zucchini pizza with sour cream bread dough

my first ever overseas trip was to rome when i was 21 years old..back then the definitive travel reference book for australian travellers was 'europe on $10 a day'..that will give you some idea of my age..anyway, since then i have had a problem with pizzas and that problem arose because i fell in love with the pizza slices we bought from a bakery close to the pension where we stayed..i'll never forget the sight of the huge rectangular trays of pizzas lined up on the counters in the bakery each with a different but very simple topping..my favourites were the 'fungi' and artichoke pizzas..i don't remember all of the different toppings available but the others that i tried and liked were potato and zucchini..the other thing i liked about these pizza slices was that the base was about 1 cm thick which meant that the topping melded into the dough creating a luscious marriage of the two ingredients..i'm not entirely sure but i think we paid about 70 lira per piece..back then the exchange rate was 700 lira to the australian dollar..now sure..the other round type of pizza with tomato, mozzarella and so on were available but they were never as appealing to me and they were also a lot more expensive..

since then any pizza i've bought has never lived up to those pizza slices i had many decades ago and i've made a few attempts at replicating them myself but never with any success..today as i was making a sour cream yeast based dough i decided to use some of the dough to make a zucchini pizza..and even though i did add a couple of other ingredients and even though my base was thinner than the original my zucchini pizza did have that melding thing going on that i loved so much in those slices in rome..suffice it to say that i will be making this recipe again..soon..

zucchini pizza with sour cream bread dough 
this fourth zucchini recipe in a series of seven is a 'tea with hazel' recipe

ingredients (bread dough)

250 gms white bread flour

200 gms wholemeal flour

50 gms spelt flour

3 tsp salt

125 gms sour cream

1 tbs treacle

1 sachet (7 gms) dried yeast 

enough lukewarm water to make a pliable dough taking into account the extra absorbency of the wholemeal flour

ingredients (pizza topping)

2-3 medium zucchini (i used a 10 cm piece of a large zucchini) cut fine with a mandolin
4-5 bocconcini cut into 4 slices, dried
4-5 sun dried tomatoes bottled in oil (i used my own) cut into quarters

olive oil
salt
pepper

1 bread tin and a 30 cm cast iron frying pan lightly oiled (or pizza tray of choice)

method (bread dough and loaf)

~place all bread dough ingredients in the bowl of a mixer and mix on low for 2 minutes..rest for 10 minutes

~repeat this cycle twice more..remove bowl from mixer

~cover bowl with cling film and leave until doubled

~turn dough onto floured board, cut a tennis ball sized amount for the pizza and set aside
~knead the remaining dough and shape to fit tin
~cover with cling film and leave until doubled
~bake at 220 deg c on bread function for 10 minutes..reduce heat to 180 deg c and continue to bake for 30 minutes or until the top is well browned
~remove bread from tin and return the loaf to the oven for a further 5 minutes

method (pizza)


~salt the zucchini slices and leave to drain for 15 minutes
~knead the pizza dough briefly and shape or roll to fit the pan
~without rinsing dry the zucchini slices
~drizzle the slices with olive oil and mix gently to distribute the oil
~lightly oil the pizza base and place bocconcini and tomato on the dough
~add zucchini slices arranging them in an overlapping pattern
~drizzle with a little more oil
~add salt and pepper to taste
~bake at 200 deg c on the bread function for 30 minutes or until the base is well browned and the topping is cooked

i hope your weekend is a happy one.:) x

raw zucchini, tomato and trachana soup

this original 'tea with hazel' summery soup recipe is the third in a series of seven zucchini recipes i'm aiming to make in the next few weeks that i referred to a few posts ago..

raw* zucchini, tomato and trachana** soup 

ingredients

1 large onion cut into medium dice
4 garlic cloves cut fine
4 small homegrown celery stalks strings removed and cut small
1 red chill cut fine
1 green chilli cut fine
1 2cm slice of bacon cut into medium dice
3 L fresh tomato juice***
1/4 cup finely cut celery leaves
1 cup (for each person) of grated zucchini (seeds removed)
4 small potatoes cut into medium dice
extra 300 mls tomato juice
1/2 cup trachana
a few chives cut fine
grated aged (preferably 36 month old ) cheddar cheese formed into walnut sized balls (one for each person)
olive oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste

method (soup base)

pour a few tablespoons of olive oil into the base of a large saucepan and heat..add onion and celery and saute for a few minutes..add chilli and bacon and continue to saute until the onion is translucent and starting to brown on the edges..add garlic and potato and stir for a minute and then add the tomato juice..bring to boil..lower to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender..add celery leaves..stir and turn off the heat..

method (trachana) 

when the soup is nearly cooked bring the extra tomato juice to the boil in another saucepan..add trachana and cook stirring for 5 minutes..turn off heat and cover until the soup is ready..

to serve

in a large shallow soup bowl place a large serving spoon of the trachanas and a cup of grated zucchini..pour over soup making sure each bowl gets some potato and bacon..top with a ball of cheese..sprinkle with chives, drizzle with olive oil and lastly a grating of black pepper..

notes:
* i like using grated raw zucchini because it gives the soup a summery freshness..the zucchini is cooked enough with the heat of soup as it's poured into the bowl..and if i make a big pot of the base soup the zucchini doesn't end up being overcooked when the soup is reheated..

