simmering last year’s tomatoes
Now we can use our garlic, herbs and tomatoes to make yummy pizzas. All we need is a basic pizza dough, cheese, toppings and a little time.
Pizza dough can be made ahead…even frozen (and thawed a half day before you need it). All you need are flour, salt yeast, oil, water and a warm place for the dough to rise. 1 teaspoon of yeast dissolved in 1 1/3 cup of warm water until bubbly (5 minutes). Add 1 tsp salt, 2 Tb. oil and 4 cups of flour (or enough to create dough that feels like play dough). Knead the dough a bit (8 min) until it feels smooth and then set it back into a greased bowl. Find a warm place for the dough to rise for 3 hours. Cover it first with plastic wrap. When it doubles in size, you can put it into a zip-lock freezer bag and freeze it or roll it out right away on a floured board to make pizza! (Makes about a cookie sheet sized pizza.)
flour, yeast, salt oil and water- pizza dough
onion for sauce
stretching pizza dough
last year’s pesto and tomatos
We thawed our frozen tomatoes (see above) and pesto from last summer’s garden and spilled off some of the liquid from the top of the thawed tomatoes. We sauteed garlic and onions and added the tomatoes and some garden oregano. After the sauce boiled down (15 minutes) I used a wand to blend it. This makes it more smooth and palatable for the youngest children.
The rest of pizza making its just prep work: slicing whatever favorite veggies and cheeses go on top, rolling out the dough and spreading on the toppings. I use a rolling pin and a lot of elbow grease to make a thin pizza dough. Keep adding flour as your roll.The kids added some ground flint cornmeal to the greased pizza pans before putting the dough in. This gives the dough a cushion of air to rest on while cooking and helps it to become crisp.
adding cheese
slicing onions for pizza topping
spreading tomato sauce
everyone gets a slice
Fire up the oven to 500 and when it’s hot, put in your assembled pizza. It doesn’t take long to cook. The only snafu is having to wait for it to cool before you can sink your teeth into it! While you’re waiting, click on the ‘fantasy pizza’ template and go wild designing your own pizza!
Vermont School Garden 