Friday night footy pizza

Friday night finals footy with Geelong playing so what better thing to do than experiment with pizza. Tonight I experiment with sun dried tomato pesto which I have never tasted before. Otherwise ricotta and various vegetables and olives and anchovies are nothing particularly new. The end result was delicious. Whether Geelong will win remains to be seen. 

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Sun dried tomato pesto

Ricotta

Sopressa

1/4 green pepper 

4 mushrooms 

2 black olives

2 anchovies

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Place wholemeal wrap on oven tray

Spread the sun dried tomato pesto on wrap

Spread with ricotta

Slice green peppers and mushrooms

Place sopressa  on the ricotta

Add mushrooms, followed by pepper 

Sprinkle over chopped olives and anchovies

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy!

Abla garlic chicken with pinenuts

As readers of this blog have no doubt noticed I love Abla’s recipe for garlic chicken wings, though I rarely cook it as she did. And in Melbourne lockdown how would I love to visit Abla’s restaurant, one of my long-time favourites! Instead at home with curfew I am experimenting, inspired by Abla.  I have been yearning for lemon potatoes but maybe that is overkill tonight. I must check the pasta store for orzo or the like.

 Ingredients

16 chicken drumettes (about 1 kilo)
2 dessertspoons rock salt
1/2 cup pinenuts

2 lemons

2 tbs crushed garlic

1 tbs crushed ginger

Mode

Preheat oven to 210c.
Arrange the chicken drumettes in a baking dish
Sprinkle with rock salt and pinenuts
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile juice the lemons
Add minced garlic and ginger to juice

Stir thoroughly

Remove the chicken from the oven and pour the  mixture 

Return to oven and roast for another 25-35 minutes.

Serve with rice, pasta or roast vegetables  

Rocket pesto, salami and ricotta pizza

Ah Sunday evening! What is there to cook except a pizza after years of the tradition of Sunday night pizza? It would be very nice to meet some friends outside in a pizzeria, but that was another time before lockdowns. 

We have no idea when this time will end. So I continue to experiment. Pritikin modified pizzes are the basis of my experiments, though he would not approve of all my changes, as indeed I don’t approve of his low fat options. I have experimented with a few wholemeal/multigrain wraps or Lebanese bread. My absolute favourite to date is one produced by Wattle Valley as shown in the illustration. 

This time produced a delicious combination of wholemeal wrap, ricotta, rocket pesto, and vegetables accompanied by capers and ginger. I can’t say that it is a very traditional pizza but I enjoyed my Sunday night pizza a lot!! 

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Ricotta

Salami slices

1/4 red pepper

1/4 green pepper 

2 mushrooms 

1/2 zucchini

1 heaped tsp capers

1 tsp crushed ginger

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Place wholemeal wrap on oven tray

Spread the rocket pesto on wrap

Spread with ricotta

Grate zucchini

Slice red and green peppers and mushrooms

Crush the ginger 

Place salami on the ricotta

Add zucchini, followed by peppers and mushrooms 

Sprinkle over capers and ginger

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy!

Lazy lentil soup with sage and chili

This recipe is loosely based on a recipe of Diane Kochilas from her book Ikaria. She, however, started from scratch with dried lentils and my other ingredients are slightly different as is my method. But hers was the inspiration to use sage and chili which are not ingredients I had used before in lentil soup. 

Ingredients

1 large brown onion

Olive oil

800 gr canned lentils

400 gr diced tomatoes

6 dry sage leaves

3 dried bay leaves

1 tsp Sambal Oelek

2 cloves garlic

Water

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Mode

Heat some olive oil in large saucepan on high heat

Roughly chop onion

Add to olive oil and stir to cover with oil

Cook for a few minutes stirring occasionally

Meanwhile peel and crush the garlic 

Drain and rinse the lentils

Add the garlic and Sambel oelek to the onions and stir

Add the bay and crushed sage leaves to the mixture and stir

Add the drained lentils and combine

Finally add the tomatoes and stir

Add about two cups of water and stir

Bring the mixture to the boil and reduce to a simmer

Simmer for about an hour stirring occasionally

Just before serving add the vinegar

Remove the bay leaves and any sage stalks

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and additional vinegar if desired

Pizza with ham, mushrooms and chargrilled red pepper

Another Sunday night, another Sunday night pizza! Once upon a time a long, long time ago some of us used to gather every Sunday for pizza. Now decades later we are scattered but the Sunday night pizza still exists wherever we are though not every Sunday and not often together.

This one of mine, Covid comfort food perhaps or nostalgia for the past, is based on the Pritikin idea of using wholemeal Lebanese bread as a base. I find it a lot lighter than the traditional Italian base and probably healthier.

Ingredients

1 wholemeal Lebanese bread

Pizza sauce from tomatoes (ready made)

Mozzarella 

Ham

Mushrooms 

Chargrilled red pepper

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Spread tomato pizza sauce on the Lebanese bread

Slice Mozzarella and add

Place ham over sauce and cheese

Slice red peppers and sprinkle over 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy on a Sunday (or any time). 

Smoked salmon, ricotta and pesto pizza

During Lockdown number five in Melbourne eating and cooking and comfort food have been again on the agenda. I started experimenting with pizzas again, this time going back to methods I had learnt long ago in Pritikin-based cooking. Much has changed since then in terms of the discreditation of his calls for extreme use of low fat products including nuts for example. But there is also much that is valuable in the recipes in relation to exclusion of refined products for example.

This pizza is based on the standard Pritikin pizza base, wholemeal Lebanese bread, with the addition of pesto, ricotta, smoked salmon, grated zucchini, spring onions and capers. It was yummy.

Ingredients

1 wholemeal Lebanese bread

2 spring onions

1 dsp capers

1/2 zucchini

100 gr smoked salmon

120 gr ricotta

2 tbs pesto

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Chop spring onions

Grate zucchini

Spread pesto on the Lebanese bread

Add ricotta and smooth

Break smoked salmon into pieces and add

Add spring onions, capers and zucchini 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Basil and ginger chicken balls in tomato sauce

Chicken balls with ginger and basil simmered in tomato and basil sauce! Yes!! I used ready made tomato and basil sauce and dried basil I had hanging in the kitchen. And lemon and pepper breadcrumbs. Yum. Yum. And I ate it with whole grain rice and some shaved Parmesan.

Ingredients 

500 gr minced chicken

2 spring onions

2 cloves crushed garlic

3 tsp crushed ginger root

Dried basil

Breadcrumbs

Ready-made tomato and basil sauce

Olive oil

Mode

Place tomato sauce in pan and bring to boil

Reduce to simmer

Chop spring onions

Crush garlic and ginger

Place minced chicken in bowl

Add ginger and garlic and stir to combine

Crumple dried basil and add to mixture

Stir to combine 

Place breadcrumbs on plate

Form balls from chicken mixture and roll in breadcrumbs

Pour olive oil into frying pan and heat

Quickly sear the chicken balls in batches

Add to tomato sauce and simmer for 30 minutes