A sauce-free pizza light on the cheese with loads of bell peppers and onions. It was much tastier than I initially expected.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
The ingredients for a 3-pepper pizza with cheese.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Despite being thicker than the crusts I usually make, this pizza came out crispy and delicious, thanks in part to a little pepper in the dough.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
In a recently renewed effort to further increase my fruits and veggies intake, I dusted off a rarely-used cookbook bought years ago titled “Perfect Main Dish Vegetable” by Anne Willan (some recipes do include meat). This was the first recipe that looked easy enough and potentially, tasty enough to try. Despite my trepidation, it was a huge hit.
“It’s delicious, and so colorful,” MT said. “I love it!” She took some to her mom and reported back that “She loved it too,” and was impressed by the bounty of veggies.
Something about this that works really well — probably a mix of things. Pepper in a dough thick enough to absorb some flavor from the topping makes up for the lack of sauce. Two onions, four peppers and some garlic — all sauteed — meld very well.
A few notes from my variations:
I used 2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat. I also just put a whole packet of RapidRise yeast in; that’s about 2 teaspoons, a half-teaspoon more than called for, but why save that little bit?
I also put the yeast onto about half a cup of the water in a shallow bowl, rather than in the few tablespoons called for. This lets you spread the yeast out on a bigger surface area.
The recipe calls for dumping the flour onto a work surface before adding the water, but I sifted the flours, salt and pepper into a large bowl, added the oil and water and mixed initially with a wood spoon until it was suitable for kneading.
Not being too attentive to the recipe (I blame this partly on the layout in the book, which splits related steps across several pages, I sauteed the peppers in only a few tablespoons of oil rather than a quarter cup. It worked out fine.
The recipe doesn’t state if the mozzarella should be fresh or aged. The picture showed round slices, suggesting fresh. I love fresh mozzarella in some uses but think aged cheese brings more flavor to pizza, so I cut a 16-ounce block in half and sliced that into thick squares.
Lastly, the recipe calls for heating a baking sheet in the oven and transferring the prepared pizza onto the heated sheet. This is supposed to ensure the thicker crust gets baked through. I usually preheat a baking stone, assemble the pizza on a wooden pizza peel (mine doesn’t have quite as long a handle as the ones you might see in the movies) and transfer it to the heated stone. As this pizza was a bit larger than my stone, I built it on a pan I have that can easily accommodate a 12-inch pie. I did not preheat the pan. It has small holes in the bottom, purportedly to ensure a crispier crust, but I’ve found a preheated stone works better. That said, this time the crust came out fine.
Dobru chut!
Three-Pepper Pizza With Cheese (Perfect Main Dish Vegetables, Anne Willan)
Dough
1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Salt
2 tablespoons olive oil plus some for dough bowl
Topping
2 medium red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced or diced
1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced or diced
1 medium yellow bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced or diced
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 small bunch of any fresh herb such as rosemary, thyme, basil or parsley, or a mix
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup olive oil
6 ounces mozzarella cheese
Cayenne pepper
Salt
Sprinkle the yeast into several tablespoons or more of warm water in a bowl and let stand until dissolved, about 5 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl.
Sift flour, pepper and ¼ teaspoon salt into a bowl or onto a work surface. Make a well in the center and add the yeast mixture with any remaining water and the olive oil. Work the ingredients well until thoroughly mixed, adding a bit more water ( just a light sprinkling at a time) if too dry and a bit of flour if too sticky. Knead until smooth, about 5-8 minutes.
Place dough in oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
Halve peppers lengthwise. Remove stem and seeds, and cut away white ribs on inside. Flatten each half on a cutting surface and slice thinly lengthwise. If desired, slice the other way to dice them. Peel and thinly slice the onions. Peel and mince the garlic.
Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in frying pan over medium-high. Add onions and cook, stirring, until soft but not brown, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer onions to a bowl and add the remainder of the olive oil to the pan. Add peppers, garlic and half the herbs. Season with salt and cayenne to taste. Cook, stirring regularly, until peppers are soft but not brown. Slice the mozzarella.
When dough is raised, heat oven to 450°. Put a baking sheet near the bottom. Generously flour a second sheet. Remove dough from bowl and knead to knock the air out. Shape into a ball and lightly flour the work surface. Flatten the dough and roll to a round about 3/8 inch thick (mine was about 12-inches in diameter). Press the edges up with your fingers to make a shallow rim. Place dough round on floured baking sheet.
Spread the onions on the dough, then the peppers, then the cheese. Spoon any remaining oil from the pan on top. Let stand for 10-15 minutes until dough is a bit puffy.
Slide pizza from floured sheet to heated sheet in oven (this may require a quick jerk to shake it loose). Bake for 20-25 minutes until browned. Remove from oven, sprinkle remaining herbs on top, cut and serve.
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