Pizza!

I've broken from the hold of 5 Spices, 50 Dishes and cracked open one of my other books! I chose Grilled Seitan Caponata with Lemon Pilaf from The Sexy Vegan Cookbook for a birthday dinner for my gentleman friend. Since the recipe for the Caponata yields more than I would need, I went ahead and took Brian L. Patton's advice and made some pizza.

One of the things I'm starting to think about this book is that nothing is easy. I would have to make 4 different recipes to make the Grilled Seitan Caponata with Lemon Pilaf (keeping in mind that I already had seitan made), and to make the simplest of his pizzas, I made 6! Now, I had already made the Tomato Killer, which was part of the Caponata, so maybe that was a bit of a freebie. But I still have a LOT left over for which I'm going to have to find a purpose.

With that made, I still had to make the dough, which was easy, but took a hella long time to rise. That's fine by me though, and it's one of the better doughs I've made at home. My major complaint is that Patton claims that the recipe will give you three 14-inch diameter thin crusts or two thick. As far as I can tell, that's not true. I used all of it to make a a thick crust pizza for The Mario.

I'm glad I did though. Once I rolled it out, and topped it with Caponata and Patton's Not-zzarella Sauce, it was so heavy, a thinner crust might have perished. The Not-zzarella Sauce is unlike any cheese-style sauce that I've ever made because it's a thin liquid. Additionally, I found it a bit bland right from the blender, so I added a bit of lemon and pepper. As with the Caponata, I had way more than I needed, even after loading up the pizza with more than the recipe mandated.

So after all of that, I got the pizza in the oven, and I still had to make the Parmesan Topping and the Balsamic Glaze. At this point, I was tired and indignant about making two more recipes with such a tremendous yield. The Parmesan Topping was easy though, and I just reduced the amounts. It is really good and will probably be my new go-to.

The Balsamic Glaze annoyed me though because even if I had two cups of Balsamic vinegar hanging around, I'm not going to make that much glaze. So I halved that one too, but I have to admit, it was unbelievably good, and I'm sure I'll pour it on all kinds of things.

Finally, after all of that, the pizza was out of the oven, and doused in the glaze. I skipped the arugula garnish because the grocery list for these recipes already broke the bank this week. I did add the basil leaves I wouldn't be using later in the week though. It didn't look like the pizza you'd get in a shop, which I expected, and it was not an elegant eating experience - if you're not comfortable licking your fingers, then you'll need a fork, because you're not going to want to leave anything behind.

This pizza was fantastic, and incredibly filling. Additionally, I felt like I got a lot more nutritional bang for my buck with this than I might have from a Johnny Rads or Tofurky pizza. I'll undoubtedly use his dough from now on, and maybe even the Not-zzarella Sauce, but I'll probably stick to more basic sauces and just add veggies unless I happen to have another odd gallon of Caponata lying around.