This was pretty good. I feel like it could've used a few tweaks, but it was a solid start.

The sun-dried tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, and mozzarella all worked well together. And I appreciated the generous quantity of fresh basil. But I felt like it could've used a few more elements. I think garlic and mushrooms would've been particularly nice.

Sliced cremini mushrooms would be good. Especially if you sauté them with a bit of garlic and butter first. But I think that small marinated button mushrooms or mixed wild mushrooms would be even better here!

Mediterranean Strata

Adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 250-300g bread, cubed
• 300-400g artichoke hearts, chopped
• 1/3 c. Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
• 1/4 c. sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 125g mushrooms, sliced or coarsely chopped
• 1/2 c. fresh basil, chopped
• 125g mozzarella cheese, grated
• 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
• 6 large eggs
• 2 c. milk
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Grease a 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
2. Place the bread cubes in the prepared baking dish in a single layer.
3. Layer the artichoke hearts, olives, and tomatoes on top.
4. If desired, sauté the mushrooms with the garlic and a little butter before layering them into the baking dish along with everything else.
5. Sprinkle with the basil and cheeses.
6. Beat the eggs with the milk and season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Pour the custard mixture evenly over the ingredients in the baking dish.
8. Cover with foil and let stand for at least an hour. Or transfer to the fridge and chill overnight.
9. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and bake, covered, for 20 minutes.
10. Remove the foil and continue baking for another 20-25 minutes.
11. Remove from oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

I took this recipe as more of a suggestion/inspiration than actual instructions. Because, as written, it was completely insane! First off, recipe-as-written, it called for no cheese. And, I'm sorry, if it doesn't have cheese, it's not a pizza, it's just a vegetable-topped flatbread. Secondly, it called for white button mushrooms rather than cremini or oyster or something with a bit more flavour. And finally, they had you relegate each of the four toppings to its own quadrant. So, you could have mushrooms or peppers or artichockes or olives, but there was no way to get all of the above without eating four separate slices of pizza. Which is completely bonkers!

TF and I took one look at the recipe and immediately decided to go off-script. We added a bunch of mozzarella cheese and also increased the topping quantities slightly and put all four toppings on the whole pizza rather than doing that weird quadrant thing. And, having done that, it was pretty good!

Mushroom, Bell Pepper, Artichoke, and Olive Pizza

Adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 450g whole wheat pizza dough
• 1/2 c. pizza sauce
• 1 c. grated mozzarella
• 1 roasted red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 3-4 cremini or oyster mushrooms, sliced
• 2-3 marinated artichoke hearts, sliced
• 8-10 black or kalamata olives, sliced
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil

Directions

1. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 290°C (550°F) or the highest temperature it will go.
2. Roll out pizza dough into a 35cm (14") circle.
3. Dust a pizza peel with cornmeal and place the pizza crust on top.
4. Spread pizza sauce over dough (leaving a 1cm border).
5. Top with mozzarella.
6. Sprinkle with bell pepper, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and olives.
7. Quickly slide pizze onto preheated pizza stone and bake until crust is crisp and cheese is bubbling (~8 minutes).
8. Remove from oven, sprinkle with basil, slice, and serve.

I tend to be very dubious about artichoke, but this recipe turned out ok; the artichoke didn't really add much to it but didn't detract either. I did note that it came out much saucier than expected, and had to choose between leaving it over-sauced or overcooking the noodles; adding a bit less liquid next time might be prudent.

You can also sautee the mushrooms, onion, and garlic in the pot before adding the liquids. I'm not sure how this will affect the taste.

One-Pot Spinach & Artichoke Pasta

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 8 oz (225g) mushrooms, sliced
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 13 oz (370g) artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
• 5 C (1250mL) vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
• 12 oz (340g) fettucini, linguine, or similar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• black pepper
• 4 oz (113g) fresh or frozen spinach
• 100g feta, diced or crumbled

Directions

1. Combine mushrooms, onion, garlic, artichoke, broth, oil, red pepper flakes, pasta, organo, thyme, and pepper in a large pot.
2. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~10 minutes or until pasta is mostly cooked.
4. Remove lid and stir in spinach. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until pasta is cooked, spinach is warmed through and sauce has thickened.
5. Remove from the heat and stir in feta.

I made a full batch of pizza dough for the picnic sandwich earlier this week without really thinking about how much extra dough that would leave me with. After making my sandwich, I still had just over a kilo of dough left. So, instead of the bulgogi that I'd planned to have for dinner that night, we each made our own pizza instead. I'm really pleased with how mine came out. Although I think I'd add a few mushrooms next time.

If I wanted a fully vegetarian option, I think mushrooms and capers would replace the anchovies quite nicely.

Almost Vegetarian Pizza

Ingredients

• whole wheat pizza dough
• roasted garlic paste
• pizza sauce
• mozzarella, shredded
• anchovies
• artichoke hearts, chopped
• jarred pepperoncini peppers, chopped
• Parmesan
• baby spinach and/or arugula/rocket

Directions

1. Stretch dough to desired size.
2. Let rest for a few minutes, then smear a very thin layer of roasted garlic paste over surface.
3. Spread sauce generously over this.
4. Sprinkle liberally with mozzarella.
5. Place a few anchovy fillets over the cheese. (A little goes a long way.)
6. Scatter a few chopped artichoke hearts and some pepper pieces over this.
7. Sprinkle a bit of Parmesan cheese over everything.
8. Top with a handful of greens.
9. Bake at 260°C (500°F) for 5-7 minutes.
10. Add another handful of fresh greens on top after the pizza comes out of the oven.

Sorry for the lack of measurements here. I don't really know how much of what I used. Pizza is pretty forgiving though. So the exact measurements don't matter too much. For a 36cm (14") pizza you'll probably want:
~250mL of sauce
cheese really depends on personal preference
~50g anchovy fillets
3-4 artichoke hearts
~1 tsp. chopped pepperoncini peppers
~1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
2-4 big hand-fulls of greens

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Variations

Actually Vegetarian Pizza

Ingredients

• whole wheat pizza dough
• roasted garlic paste
• pizza sauce
• mozzarella, shredded
• capers, drained and rinsed
• cremini mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in a little butter¹
• artichoke hearts, chopped
• jarred pepperoncini peppers, chopped
• Parmesan
• baby spinach and/or arugula/rocket

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¹ Add a bit of water to the pan for the first part of cooking to reduce the amount of butter needed for cooking the mushrooms. ^Back