give that rich, mouth-round texture and flavor to a cheese-less pizza and found this sauce here.  I have made this sauce a couple of different ways now, and I have to say, each way was worked wonderfully.

You really do not miss the cheese.  I mean, I am highly motivated to find alternatives to my favorite cheesy foods because of my daughter, but my other two kids will spit out anything they don't find up to snuff, and this pizza sauce passed muster with them.

Even though we don't need to be tomato-free at our house, I did not use any tomato sauce with this pizza.  The garlic sauce is, well, a sauce after all, not a firm cheese-like product and two sauces just seemed too much.  You could absolutely use some sliced tomatoes as a topping though.

Extra bonus, as a way to enjoy a cheese-loaded favorite without the cheese (and also can be tomato-free), it's a boon for the dialysis diet.  Feeding two birds with one stone, if you will ;)

As far as the garlic goes, I like this sauce both with roasted garlic and sauteed garlic.  The flavors *are* different, so I'd say use whichever you prefer.  To roast a head of garlic, slice the top third or so off the whole head, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, wrap in foil and bake an hour or more at 350F.  Or if you're grilling, put the foil-wrapped garlic on the top rack in your grill and leave it there while the grill cools.

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Zucchini "pizza" slices

Oh my goodness, these were tasty!  They were the "light entree" at our meal with hearty grain and veggie side dishes, or I could see making these as snacks for the kids too (and yes, the kids ate them up!).  I can also imagine using other pizza toppings like mini pepperoni, sliced olives and other veggies as well as the tomatoes.

You could preroast the veggies and prep the "pizza" in advance and only have to do the final stage of baking at dinnertime.  You might need to bake a few minutes longer if you have a straight-from-the-fridge, cold, prepped baking sheet to get the cheese good and melty.

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Pizza Meat Pie

Freezer kit

Another South Beach Diet cookbook adaptation.  This sounds so odd, but is so good.  If you think crust on pizza is a waste of stomach space (I know who you are LOL), this is the pizza pie for you. 

I elect to use oatmeal as a binder rather than the SBD-sanctioned whole wheat breadcrumbs since I grind up bread to make my own crumbs and sometimes I just feel lazy.  I also reduce the salt called for and use totally different toppings.  Use whatever toppings you like.

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Ninja Zucchini

Today is National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day, so here are a couple of ideas of what to do with the bag of zucchs that may mysteriously find their way onto your doorstep.  First of all, shred it and freeze it in 2 cup portions.  I shredded (via food processor) 2 very large zucchini and got 9 cups of shreds out of it :-0 

Before

After

My fave is zucchini crust pizza.  I've seen many iterations of this theme, and they differ largely by ratio of zucch to cheese.  All agree that 4-5 cups of *stuff* + 2 eggs is right for a 12-14" crust, but the proportion of zucch to cheese is the issue.  3 cups zucch + 1 cup cheese is a very soft crust, 2+2 is less soft, and I'm hearing good things about 1 1/2 cups zucch to 2 cups cheese.  Bake at 450F for 10-20 minutes, then top with desired toppings and bake another 15-20 minutes at 375F.

I haven't actually tried this yet, but I want to make regular yeast pizza dough and mix a cup or two of shredded zucchs into that.  I'll post when I try it, if it works out.

The obvious use is zucchini bread, but try some zucchini cookies too!  Pin It

How Pizza Saved My Family

That’s perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but nonetheless, made-ahead pizza has come to my rescue many a time. 

After my first son was born, I was truly surprised by how exhausted I was…I mean, I knew it would be exhausting, but I didn’t know you could be THAT tired and not be dead!  Even on those days when all I had to do to make dinner was turn on the oven and stick something in it, I couldn’t always remember to get the oven turned on in time.  Forget about planning a meal, organizing a grocery list, actually leaving the house and going shopping, coming home and putting away groceries, and then still having to prep and cook.  Nuh-uh, couldn’t do it.  Before my second son was born, I socked away four of these pizza “kits” and pulled them out when I was too tired to do much besides turn on the oven.

The kit gets you most of the way to a pizza, but does require some finish work because I personally don’t have anything that I can seal a fully assembled 16” pizza in.  If you do, go ahead and assemble the pizza and then freeze it…less work on the back end, though it will take up more freezer space that way too. 

I like to make my own dough and pizza sauce, but you can certainly assemble kits with store-bought sauce and prepared pizza crusts.  In fact, making pizza for dinner one night and portioning out the remaining jarred sauce for kits is a perfect way to manage the sauce leftovers. 

Toppings can be just about anything you want.  Meat toppings like pepperoni or browned sausage will freeze well, or you can buy a can/jar of something (sliced olives, artichoke quarters, pineapple chunks) and stash it in the pantry to go with the freezer kit.  If you’re like me, though, you’ll want to label the stuff in the pantry so that you don’t forget and use it for something else!  I don’t recommend freezing anything you want to have  crunch though, like green peppers, or delicate fresh ingredients like sliced tomatoes and basil leaves.  Save those for days when you have a chance to hit the store (or the garden).

This, like so many prep-ahead meals, is a money/time saver, too.  This is a great way to capitalize on a sale on cheese …if you can get a good deal on the 8 oz. packages of shredded mozzarella, just freeze it as is.  Or you can make some nice cheese blends with mozzarella, parmesan, romano, even cheddar or blue cheese, and save yourself some work by shredding a lot at once and freezing the mixture in 2 cup portions for pizza later.

The basic pizza kit components are:

• 1 prepared pizza crust or ½ of the following Pizza Dough recipe
• ¼ cup sauce or ¼ of the following Pizza Sauce recipe
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• Toppings (freezable toppings include pepperoni, browned sausage, sautéed mushrooms and onions, roasted garlic; pantry toppings include sliced olives, pineapple chunks, artichoke quarters, roasted red peppers)

Freeze the dough, sauce, cheese and toppings in separate zip-top bags or vacuum-sealed bags.  Label everything with permanent marker (works best if you write before filling the bags).  Place everything into a 2-gallon zip-top bag and write the baking instructions on the large bag (or write the instructions on an index card and place the card in a snack-size zip-top bag inside the 2-gallon bag.

To bake, thaw the pizza kit on the countertop for a few hours (it doesn’t have to be totally thawed).  Press the dough into a 12” pizza pan, and let it rest for 10 minutes or so while you preheat the oven to 375F.  Add the sauce, cheese and toppings and bake for 20 minutes.

The Recipes!!

This dough recipe is an adaption of Tony Rosenfeld’s Pizza for the Grill.  I make a double batch to match up with my pizza sauce recipe which makes 4 pizzas’ worth of sauce.  It really is an easy dough recipe…I make it in the stand mixer or in the bread machine, and I’ve never had to add a pinch of flour or a splash of water…the proportions work out just right every time.

Pizza Dough

Makes 2 12”pizza crusts

• 1 ¼ cup warm water (110F)
• 1 package (2 ¼ tsp) yeast
• ½ tsp sugar
• 3 ½ cups flour
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp salt

Stir the yeast and sugar into the water and allow to sit for 10 minutes.  When you see bubbles in the yeast, stir in the salt and olive oil and 1 cup of the flour.  Keep adding flour by the ½ cup until you have a smooth ball of dough.  Knead for 8-10 minutes.  Put in a greased bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour.  At this point, you can divide up the dough and freeze it in airtight bags or put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. 

Pizza Sauce

Makes approximately 1 cup

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• Salt and pepper

Saute onion, garlic and tomato paste in oil over medium-high heat until lightly browned.  Add diced tomatoes and seasonings.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes.  Let cool slightly.  Puree mixture with a food processor or blender.

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