My mom came to visit for 2 weeks during which we cooked ALOT. Living in China means that not only does she have to survive sans salt or dairy (NO CHEESE PEOPLE!) she is also without an oven. I've told her she should master the art of "steamed baking". Understandably, all she wanted to cook while she was here was something that would require the oven. We made Poached Eggs on Brioche (which I'll post about later), a Sachertorte (and I'm sure I'll one day post that as well) but most importantly, the all mighty pizza.
Because they don't have Dominoes Pizza in France, we used to make our own pizza from scratch every Wednesday night- so it's a serious family affair. Each person had to roll out (or spread) their dough into a small cookie sheet and then carefully choose which toppings to use. As we were tweens at the time, my brother and I had to exercise great caution in the number of different toppings we used as too many would lead to a soggy pizza and not self respecting 12 year old would use too few. If we were really lucky, and our dad had just gotten back from a trip to the States, we might even have some pepperoni- which to my brother, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan, was the most important component in any pizza.
We would have friends over on these special Wednesday nights and judge them based entirely on their pizza creations (and if they liked the movie Spaceballs). When someone split theirs in half and used different ingredients on each side- we were blown away and immediately accepted them into the family. Oddly enough I can't recall who that was, or if it was my friend or my brother's.... The pizza I'm going to share with you today is just as mind boggling because it doesn't really seem fancy but it's absolutely delicious. Plus you feel like you're getting a good helping of veggies!
Sundried Tomato and Broccoli Chicken Pizza I think this is orginally based on Rachel Ray.
All these measurements are guidelines- you may need to add a LOT more. I like my pizza practically bursting with toppings. If you are worried about a soggy crust, you can pre-cook your crust for about 7 minutes, then add your toppings and stick the thing back in the oven to heat everything up.
- Pizza Dough (we used a recipe from cooking light- I'll have to get back to you on that)
- 2 Tblsp Olive Oil
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- 2 Cloves of chopped Garlic
- 1 Head of Broccoli
- 1 Tub of Mascarpone Cheese
- 1/2 cup Sundried Tomatoes sliced
- 1 cup of grated Mozzarella Cheese
Heat a saucepan filled with enough water to boil the broccoli
Heat a frying pan with the olive oil. Add the chicken breast and cook through- About 3 minutes on each side. Add chopped garlic about 4 minutes in so it won't burn.
Meanwhile, wash and chop your broccoli into little florets
Once the water in the saucepan is boilling, add the broccoli and boil until *just* cooked through. Should be bright green, tender and take about 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.
Once the chicken is cooked through remove and reserve to shred once cool enough.
Roll your dough out (or if you're like me- grab your cookie sheet, drizzle one glug of olive oil into the middle and use your dough to spread it around the pan. Than flatten out your dough, beating it with a sort of karate chop until you've spread it right to the edges of the pan. Then finish your base off by making a little lip , aka: crust, all the way around so all the deliciousness doens't fall off). Add your marscarpone cheese with a spoon and spread evenly to reach the edges. Sprinkle on your shredded chicken with the garlic. Add the broccoli and then the sundried tomatoes (never forgetting them edges!). At this point I sometimes like to add just a little drizzle of the olive oil from the Sundried tomatoes. Finish it all off with a nice shower of the Mozzarella.
Cook in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until you can smell it (as my mother reminded us every Wednesday night when we asked "is it doooooone yeeeeet?")
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