Pizza has always been one of my favourite Italian dishes. Even though I love experimenting with topping ingredients and love the additions such as pineapple, pickles or blue cheese, I always love to come back to the basics. Mushrooms, cheese, tomato sauce and some herbs is everything I need for the best pizza. However, the crust sometimes takes too much time to mix up, knead, roll out etc. So I thought I could use white sandwich bread instead of making pizza dough. It took no time and helped me to use up the old bread. And you know what? It was so good. The crust was browned and crunchy and and the surface of the bread absorbed some of the pasta sauce. The topping was perfectly delicious and cheesy. What is more, I liked that this was divided into small portions. If you have no time but crave for pizza, there's nothing better than topping slices of white sandwich bread with your favourite pizza ingredients.
Bread Pizza
6 slices white bread
~1 cup of homemade tomato sauce*
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
dried oregano
dried basil
salt (optional)
180g mushrooms, sliced
80g gouda cheese, shredded
*My
tomato sauce contains parsley, onions, garlic, pepper and a dash of
olive oil so you may add these seasonings too. If there's no oil in your
tomato sauce, I highly recommend adding some, or sprinkling the bread
with about a teaspoon of oil before topping.
1) Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Prepare a tray with parchment paper.
2)
Place bread slices on the baking paper. Top each of them with tomato
sauce. Sprinkle with garlic, oregano, basil and a pinch of salt.Top with
mushrooms and sprinkle with cheese.
3) Bake as long as
you wish. This may take from 5 to 25 minutes. I like to bake them
longer because I like my bread extra crispy and browned.
Recipe by collecting memories
The Pumpkin Season has finally begun and the house smells like fall. I have more pumpkin than I need and I can't wait to realize new pumpkin recipe ideas. The first one I would like to share with you is the crustless pumpkin pie. This is a classic pumpkin pie made with sour cream and a small amount of flour to help it hold its shape. This pie is much lighter than the traditional pie so you can actually eat more of it. And, what is more, this is kind of a magic pie. During the baking, the top becomes slightly caramelized which was my favourite part of it.
P.S. Last week I made a round up of my summer recipes and picked out the best ones. If you haven't seen it yet, please check it out here!
Crustless Pumpkin Pie
2 cups pumpkin puree
150g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
100g sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp cinnamon
20g flour
1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Lightly grease a 18cm baking pan.
2) In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add sugar, sour cream and pumpkin. Whisk until incorporated. Add salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and flour. Mix to combine.
3) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set in the middle. Let cool completely and transfer to refrigerator. Let sit for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.
Recipe by collecting memories
Imagine a giant, warm, chewy, gooey cookie topped with melting homemade vanilla ice cream. This Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie is the one. A dreamy cookie pie with chunks of chocolate. And a dollop of vanilla ice cream which starts to melt and creates a creamy vanilla sauce. The cookie pie soaks in the sauce and slightly cools down. And then you take a bite, dip it into ice cream and go to heaven.
This cookie pie is a rich, perfect dessert when you crave something sweet. With its chewy texture it is reminiscent of a blondie. If you like blondies and brownies, you definitely have to try this. Ecpecially when it takes just a few minutes to prepare it. You don't even need to wash tons of bowls after all! Just mix everything in the skillet, pop into the oven and enjoy.
Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
110g unsalted butter
150g granulated sugar
50g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
185g all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g chocolate chunks (I used milk)
Vanilla ice cream, to serve.
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2) In an 20cm/8inch cast iron skillet, melt 110g of butter over medium heat. When
butter is melted, add the granulated sugar and brown sugar, and stir to
combine. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
2) In a small bowl, beat
the egg, and add two tablespoons of the melted
sugar/butter mixture to the egg (to temper it) and whisk to combine.
3) Pour egg mixture back into the skillet, and stir until completely combined.
4) Add flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until very well combined. Add vanilla and chocolate, and stir to combine.
5) Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
Serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from here.
Risotto is one of my favourite dishes you can make with rice. It has a creamy, rich texture and is absolutely filling. Risotto contains quite much butter which is usually mixed in lastly but I wanted to caramelize my onions in butter first. I also ommited white wine and used vegetable broth. The result was still very delicious and I really did not miss any wine. Instead I added some red wine vinegar (it was ok but you could also use white wine vinegar. I did not have any!). So this makes quite a lot of risotto. I divided this into 4-6 servings but if you are a serious eater you may consider this as 3, I think. Anyway, it's never too much of mushroom risotto!
Mushroom Risotto
3 onions
40g butter
400g mushrooms, chopped into small chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
5-6 cloves garlic
400g risotto rice, uncooked
2 tbsp red wine vinegar (I believe white would be better but this is all I had)
~2 liters vegetable stock
pinch ground pepper
salt, to taste
1)
Chop 2 1/2 onion into thin strips. In a large saucepan, melt 40g of
butter and add the onion. Cover and cook, over medium-low heat, until
lightly browned. Stir occasionally until completely soft and caramelized. If
it starts browning too fast, reduce the heat or add more butter. This
should take approx. 10 minutes. When the onions caramelize, add
mushrooms and mix well. Season wih salt and pepper. Cover and cook until
mushrooms start to release liquid. Uncover and cook until all the
liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. While the mushroom/onion
mixture is cooking, you can start preparing risotto.
2)
In another large saucepan over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of
olive oil. Add 1/2 chopped onion and cook until slightly softened, about
4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add rice and
toast for a few minutes. Add vinegar, mix well and then stir in 1 cup of
vegetable stock. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until rice
absorb most of the liquid, stirring constantly. Add another cup of stock
and repeat this until you add all the liquid (I did not add all the
stock, I had about 1/4 cup leftovers. If you notice that your rice is
cooked and soft stop adding the liquid). When the rice has cooked, mix
in the mushroom/onion mixture. Remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes
before serving.
Serves 4-6
Recipe by collecting memories
