Whole Wheat Pizza with Greens and Tomatoes

After much prodding by friends and family, I am sharing my love for food in a blog of my very own :)

To introduce myself, here is a short explanation of what you can expect to see here at Seduced by Produce:

I get pleasure out of experimenting in my kitchen  with food.  I love going to local farms and farmer's markets, taking home my purchases, and then trying to figure out healthy and delicious ways to cook it all.  If I can't get it direct from a farmer, I try to find foods that pack a nutritional punch and are "eco-friendly."  That doesn't mean that I don't make unhealthy foods, but when I do, I try to make them worth the calories and time.  When I cook, I try to cook from scratch as much as possible and practical.  When I cook from scratch, I tend to cook using measurements like"some of this"  "a bit of that" and cook "until it looks right" but am working on using my measuring skills more often so the food can be replicated.  When I get home, some days I need a way to decompress and some days I just need to refuel.  Every day, I want to eat food that is delicious. 

Here's my first recipe using up what my eyes couldn't resist from the farm - Whole Wheat Pizza with Greens and Tomatoes

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough:

1 1/3 cups water

1/4 olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups all purpose unbleached flour

2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

*Makes two pizzas

I love my bread machine for kneading doughs so I don't have to worry about proofing and can let the machine do the work while I am on to my next project (or just sitting watching TV.)

  

My bread machine specifies that all liquids go in first with the salt, and then the flours with the yeast on top.  I put it all in on the wonderful setting of "pizza dough" and finished prepping the farm produce while the machine did its thing.

When the dough was done, I separated it into two parts and let it rest in baggies in the fridge for an hour until it rose by about 20 percent. 

While the dough was rising, I made sure my pizza stone was in the oven preheating at 500 degrees.  I let it heat for one hour, which gave me more than enough time to prep the toppings which included:

2 small, firm tomatoes - sliced thinly

3 cups arugula, cleaned, de-stemmed and shredded

3 garlic cloves, sauteed in some pesto I had in the fridge thinned out with some added olive oil

A small handful of turkey pepperoni slices - about 20 - sliced

3 Large Green Onions, sliced  - about 3 tablespoons

Mozzarella and Parmesan Cheese - Shredded - No measurements here, just enough to look "right" 

I rolled out the dough on a floured counter and then topped with one tomato each, and approximately one half of all other toppings.  First, I brushed the pesto on the dough and then topped it with the tomatoes, arugula, scallions, turkey pepperoni and cheeses.  

After topping, the pizzas each went into the oven for 8 minutes until the dough begins to tan and the cheese melts and begins to brown as well.