2011-01-26

WEEK TWO: Breaking The Habit Deserves Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza? After countless years of shying away from the high-caloric goodness of dough and cheese, I've decided to give it another go.

Years ago I just couldn't come to grips with the back-side of a frozen, oven-ready pizza box--"Hello 300 calories a slice!" I didn't even want to fathom what our local pizzeria could offer me per pie as I'm sure the count would spike exponentially. On a quest to re-invent my relationship with pizza, paired with my newly found free time (sans TV), I gave it a go. Here's my low-cal solution to heavy cheese and tomato sauce goodness:

Home-Made Dough
1 1/2 cups of warm water
1 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. extra virgin oil
1 tsp. salt
3 cups whole wheat flour

Mix warm water, yeast, sugar + salt in one bowl. Flour in another bowl; create a well for warm mixture. Mix with spoon or hands + need till consistency is gummy. Cover with light olive oil and place back in bowl, cover for 45 minutes. Need and place back in bowl covered for another hour. 

The 'pièce de résistance'--here's where the calories disappear! Top your home-made dough with figs, prosciutto, honey, arugula and a tiny bit of goat cheese. I PROMISE ITS SUPER-FANTASTIC! To boot, you've now eliminated about 150 calories a slice. Bake at 475 degrees for 14-18 minutes.

ALTERNATIVELY, if you don't have the patience to make pizza from scratch, I was just recently home (meaning Toronto) in December and TERONI on Adelaide makes an outlandish version (clearly!). TERONI is fabulous but they have "rules" which makes me secretly love the place more. They don't cut pizza, they do it old-school with wine in table glasses (+ add in a few others)...and if you don't like it--tough!

NOW SINCE WE'RE TALKING PIZZA + ITALIAN RESTAURANTS: I'll also plug the NOSE on QUEEN STREET EAST. Top dinner off here with a super-sized Joe Louis from 7-11 and you're all set ;)






2 comments:

  1. This looks incredibly fantastic! And, I see you "write" recipes similar to me....."a little of this, a tiny bit of that", heheheh. Would love the exact amounts for what you topped your pizza crust with, but I guess I'll just have to go experiment on my own ;)

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  2. Hey Mary--I have no set amounts above, I pretty much "wing-it"! I would say 6 figs, about 6 pieces of thinly sliced prosciutto, 1/4 cup of honey and sprinkles of goat cheese and arugula. Still not exact but I hope this helps! Hope all is well!

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