What We Ate Wednesday--Tapenade Pizza

 Hello lovelies! I make no secret of my love for pizza. I make my own dough out of spelt as i can tolerate it, as opposed to wheat which makes my tummy swell up like I have eaten a basketball. But you can make a strictly gluten free crust...or you can even buy a crust and just add toppings. Do whatever you like, but do try this pizza! 

Like last week, this is a kind of use up the odds and ends sort of meal. We don't normally have vegan cheese, but we had a little Violife in the fridge so I grated it and threw it on. 

We had a large punnet of cherry tomatoes that I had used the night before on a pasta, but before I cooked them I saved out 6 small tomatoes for the pizza. 

I made a big batch of my WALNUT AND OLIVE TAPENADE (click on the link to read how to make it) and froze it for later meals. I normally freeze it in 1 cup servings, but I divided one of the cups in half and froze enough for 2 pizzas. These days, I don't even bother to put the olive oil in the recipe and it is fine. A little more crumbly and less paste-y...but it still tastes delicious. 

You can use any tapenade you have...homemade or store bought. You just need half a cup of it. 

My crust needs to be cooked 5 minutes at 250C/500F and then add the toppings. Then cook for another 12 minutes. But if yours just goes straight in the oven put your toppings on straightaway and cook according to package directions. 

 

Tapenade Pizza

1 pizza crust 

1 red onion, cut into rainbows

a bit of red pepper, diced small

2 mushrooms sliced thin

6 cherry tomatoes cut in half

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

4 TB tomato puree

3-4 cloves of garlic, grated

half a cup olive tapenade

1/3 to 1/2 cup grated vegan cheese

rosemary

Cook the onion in a splash of water or vegetable stock until softened then set aside.

Marinate the cut cherry tomatoes in the balsamic vinegar.

In a small bowl, add your garlic to your tomato puree and add a splash of water to thin it out. 

Layer your pizza like this:

tomato garlic paste

tapenade (press into tomato garlic paste with back of a spoon)

cooked red onion

mushrooms and peppers

tomatoes, cut side down around the edge

sprinkle cheese in the middle

sprinkle on copious amounts of rosemary on the top and any remaining balsamic vinegar from the tomatoes. Grind on black pepper. 

Bake in a very hot oven according to package directions. 

This was really delicious...lots of umami flavour going on. The cheese was just enough. In my carnivore days I was an extra cheese kind of gal. Half cup cheese almost felt like too much. How times have changed. I used to use cheese to drown out stuff...now I like to taste the flavours of everything underneath.