Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Pizza!

We have a new favorite family meal: the home-made pizza recipe from Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." In case you've missed it, the book documents her family's quest to live off locally produced food for one year and includes some of the family's favorite recipes.

Making your own pizza may seem like too much hassle, given the convenience of delivery or the allure of that saucy old gentleman, the Red Baron. But we've found that-- aside from making a bit of a mess and requiring some forethought to let the dough rise --it's not that hard. Plus, the kids like to get involved by rolling out their own crust and customizing their toppings. Kingsolver's family called it "Friday Night Pizza" because of their tradition of cooking it together on Fridays. Think of it as a family-bonding experience and the convenience doesn't matter as much.

The hardest part of the recipe is making the dough, but with a little trial and error it gets better each time. Ingredients:

• 3 tsp yeast
  
• 1 tsp salt (don't skimp!)
  
• 1-1/2 cups warm water
  
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
  
• 2-1/2 cups white flour
  
• 2 cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast into the warm water, then add oil and salt. Mix the flours and knead them into the liquid mixture. Let dough rise for 30 to 40 minutes. Then divide it in half and roll out two round 12-inch crusts on a well-floured countertop or table. Slide the crusts onto well-floured pans.

From there, the possibilities are endless.

The adults in our house top their pizza with fresh mozzarella, olives, sauteed onions, garlic, and most importantly, fresh sliced tomatoes from the farmer's market in place of sauce. (Pizza pictured above.) The kids get pineapple, cheese and regular pizza sauce from the can.

Bake it at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

The complete recipe for Kingsolver's pizza is here.