Experimenting with Pizza Dough

By Billa

Pizza with mozzarella and tomato sauce is wonderful. But, lately I’ve been craving something different. Specifically, I wanted to incorporate roasted veggies and different cheeses in a pizza. So, I purchased three fresh pizza doughs and proceeded to experiment:

In each case, I followed the instructions on the package: preheating the oven to 475 degrees, rolling the dough ball into a 13”-circle, transferring the dough to a pizza stone, topping it, and baking it for 18-20 minutes.

For the first pizza, I cubed a medium-sized eggplant, tossed it with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and roasted it for 15 minutes, stirring once, in a 475-degree oven. Once it was roasted, I placed it in a bowl and mixed it with a medium, diced Vidalia onion, a sliced roasted red pepper (from a jar), 2 tablespoons of za’atar, and some Kosher salt. Then, I spread the eggplant mixture on top of the dough, leaving a 1/4” border all around. Next I sprinkled 4 ounces of crumbled feta on top, followed by 2 tablespoons of pine nuts.

The meltingly tender and slightly bittersweet taste of the eggplant punctuated by the zingy saltiness of the feta was a nice bite. The za’atar added a somewhat exotic note, and the pine nuts provided a pleasant, nutty textural element. However, I missed the saucy element. So, my next experiment did include a sauce.

For the second pizza, I covered the dough with pizza sauce and topped that with roasted broccoli florets (8 ounces roasted with a tablespoon of olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes, turning halfway), a cup of grated manchego cheese, and 8 pitted and sliced kalamata olives.

The crispy caramelized, slightly sweet flavor of the broccoli contrasted nicely with the oily, salty taste of the melted cheese. Although I ordinarily like the taste of manchego cheese a lot, I didn’t love it melted. Perhaps a goat cheese or a cheddar cheese would have been better.

Finally, for the third pizza, I roasted 4 carrots: I cut the carrots into 1/4” by 3” sticks, mixed them with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt, and roasted them on a sheet pan for 25 minutes at 425 degrees, stirring a few times. When done, I added 1/2 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar to the sheet pan and stirred.

Over the pizza dough, I scattered a 4.5-ounce container of crumbly blue cheese. The roasted carrots were positioned on top.

I think this pizza was my favorite of the three. The funky umami taste of the blue cheese intermingled with the sweetness of the roasted carrots resulting in a terrific taste sensation. There was nothing I would change - that experiment was a total success.