Pizza Creation!

I've recently been trying out some new things at home to give us a bit of variety in our weekly menus. I found 2 recipes on the Food Network website that I've tried out - one for Moroccan Style Chickpea Soup (which I mentioned previously) and one for Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Fettucine. Both were quite tasty and I thank the Food Network chefs for making these available on the in-tar-web.

After those two successes, I've been getting a bit more experimental with what I've been making. The first thing I tried that worked out really well was a pizza that broke out of the normal "pizza" tradition a bit. Instead of using a tomato based sauce, I used a roasted red pepper based sauce and also used feta cheese instead of the traditional mozzerella. Steve declared that I should share this with the world, so - here goes. Maybe someday I'll find it pop up in a pizza joint someplace (but I doubt it).

Danielle Athanas' Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Pizza

Ingredients:
- 1 premade whole-wheat pizza crust (I got mine at Whole Foods)
**Pizza crust stretches easier at room temperature. I usually buy mine same-day and leave it out while I'm prepping everything else and it does the trick.
- For pan/dough prep: 1/8 cup flour, 1 tbsp. EVOO
SAUCE (makes enough for 2 pizzas, so you'll be able to store some):
- 2 tbsp. EVOO
- 1/2 Sweet Onion, chopped*
- 3-4 cloves garlic, pressed
- 19 oz. Roasted Red Peppers (I used a 12 oz. and a 7 oz. jar), drained and chopped*
- 1-1.5 tbsp. crushed red pepper
- 1 tbsp. basil
*The chopping can be larger chunks; I usually just do strips.
TOPPINGS (for one pizza):
- 1 cubanelle pepper, "cored" and sliced in rounds
- 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes (not the ones soaking in water, the freeze-dried ones)
- 1 cup feta cheese (or more, to your taste)
- 1/4 cup romano cheese, shredded lightly (I use a microplane)

Method:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees (I have a conventional oven in New England, adjust other ovens as necessary)
- Heat 2 tbsp. EVOO over medium-high heat.
- Saute the onions, and as they start to heat press the garlic cloves into the pan.
- When the onions have started to become translucent (approx. 5 min.), add the roasted red peppers, crushed red peppers, and the basil. Heat for 2-3 min., remove from heat.
- Cut the top off of the cubanelle pepper, remove the inner seeds and slice in circles until you run out of pepper. Set aside.
- By now the onion/pepper saute should be cooled slightly. Put all contents of the pan into a food processor and process until it looks like a sauce (approx. 1 min. or so).
- On a cookie sheet, pour approx. 1. tbsp. EVOO and spread with a brush (or spoon) to cover the bottom of the pan.
- Remove the pizza dough from its packaging and sprinkle both sides with flour. Stretch the dough on the cookie sheet; don't worry if it doesn't touch all the edges, you don't want it to have holes. I usually get it to touch the 2 shorter edges and about 2-3 inches away from the longer edges of a standard cookie sheet. If it's not at room temperature or close, be prepared to fight to get it where you want to be before you add the toppings.
- Scoop half the sauce onto the pizza
- Distribute the cubanelle peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese, and romano cheese evenly across the top of the dough.
- Cook in your preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Slice and enjoy!

(Makes 4 servings of 2 slices each)

The problem when I experiment with stuff like this is that I usually don't write it down. I have two things I made for a picnic tomorrow that I could probably replicate by sight... but hopefully no one will ever ask me for the recipe.