Yoji and the Foodies

Pizza tart invokes images of sweet and savory treat, leaving you in a confused state of mind. Tarts, by default, fall under the category of desserts, but food evolution (and revolution) made what seemed impossible, possible. With that said, pizza tart recipes are easily accessed over the Internet, some are complicated, others a cinch. I really try to simplify my  cooking style because there’s really little point in spending hours slaving over something that will be eaten in just a few minutes.

The only reason I made a pizza tart is that we had leftover spaghetti sauce. I had mozzarella and edam cheese waiting and the only thing missing is the pizza crust. I cannot be bothered making crust from scratch so I bought a mini pizza crust that is a little thick – much like a mini deep dish version. This is not realy a tart, in the very sense of the word, but you see, it’s just nomenclature. The important thing is that you find a crust that is deep enough to create the illusion of a tart after the pizza is baked. You can create the crust, puff-pastry style, and that would be more faithful to the definition of tart.

Just spread the spaghetti sauce on the crust. Add mozarella cheese and edam cheese and bake for 5 minutes.

Voila

My sister celebrated her 30-something birthday in Singapore and we figured we’d do the same here in Manila. We decided to go for pizza instead of cake  — just ’cause I have not eaten pizza in months. Happy Birthday, MOV. I know you had a blast! Now, go make some cupcakes! (She has a new project!)

I was majorly pissed about a work-related incident that I was mouthing expletives at 120 miles per hour. Truth be told, I rarely cuss, swear, or say bad things, but there are people who just bring out the worst in you. I just can’t shake off the anger inside me so I went shopping. There was no significant change in my mood after buying 2 pairs of pants, a shirt, and 100 grams of mint balls. There’s got to be something that will help make the anger subside…and that something is this…

I <3 Sbarro

I love pizza but I was never really inspired to make one from scratch. But since food prices have gone up, I can’t afford to eat my favorite food all the time. For less than the price of one whole pizza, you can actually make three or four 9-inch pizzas. Now, I can’t guarantee that it will taste and look good but if you do it right, you might not want to order pizza anymore. You will want to make it yourself.

Pizza is really simple to make. For the dough, all you need is flour, yeast, salt, sugar/honey, oil. For the toppings, anything goes and it’s all up to you. The basic would be tomatoes, onions, bell pepper and cheese, but if you have extra cash, you can get pepperoni, Italian sausage, and mushroom.

The only drawback is that the dough takes a while to rise. It will depend on the yeast you use. If it’s fast acting, you are looking at 30 to 40 minutes. On the other hand, if you use normal yeast, be prepared to wait 1.5 hours or more. It’s a long time if your pizza tastes like crap, but it will be worth it if your pizza turns out good.

The beauty of making your own pizza is you can decide how thin or thick your crust will be and you can be very creative on the toppings. When I say creative, please stick to the “edible creative”. Kneading the dough isn’t too hard at all. It’s a good 10 to 15 minute upperbody exercise. Leftover dough can be used the next day or the day after, and so on and so forth. There’s really no wastage.

Once you’re done with the toppings, just pop it in the oven and you’re done. Mine looks a bit horrible and if my chef instructor saw this, he will make sure that this pie hits my face. But let me assure you that it tasted good…so good that I will do this again and again and again. I just hope it looks better next time.