Slightly questionable sourdough deep dish vegetarian pizza
A sudden craving for buttery rich deep dish pizza hit over the weekend, and flour was finally replenished in the house, so no reason to hold back on baking gluten-filled goods.
It had been a long while since Sourdough Sam was last used, and unfortunately, a single refreshing was not enough to satiate the bloke.
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/a-simple-focaccia/ replaced ~10g water with honey; added ~1tsp instant yeast (not measured); added ~80g whole wheat flour, then the rest of the “bread” flour was all purpose + some random amount of vital wheat gluten (~1-2tbsp ??)
“Italian sausage seasoning”
Lots and lots of fennel seed (it’s what makes the “italian sausage” flavour)
Smoked paprika, red chili flakes, chipotle (wanted more smokey + spicey), black pepper
Italian seasoning (oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, etc.)
Tiny bit of chickpeas for added texture (optional)
Onion flakes, red wine vinegar, homemade mayo (fat, optional, probably didn’t contribute anything but trying to use up this mayo container), “Italian sausage seasoning”
Onion, garlic, italian seasoning
Bean liquid (from chickpeas, northern beans) or water or any broth
eggplant and crimini mushroom tossed in “italian sausage seasoning” + olive oil
broccoli roasted with fennel-caraway-chili flake preserved lemons (~2 months old)
great northern bean “italian sausage”, baked in a flat layer together with the broccoli
capers (soaked in water to rinse off some of the saltiness)
To make the seasoning, mix all ingredients together loosely. Doesn’t have to be perfectly distributed since everything will continue to be tossed and mixed up at later stages.
To make the “sausage”, cook great northern beans until fairly mushy (this instance was a 8 minute quick soak in the instant pot with a change of water before a 35 minute regular high pressure cook + 45 minutes of sitting around after the timer is ended; most definitely could shorten the time by a lot if there is a time crunch). Mash beans into rough paste (used back of slotted spoon), add some chickpeas if the texture is too pastey, mix in seasoning. Bake in rough flat layer together with any roasted filling to dry it out and become a little crumbly (since Italian sausage is crumbled, not a strange paste/flat thick layer)
To make the roasted veg fillings, toss veg in seasonings, spread on tray, and roast at 425-450F for 20-50m.
To make the tomato sauce, gently sweat (or caramelize) onion, garlic, tomato paste, and seasonings, and then add liquid as needed to thin it out. Let cook a bit to meld flavours and then turn off heat so it isn’t too hot when added to the pizza.
Make the focaccia following whatever recipe. 1+hrs before the dough is ready for baking, roast up the fillings and make the sauce. Layer everything together and bake at 425-450 for ~30m.
Definitely not enough sauce. Instead of pouring solely on top, the sauce should be layered like a lasagna.
How to cook with preserved lemon? This first time ever, the salt on outside was brushed off, but the salt stuffed into the lemon was forgotten, and the entire lemon chopped up, tossed with the broccoli, and baked. A real salt fest. Maybe the lemon needs to be rinsed ... but does that make the lemon lose most of its flavour?
The onion on top could possibly be (quick) pickled to give some real tang and counter all the salt. Not that there was any salt added to anything except for a minimal amount in the dough and the lemon. A single small lemon.
Due to the sauce not percolating down the pie as desired, the “bean sausage” and all the fillings were slightly on the dry side. Will be making more sauce to douse leftovers when consuming throughout the week.
Focaccia != deep dish dough. Due to Sourdough Sam’s illness, the dough was probably 90% risen through instant yeast, and you couldn’t taste any sourdough tang. Why did the bottom crust become super thin crust though while the edges became nice and properly thick? The texture (of the outer edge) was something of a cross between a thin-crust pizza and a buttery rich deep dish, which was quite nice, though definitely more on the Crispy side of the scale from Crispy to Flakey/Buttery. The flatmate prefers very flakey/buttery/rich deep dish dough.
Following the grams measurements in the Perfect Loaf recipe, using 2/3rds the dough was still way too much for the cast iron pan (9 or 10in? will measure One of these days). An extra third of the cast iron dough was removed and placed into another container to make two separate containers of plain focaccia (which is wonderful standalone ...)
A nice drink to counter the salt festival. (Flat) Rose, limoncello, lime, gin, fresh rosemary.
The two containers of regular focaccia. Round tin has olive oil, fresh rosemary, sesame seeds, oregano, and sumac. The square container is just olive oil and fresh rosemary.