Attempting homemade pizzas

[bradm]

I went shopping today, and needing to fill in a couple of empty spaces in my dinners this week, decided to try homemade pizzas. I bought whole wheat pitas, aged provolone cheese, some back bacon, cherry tomatoes, a Hungarian pepper, and some button mushrooms.

My plan is to split the pitas not into semi-circular pockets, but across them edgewise, making two full circles. I have some tomato sauce which I'll use as a base, then pile on the above ingredients, probably with oregano, basil, black pepper, and red pepper flakes (and/or hot sauce). (I'll also whip up a salad and serve it all with a nice red wine. )

My big question is what temperature to cook them at, and for how long. I can fit them in my toaster oven (which I prefer to my big oven), so will probably just set them on the rack (as opposed to a tray). The bread doesn't need to cook, but I'd like the stuff on top to get melted and maybe browned a bit. Can anybody offer some advice?

Aloha,

Brad

[bradm]

I think I found my answer. According to

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pita-pizza-2/detail.aspx

8 minutes at 425F should do the trick (with the pitas warmed for a minute or so before the toppings are added).

Aloha,

Brad

[jonyak]

I make homemade pizza all the time and I usualy do 425 degrees until they're done. no time limit, just till they look done.

[Sarahbelle]

yep! just make sure the cheese is bubbley and your good mmm pizzzza!

[bradm]

That was some of the best pizza I've had in recent memory. A key addition, I think, was the quartered cherry tomatoes: they added cool bit of texture to the whole thing.

Aloha,

Brad

[headymamamyrna]

I would never have thought of making home made pizzas with pita bread.

I do love whole wheat pitas for sandwiches so now I can try the pizzas!

Sounds yummy!

[Jaimoe]

I'm not sure if you have a toaster oven, but if you do, cook the pita pizza on the toaster setting - hit the toaster switch twice - you should leave the pita on the pan too.

Edited November 2, 2006 by Guest

[bradm]

I did them in the toaster oven last night, in oven mode at 425F, but thought about just toasting them. I'll give that a try next time. (Tonight, I'm thinking about pitas stuffed with a scrambled egg mixture: onions, Hungarian pepper, cheese, cherry tomotoes, provolone cheese.)

Aloha,

Brad

[bouche]

get a pizza stone or one of them mesh pizza racks for the best crust ever!

[phishtaper]

get a pizza stone ...

i cant figure out how to use them. pizzas always turn into panzo's.

made 'za last night. mmmmmmmmmmm, hot peppers from our garden ...

[StaggerLee]

get a pizza stone ...

i cant figure out how to use them.

Heat the stone in the oven and sprinkle some cornmeal on it before you throw the pizza down. The cornmeal keeps it from sticking and makes it easy to rotate while cooking.

Oh, and I usually cook pizzas at around 375 degrees.

[bradm]

I'm not sure if you have a toaster oven, but if you do, cook the pita pizza on the toaster setting - hit the toaster switch twice - you should leave the pita on the pan too.

I've done that a couple of times now (including the toast-twice thing), and it works as good as (if not better than) using the oven setting. I've done them on the tray and just on the rack, and found one advantage to doing them on the rack: my new smoke detectors work just fine...

Aloha,

Brad

[Jaimoe]

And for something a little healthier, try using Yves veggie pepperoni. It's quite good. I also like using brick cheese. It's a good versatile cheese option.

[phishtaper]

And for something a little healthier, try using Yves veggie pepperoni.

I like Yves too. Good stuff. But I have never understood why veggie food manufacturers intentionally make their products to look/seem like meat. Is it to get kids to eat them?

[bradm]

But I have never understood why veggie food manufacturers intentionally make their products to look/seem like meat. Is it to get kids to eat them?

Face it: a lot of our culture and its food is based around meat, and if you became a vegetarian later in life, you grew up exposed to recipes that included meat. Yes, there are tasty vegetarian recipes, but some people want (or need, if they're trying to replicate a particular dish) something that looks, tastes, and cooks like meat, but isn't made from animals. I've used veggie ground round a bunch of times, and think it could be substituted for ground meat in most recipes (e.g., pasta sauce) without any problem, probably without anybody (including meat eaters) noticing.

It's also more convenient: if I'm having a backyard barbecue, and there'll be vegetarian guests, it's easier for me to throw a few tofu veggies dogs/patties on the grill (since I'm cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for my meat-eating guests) than to have to figure out what other (kind of) meal to make for the vegetarians.

Aloha,

Brad