Pepper and Onion Pizza with a Chickpea Crust

Hello world, I’m on vacation! But not to leave you hanging, I’ve got recipe to share from a guest chef, my youngest sister and current flatmate, L’il Sis. L’il Sis just graduated college in the Midwest, packed her bags and headed out to NYC to join me and our other sister, The Sistaster, in our tiny Brooklyn apartment. L’il Sis is sleeping on an air mattress in the living room and is storing her clothes in the bookcase. Hey, it’s better than paying rent. [Update: L’il Sis now has a job and is paying rent.]

Like me and The Sistaster, the L’il Sis has a highly refined palate and a hearty Midwestern appetite. We spend a large amount of time making food, eating food, talking about food, running to the grocery store to buy food, emailing about who has to go buy food, and arguing about who owes whom money for food.

Busy as she is traipsing around NYC and getting her feet wet with her new job, the L’il Sis has found time to bless vanesscipes with a few recipes of one of her favorite foods: pizza.

Now, what I’d like to do here is make a metaphor of how living in NYC for the first time is like a slice of pizza for the L’il Sis - a hard and crusty exterior but with a surprising warm middle filled with lovely and unexpected toppings, but it sounds pretty hokey. So let’s make this idea really sparkle with, ahem, a haiku:

Big City. L’il Sis: A Haiku About Moving to New York City 

Big City. L’il Sis.
Dirty Subway, where’s my seat?
Shoot. Let’s eat pizza!

This is a take on a classic veggie pizza, but with the twist of a chickpea crust.

Serves: 5-7 guests. Makes (2) 14″ round pizzas
Time: active time is about 30 minutes to make dough, and 30 minutes for sauce and pizza. Dough needs to rise for at least 2 hours and the pizzas take about 30 minutes each to bake.

Chickpea Flour Pizza Dough

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (plus some for when rolling dough)
3/4 cup of chickpea flour
pinch of salt
3 packages active dry yeast
extra virgin olive oil
1 cup warm water

Mix flours, salt, and dry yeast. Slowly add warm water as you kneed the dough until smooth and elastic.

Oil a large bowl for the dough, cover with a cloth, and set in warm place to let rise. It should double in volume after 2 hours. I like to do this step in the morning before I leave for work and come back to a yeasty smelling apartment.

Once the dough has risen, divide in half.
Sprinkle flour on the counter and rolling pin, and roll out dough to fit a 14 inch circle pizza pan. If your counter or rolling pin get sticky add more flour to rolling pin and counter.
Once the dough is placed carefully on the pan, brush the top with a little olive oil.

Sauce

6 oz tomato paste
3/4 cup warm water
3 Tbl grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
enough salt to taste

Thoroughly mix together all the above ingredients in a bowl.

To Assemble the Pizza

6 small (or 3 very large) red, yellow, and green bell peppers (thinly sliced)
1 red onion (thinly sliced)
3 - 4 cups sauce (1 1/2 - 2 per pizza, see directions below)
3 - 4 cups fresh mozzarella cheese (1 1/2 - 2 per pizza)

Spread 1/2 of sauce on dough, and bake at 475º for 10 minutes.
Then, spread on 1/2 of peppers and onions, and bake for another 10 minutes
Finally, spread 1/2 cheese, and bake until cheese is done, about another 10 minutes.

Repeat this process for the 2nd pizza

Note from the L’il Sis: if you like it more saucy, add more sauce; if you like it more cheesy, add more cheese. Us sisters are nothing if not practical.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 11:33 am and is filed under Pasta, Pizzas, & Grains, Any Season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.