Pesto Pizza

Presto! Or is that, Pesto! My mission to clean out the freezer has procured two containers of pesto made last year with basil from my garden in Saskatoon. I always grow enough for fresh eating and a batch of pesto.

One of my favourite uses for my homemade pesto is pizza, replacing the more traditional tomato sauce. Toppings that go well with pesto include feta cheese, black olives, thinly sliced onion and crumbled bacon.

Tip: pesto is strong in flavour so I recommend spreading it more thinly than you would tomato sauce.

Basil grows very well from seed in prairie gardens. It's not too late to plant it now. If you're the impatient sort, buy a few seedlings and get them into your garden or a pot pdq!

Newspaper Column - Kids Kitchen

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 17 March 2008.

My mother never taught me to cook. This is not in any way a criticism—mom was a good efficient cook and there was no need for me to meddle in the kitchen. Besides, I had plenty of other chores to keep me busy on the farm.

As a youngster, I joined a 4-H cooking class taught by Mrs. Barnett in her home. I remember learning to make a lovely fruit cup. I have another memory of dropping a pound of soft butter on her kitchen floor. I suppose we did not make cookies that day. In high school, we went by bus once a week to a home economics class in the next town. I remember making breaded veal cutlets, which I am quite sure I have not made since. In university, I lived with my grandmother who was an excellent cook. In short, I had no need to learn to cook because healthy homemade meals were provided throughout my youth.

Some kids are not so lucky. For reasons of a busy or fractured home life, they don’t have the benefit of consistent nutritious meals, while in some families it is just the opposite—the child is the cook, preparing meals for younger siblings. In these circumstances, I think it would be a great benefit to learn to cook a few simple and nutritious dishes from scratch. And that is exactly what Kids Kitchen is designed to do. In Kids Kitchen, Grade 4 and 5 students in several elementary schools in Saskatoon learn to cook hearty simple recipes and, along with the fun of mucking about in the kitchen, they learn the basics of nutrition and good food choices. So, when the teacher says they are going to make fruit smoothies “just like you get in the mall” the kids are eager to try it themselves. And when they hear that it’s just as quick to make pizza as to order it delivered, they’re at the counter ready to chop vegetables and grate cheese. If truth be told, their fruit smoothies are actually better than those in the mall because their recipe calls for a bit of Saskatchewan ground flax. When possible, their teacher Gaylene Buchko uses Saskatchewan-made ingredients so these city youngsters get a better appreciation for the foods that are produced close to home.

One Friday afternoon, with scrubbed hands and a hairnet, I joined Kids Kitchen at St. Goretti Community School to make smoothies, pizza and minestrone soup with the kids. I asked them if they cook at home. Wyatt says he cooks macaroni. Jazzzlyn says “only cereal” while Kelly has cooked turkey and mashed potatoes, adding that she burned the turkey once. Shaneen announces that fresh mushrooms are “icky” but also admits that “sometimes I don’t like the look of something, then I try it and I like it.” A good lesson to learn as a kid, and I bet she liked the pizza, too.

Kids Kitchen is a weekly program funded by the Catholic school foundation and CHEP Good Food Inc. with the goal of instilling some basic knowledge of kitchen skills and nutrition when the kids are young. At the end of each class, students take their creations home to share with their families, and at the end of the term, they get a homemade cookbook with all the recipes. “If they learn it here when they’re young, hopefully they’ll make better choices as adults,” says Gaylene. “A few years from now they’ll find that little cookbook and they’ll start cooking again.”

A ton of tomatoes - MARGHERITA PIZZA

Nothing is prettier than a mix of tomatoes – red, yellow and orange. It turns a delicious salad into a pretty delicious salad. We bought big bags of red, yellow and orange tomatoes at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market – just picked, vine ripe and tasting as good as they look.

This pizza recipe is a bit different because there is no sauce. It is simply heaped with fresh chopped tomatoes. It comes from the Silver Spoon cookbook, which has 1,200 pages of authentic Italian recipes. It’s perfect for that glorious moment in a Saskatchewan summer when you have more ripe tomatoes than you know what to do with!

MARGHERITA PIZZA
5-6 ripe tomatoes, chopped
(the recipe says to peel the tomatoes, but I didn't)
Olive oil for drizzling
6 fresh basil leaves, torn
1 ½ cups grated mozzarella cheese
Salt and pepper
1 homemade or purchased pizza dough

Roll out the pizza dough. Top with the chopped tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake 15 min. at 425F. Take the pizza from the oven. Quickly sprinkle on the basil, season with salt and pepper, and top with the cheese. Bake another 7-8 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

The cup is not half full - ONION TARTE

I bought a shiney new set of silver measuring cups from the restaurant store on 2nd Ave. in Saskatoon. I didn't really need them, but I was bored with my old plastic measuring cups and I liked the way the metal cups clanged together. I used them every time I cooked for two months. Until yesterday. I discovered that the 1/2 cup is, in fact, almost 3/4 of a cup. The 1/4 cup and 1/3 cup aren't quite right either. Only the one-cup was accurate. There's a lesson in this: 1) cook by feel, not precision, 2) never take your measuring cups for granted.

ONION TART
3 big onions
1 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
1/4 cup (more or less) diced ham or cooked bacon
puff pastry or pizza dough

Cut the onions into a dice. Heat the chicken broth in a skillet, add the onions, and simmer until the onions are quite soft. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and the ham and continue cooking until the liquid is just about gone. Roll out the dough. Spread the onions to cover the dough and bake, 350 F., about 25 minutes, until the dough is cooked.

Saskatchewan pizza

It is entirely possible to make a pizza with Saskatchewan ingredients.

You'll have to make your own dough and pizza sauce. Both are fairly easy. Any bread dough recipe will do -- I like to add a squirt of olive oil when making the dough. A sauce is easy to make by sautéing garlic, onions, basil and chopped tomatoes (all grown here) into a thick sauce.

Choose Armstrong mozzarella cheese because there is a good chance it was made at the Saputo factory in Saskatoon. For meat, there are lots of choices in Saskatchewan, but I like the Italian-style salami from Emco Meats in Saskatoon. Sprinkle on some homegrown oregano and Voila! You have a Saskatchewan-only pizza.

Wash it down with a Saskatchewan-made beer (Great Western, Paddockwood or any brew pub fare) and it's a glorious local feast.

Week 18 - PIZZA ON THE BBQ

Menu of the Week -- 18 August 2005

Brunch - Pancakes with strawberries.
Dinner – BBQ pizza with grilled zucchini, tomatoes, ham, basil and cheese.

PIZZA ON THE BBQ
If you love pizza and you love BBQ, you’ll love the two together. Kids are impressed (and big people, too) especially if you make individual pizzas they top themselves. I make my own dough, but you can do this with frozen dough from the grocery store. Here are some tips to make a successful pizza on the BBQ.

1) Roll the dough thinly, no larger than a 1-person pizza. If the dough is too thick, it might not cook in the middle.
2) Drop the round of dough directly on the hot grill.
3) Grill until the bottom is crusty and remove to a plate.
4) With the grilled side up, press the crust a bit to make a depression.
5) Add the toppings. DO NOT overload the pizza. Simple, thin toppings are best. (Meat topping must be pre-cooked). After a thin layer of pizza sauce, I like to add thin-sliced tomatoes, chopped basil and grated mozzarella. Or, instead of tomatoes, sliced zucchini or red pepper that have already been grilled on the BBQ. Make sure the cheese is not going to drip over the edge.
6) Slide the pizza onto the grill uncooked side down. BBQ until the bottom is crusty and the dough is cooked through. The cheese should be well melted.
7) Remove from BBQ and eat!