A Mediterranean Morning

It's grocery day in my house, so of course I woke up starving to a mostly empty refrigerator. Trying to come up with something to fill my belly before I head to the store as a ravenous beast (we all know that's a bad idea!), I decided pizza dough, cheese, and the contents of my spice cabinet were enough to throw together a quick meal.


Admission: I did not make this pizza dough. I am engaged in a continuing search for the perfect pizza dough recipe, but in the meantime I decided to try out the frozen pizza dough from my local grocery store, Heinen's. Papa Joe's pizza dough comes in one-pound bags in their freezer section and it tastes fantastic. I hope someday to make pizza dough this good. Today, I cut the dough in half to make two recipes.


My first creation today was the best. A friend of mine with Lebanese heritage recently blessed me with a bag of the Middle Eastern spice mix "za'atar." Za'atar can include many different things depending on the country or family, but always seems to involve oregano, thyme, sesame seeds, and sumac. Upon this friend's advice, I stretched out the dough as if I was making a pizza, covered the dough with olive oil, and sprinkled a pretty heavy coating of za'atar on top. After baking in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, it resulted in this awesomeness:

It may not look like much, but this bread tastes incredible. It is savory and salty and it was so easy to make that I think it may become a standard snack in my house. I ate almost the whole thing before my second creation was out of the oven.

With the other half of the pizza dough I was aiming for a white pizza, mainly because I had no tomatoes or sauce. Again, I stretched the dough to my preferred pizza size/thickness, spread olive oil on top, and covered with spices - this time, half a packet of my favorite cheat, the Knorr pesto spice mix. I rubbed the pesto into the oil/dough with my hand so it evenly covered the dough, and then sprinkled about a cup of grated Romano cheese on top.* I again baked the pizza at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, and ended up with a pretty but somewhat mediocre pizza.

I think the pesto mix was actually why this pizza failed. Don't get me wrong, I still ate it, but it was REALLY salty. I think in the future I will just add individual Italian spices from my cabinet, or buy some fresh basil instead. The cheese and dough have enough salt in it that you do not need the extra salt from the pesto.

*My favorite cheese ever is Romano cheese made by Locatelli. It is so full of flavor that it never lasts long in our house. We put it on almost everything, and have stopped buying those sad green cans of Parmesan cheese.

References:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/07/spice-hunting-what-is-zaatar-how-to-use.html

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/middleeasternspicesherbs/r/zaatar.htm