My favourite midweek easy dinner is home-made pizza. I only really bother with this meal when I am so tired that even the meditative pleasure of cooking is not appealing to me. I love to use wholemeal lebanese bread as a base and find whatever is in the fridge to scatter on top. Tonight I used shredded roast chicken (care of my gorgeous man's dinner last night) and I was without any of my Mum's tomato chilli sauce which I would usually use as a base sauce, so I just sprinkled some infused oil from the sundried tomatoes I was using on the base. It is really a great quick snack, light meal or even a pretty easy and impressive party food.
Usual Ingredients:
1 wholemeal round lebanese bread
2 Tbsp tomato passata or tomato chilli sauce with 1 Tbsp roasted vegetable tapenade (from local Jetty IGA supermarket deli)
1/2 cup loosely packed grated tasty cheese
1Tbsp roughly chopped spanish onion
2 Tbsp roughly chopped red capsicum
2 Tbsp sliced zucchini (about 0.5 cm thick)
4 sundried tomato halves, sliced into rough strips (I used Always Fresh Brand, made with good oil)
Small piece of long red chilli, sliced thinly, to taste
Kalamata olives, pitted, chopped
Small amount shredded roast or bbq chicken or other meat (thinkly sliced salami or pepperoni is good)
Feta cheese, cubed (I use Lemnos for firm feta that will brown slightly and keep its shape)
Preheat fan-forced oven to 210 degrees Celsius (about 220 regular oven)
Place lebanese bread on pizza tray (no need to oil the tray, it should not stick)
Spread tomato-based sauce/tapenade over top of bread, leaving a small strip around outside to allow to form crispy crust.
Sprinkle tasty cheese over base
Scatter chicken/meat and all other vegetables over base,
followed by feta cheese.
Cook for about 10 minutes or until base is crisp and edges are brown and feta is slightly browned on top.
You can add or subtract anything you like but cheese is always best on the bottom and you need to try to balance salty and sweet flavours and perhaps add some fresh herbs at the end.
Cut with a sharp knife into about 6 pieces and eat as slowly as you can make yourself, probably with a good glass of wine. Bellissimo.
