Ballerina Liz’s Pizza

Ingredients
Crust
•1 tsp yeast
•½ tsp sugar
•¼ cup warm water
•½ cups whole wheat flour
•½ cup bread flour
•½ tsp salt
•1 tbsp oil
•½ tsp flaxseed meal, optional

Topping
•¼ cup Artichoke hearts, chopped
•½ cup sliced plum tomatoes
•¼ cup sliced olives
•¼ tsp salt (for children, you can omit this)
•2 tbsp chopped bell pepper
•½ cup mozzarella cheese

Tomato Sauce
•½ tbsp olive oil
•¼ tsp salt or less
•¼ tsp sugar
•2/3 cup tomato puree
•1 tsp chopped fresh basil leaves
•Dash of Italian seasoning
•Dash of hing

Preparation
Tomato sauce
Heat oil in a saucepan. Sauté all ingredients for a few minutes and simmer for 10 minutes.
Crust/pizza dough
1.Combine flour, yeast, sugar, flaxseed meal, and salt in a large bowl.
2.Stir in hater and oil until blended and dough comes away from side of bowl.
3.Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Shape dough into a ball.
4. Place on a prepared baking sheet (sprinkle with flour or cornmeal).
5.Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes. Roll dough ball into a rectangle** on the baking sheet.
6.Spread the tomato sauce, then add vegetables and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake in a 425F oven for 20 minutes.
7.If you desire, you may use vegetables and cheese only (Sicilians make a lot of white pizza that does have tomato sauce). Coming from a Sicilian tradition that loves to eat and cook, Liz, my dancer roommate at graduate school, had shared a lot of her family’s recipes with me, including pizza….
8.You may roll the dough into a circle. Rectangle is the common shape I have seen in Italy.

Serves
4 Persons

By Madhavi Devi Dasi