** trachanas is available commercially but some greek women still make it by hand..i made it once under the instruction of my landlady..it consisted of making a dough with flour, yoghurt and eggs which was rolled out thinly, covered, and left to dry inside on a sheet covered table..as it dried it was progressively crumbled and then once completely dry stored in calico bags..it's often served for breakfast where it is boiled in water and served with crumbled feta and a drizzle of olive oil..

i don't add it directly to the soup because it's easier to apportion when cooked separately and to avoid the problem as with the zucchini of overcooking it when reheating

***i bottled some more tomato puree this week and, because the tomatoes were very juicy and i wanted a thick puree, i drained the tomatoes in a colander after skinning and deseeding..this left me with several litres of a lovely fresh tomato juice some of which i used in this recipe to form the base of the soup..

text highlighted in green represents homegrown ingredients

i originally wanted to use fontina cheese in this recipe for it's melting softness but i think the 'bite' of the cheddar offered a more interesting contrast to the other flavours..

happy weekend everyone..x

zucchini feta and dill omelette

the scrambled eggs with feta my mother in law theodora first made for me decades ago was the inspiration for the omelette i made for lunch today..and it's my second zucchini recipe in a series of seven that i am aiming to make in the next few weeks..

zucchini feta and dill omelette

ingredients


2 eggs
30 gms feta crumbled
approx 1/4 cup grated zucchini
1 tbs milk
pinch chilli flakes (home dried and processed)
1 tbs chopped dill
pepper to taste
olive oil

method


put a heavy frying pan on to heat and heat grill to high
beat eggs with milk
add other ingredients except for oil
put a little oil in the hot frying pan and turn down heat to low
add egg mix and cook until the base is well browned
place omelette under grill for a couple of minutes or until just browned


i served the omelette with a diced tomato and spring onion salad dressed with raspberry vinegar, salt and olive oil..

a simple, tasty and nutritious meal..but my zucchini supply looks the same..

chilli chocolate zucchini cake

every summer i plant zucchini seeds rotating their position to minimise disease and pestilence..this year i planted them where i had just dug up my garlic on the premise that garlic acts a soil tonic..at the time of planting i also dug in a large bag of pigeon poo..there's a pigeon person living near me and i've been lucky enough a couple of times to be driving past when he has been putting free bags of it out onto his nature strip..anyway when the innocent first leaves emerged i let the plants know who was going to be boss this year..me..but i'm not sure whether they just didn't take heed or whether maybe..just maybe..all my preventive care and fertility rites have back fired on me..

as any zucchini grower knows this vegetable is particularly prolific..but mine are beyond prolific..they are positively fecund..for instance, on several occasions i have noticed premature zucchinis too small to pick grow overnight into monsters..you'd think i'd learn..

anyway..all these zucchinis i'm producing have to be used..every summer i make at least one huge tray of moussaka in which i add zucchini along with potato and eggplant..and i also make the ubiquitous zucchini slice..but because i have been wanting to expand my zucchini repertoire, over the last few months, i've been keeping an eye out for other zucchini recipes..and one that piqued my interest recently was for a chocolate and zucchini cake by the 'shady baker'..and today i decided to make it..i've included the recipe here because i've changed it a little..

chilli chocolate zucchini cake

ingredients

185 gms softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp salt

method

grease and line a 30 cm x 20 cm sandwich tin

preheat oven to 190 deg c

sift dry ingredients

cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy

add eggs one at a time beating well between each addition

add half of the sifted dry ingredients and half of the milk and mix gently

add remaining flour mix and milk and mix until flour just incorporated

mix in grated zucchini by hand

spoon into tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until cooked when tested

allow to cool for 15 minutes and then carefully remove from the tin onto a cooling rack


when cool serve in squares dusted with icing sugar and a spoon of mascarpone


note: cake may be iced as desired

comments: the cake has a moist not overly sweet crumb and it cuts into well formed squares..the chilli is discernible with a pleasant slight heat..the sweetness of the mascarpone works well because the cake is not very sweet..

unfortunately the cake didn't really make much of a dent in my zucchini supply because i still have four quite large ones to deal with..