Aah you hungry but no time to cook?
No time? No idea? No energy to cook?
We all face that every now and then, of course. I have a mom that always complained about the time waste of cooking and the energy and effort it takes to think about a meal, buy the groceries and cook. And that every day. It is time consuming. But there's ways to cook fast but still good!
My mom might not know how much she inspired me to cook healthy, innovative and with love. Since early age I didn't mind cooking at all. My parents would cook every day, vegetables from the garden throughout the hole year. So I also tried to make my own food all the time. But while I was a student, working as a teacher, playing in two bands, participate in a soccer team and singing in a classical choir, I did't always have the time to cook of course. But I still did. So I learned to cook fast and as efficient as possible, which is not always good but it can safe you time.
It is art. The most important for in my kitchen? inspiration and creativity!!
So I decide to create some menus, that are just simple and quick. Here's one.
#1 Pizza
Pizza was actually created from scratch with all the leftovers. So actually no rules for this one. But there's some tricks that make it just awesome.
What do you need?
- flour
- salt and yeast and water
- if you want to be fancy: add some spices you love. Just be careful with the intens ones :)
- tomato paste
- fresh tomatoes (or canned ones if no time)
- everything you need to use that doesn't take to long to cook (mushrooms, olives, zucchini, eggplant, ...)
- anything else you love (dried tomatoes, fish, ...)
- Mozzarella or cream cheese or vegan paste that like to replace cheese
And now we start
- Put flour salt and yiestin one bowl and mix it with water until the texture is solid, not sticky and not to dry. It takes a while to figure this out. Put a little water at a time, it doesn't need that much!!
The longer you "massage" the dough, the better he will rise. I love it, it's an exersice for my lower arms and my abs (cause i try to have a good posture). Put the dough in a bowl, let it rise (cover the bowl).
- Meanwhile cut and slice everything you want to put on the pizza! Important: keep the ingredients seperate if you want to make your pizza in a specific order.
- Heat up the oven to 410 (F) or 200 C.
- Take the dough, roll it out with these roller things or a bottle of wine. Important: Use more flour to not make it stick everywhere. It might be annoying. It also helps to tear the dough apart with your hands.
- Put the dough on a baking plate with or without baking paper on it, and put some olive oil on the dough. Put it in the oven for two minutes (this makes the dough more crusty!! Very good..)
- Check ingredients, have everything? (sip on a glass of wine).
- take dough out, put tomato paste on it and spread it out with a spoon. Then, put the tomatoes (slices) and after all the other ingredients all over the pizza. Sing a song or just have fun doing it. The food will taste better. Be creative.
- At the end, put the cheese in little peaces all over the pizza. Add some salt, pepper, oregano or any other weird spice you like! Let the ingredients show their flavour too, don't use too many spices.
- Bake this thing for about 15 minutes, 10 might be enough too. Just check until the crust is brown.
Voila.
Important to have is actually just the tomato and cheese. But even without them you can create a delicious pizza. What I also like a lot is to just put some olive oil, salt, garlic and spices (rosemary, sage, or basil) on the dough and put it in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Cut it in peaces and voila, a very nice little apperitivo!!
There's not many rules for a pizza. It's something you can always make within 30 minutes if you prepare a little bit.
GO FOR IT!
Excellent comment, I really like your work. I think it is very objective in the analysis and in what you want to convey. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.