K’s Kitchen: Fresh ingredients make for special pizzas

By Kathryn Reed

I’m not sure if I could ever get tired of pizza. It’s one of those foods where there are so many toppings, sauces and crust combos available that you would never have to have the same one twice.

But there is one we have with regularity in our household. It’s Sue’s pesto-spinach pie.

I make fresh batches of pesto this time of year and then freeze them so we can use them year-round.

We “cheat” on the crust by buying Boboli. But feel free to make your own.

For Sue’s pizza, she spreads a layer of pesto on the crust, covers it with thawed spinach, and then adds feta cheese, sliced olives, pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes. I like marinated artichoke hearts on my half. Then she bakes the pizza at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

I decided last weekend to try my hand with pizza – not the dough, though. I was a bit inspired by needing to find more uses for all the zucchini and eggplant that keep arriving in my community supported agriculture box.

I don’t have measurement because I just kept adding to the pan as I was cooking and I wanted to use all the veggies I had. I cooked enough veggies for two pizzas, with leftovers that were used the next day as part of a nacho topping.

I thinly sliced squash, eggplant and red onion.

I cooked these in butter and Madeira, and then added some of the oil from marinated artichokes. I made batches of the veggies; putting the cooked ones aside in a bowl. By the time I was done I had used a stick of butter.

Then I put all of the veggies back in the pan to toss them together to warm them and blend the flavors.

I brushed the pizza crust with a mixture of olive oil, minced garlic and chopped fresh rosemary.

Then I put a single layer of the veggies onto the crusts. I also added marinated artichoke hearts that I had chopped.

I baked each one separately at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.

Not only did the pizza pass muster with Sue and me, but a teenager devoured the second pizza. To me, that is the greatest compliment.