Pizza Puttanesca

OK, so I knew convincing Rob that pizza without cheese was good wasn't going to be easy, so I thought this spicy, bold sauce might be a good start. I got the idea for pizza puttanesca from Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet. However, I didn't really follow her recipe.

You've seen many of my pizza posts where I've blogged about various ways I've made the dough. So, you know that typically I used a combo of all purpose flour and white whole wheat flour. Today, I went to the kitchen to get the dough started, only to find that I have no all purpose flour and no white whole wheat flour (which typically can be subbed 1:1 in any recipe). So, with only whole wheat flour on hand, I am not quite sure what to do. I know whole wheat can't be subbed 1:1 for all purpose flour, but I don't know what the ratios are, and I am famously bad at conducting internet searches that actually result in finding what I'm looking for.

Well, it looked like my first try at vegan pizza was going to be ruined before I even started. As a last ditch effort I logged on to MotheringDotCommune to ask for advice. Lo and behold, within minutes, two nice mamas had posted their recipes for whole wheat pizza dough, which was basically this, with some olive oil added in. Vegan pizza night was saved!!

So, on to the sauce......now, I know puttanesca sauce is supposed to have anchovies. Well, this is a vegetarian/vegan pizza, so of course, there are no anchovies, and therefore, this isn't REALLY puttanesca sauce, but, whatever.

For the sauce, I sauted 4 cloves of garlic and about 1/4 cup of onion in some olive oil. I then added in 2 palmfuls of drained capers. To that I added 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes with basil, and one 14 oz can each of black olives and green olives, sliced (again, yes, I know that puttanesca sauce calls for fancy shmancy olives, but my grocery budget doesn't call for them, kwim??). Add a pinch of salt, some fresh ground pepper, and about 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer about 10-15 minutes.

To prepare the pizza, roll out the dough and bake for about 5 minutes on a pizza stone that has been sprinkled with cornmeal, preheated in a 450 degree oven. Remove the partially baked crust, top with the sauce, then return to oven until crust is nicely browned and sauce is hot and bubbly.

All I can say is YYYUUUMMMM!! This pizza was fabulous. The kids did not like it (but I wasn't surprised). Rob liked it, he really liked the sauce, but he did comment that "it's missing something.....maybe some cheese??!!" I think his comment was 50% smart-ass, 50% serious. But, all in all, I think he was impressed and satisfied with vegan pizza. I really want to try Dreena's Thai pizza next, but it involves peanut sauce, so it'll have to wait until I can find someone to keep Stella for the night.

Last night we had Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas from Vegan Planet. Unfortunately, my photos were embarassingly bad, so I opted to spare you (and myself). The enchiladas are incredible. Rob was skeptical, but he liked them. I'll be making them again really soon, and I'll attempt to get some better pictures for you then.