Kathryne Grisim, Guest Pizza Storyteller shares her recipe & story
Quattro Pizza with Homemade Pizza Dough & Sauce
Quattro pizzas are when you choose your favourite four toppings and lay them out in quadrants. What four toppings would you choose?
Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (125 mL)
1 1/2 – 2 cup all-purpose flour (375-500 mL)
2 Tbsp wheat germ (30mL)
1/4 tsp salt (1 mL)
1 package (7g) quick rising instant yeast (1 )
1 cup hot water (250 mL)
1 Tbsp canola oil (15 mL)
Directions for Pizza Dough:
In a large bowl, mix whole-wheat flour, 1 cup all purpose flour, wheat germ, salt and yeast. Stir in hot water and canola oil. Gradually stir in enough of remaining all-purpose flour to make a soft dough.
Knead on lightly-floured surface until smooth and elastic. Shape dough into ball. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes before rolling out.
Quick Pizza Sauce Recipe
Sauce Ingredients:
2 Tbsp canola oil (25 mL)
1 small onion, diced (1 )
3 cloves garlic, minced (3 )
3-4 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 2 Tbsp each of fresh oregano and basil (45-50 mL)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (1 mL)
1 can (28 oz/796 mL) crushed tomatoes (1 can)
1/2-1 tsp sugar (optional – will reduce the acidity of tomatoes) (2-5 mL)
Sauce Directions:
In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add canola oil. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, pepper and crushed tomatoes. Simmer sauce for 5-10 minutes.
The Great Pizza Story Contest
You won’t want to miss your chance to win pizza making lessons for you and 5 friends with Chef Mary Jane Feeke. Chef will either come to your home or you can visit her shop for your private lessons. Be the envy of your friends and enter today!
Simply visit The Great Pizza Dough Contest Page, fill in your info and submit. You can even share the contest info with your friends for additional entries.
Storyteller Kathryne Grisim – Adventures with Family
We have always held family pizza nights in our home. When our now grown children were younger, it was Thursday evenings. This was a time designated to “us” when we would not schedule swimming lessons or student lead conferences.
The evening was designated to a supper that the kids could participate in the preparation of and there would not be an abundance of cleanup to take us away from a family game of dominoes. The choice was often pizza because it filled the bill on a number of accounts.
Now that our offspring are either living in their own homes or traveling the world, designated family nights are harder to schedule but we still do so. The evening has switched to a weekend one and we assemble at our big old dining room table.
Board games are played less often. Now there are glasses of fine wine to be drunk and eclectic food to be discovered. We also have a ritual where we take turns going around the table to share the highlight and struggle of the past week, as well as what we are most looking forward to (or are hesitant about) in the week to come.
Most recently, our family dynamics have changed again with the arrival of our first grandchild. We are taking turns caring for the wee one and Jenny is getting caught up on her sleep. I am trying to prepare nutritious meals so that she can get her strength back and pass the goodness along to the nursing baby.
Pizza is still our families’ favourite meal. Now though, we are influenced by travel and our favourite chefs. It may surprise you that my favourite place for pizza is a restaurant in Mexico! Their fruita de mare pizza is topped with mussels, squid, clams and shrimp that have been freshly caught that day. They also make “quattro” pizzas, which are 4 topping pizzas that are laid out in quadrants. With a good recipe exceptional pizza can be recreated anywhere.
On this surprisingly warm day, I have already prepared the pizza from Canola’s super easy pizza dough and sauce recipes and then put it aside for a light supper. The four quadrants are distinguished by four different cheeses: triangles of mozzarella, strips of Mexican queso fresco, crumbled feta and creamy chevre.
At supper time I put out some additional treats for toppings: figs, grilled zucchini, pine nuts and pumpkin seeds. The wheat germ and whole wheat flour in this recipe provide a wonderfully nutty taste which is enhanced by the canola oil drizzled on the bottom of the pan.
Our crust was a toasty brown and just on the crunchy side as I had pressed the dough out very thinly. We absolutely loved it! Pizza is so versatile: it can provide the sustenance necessary for a full. well balanced meal or lighter fare for leisurely, family evenings at the cottage.
Eat Well…Kathryne Grisim
#cookwithlove
Kathryne explores food as an expression of love as the creator and curator of Food Musings.
She, her husband, children and siblings are all food appreciators and imaginative cooks and so there is always something delicious coming out of their city kitchen or from their little beach house.
Kathryne and her husband of thirty years, are first time grandparents who love to travel to their favourite winter destination of Isla Mujeres.
When not teaching social and tradition media, food styling or writing, Kath (as she is known by those who love her), might be found collecting heart-shaped stones on a beach, riding her vintage turquoise bicycle or acting as a seeing eye-person to their enormous old blind dog.
