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| real pizza in Naples in the good 'ol days |
I can proudly say that I haven’t ordered a pizza in 2015.
This may not seem like a big feat, but in 2014, I probably ordered 25. Each of
my halves probably contained at least 1000 calories (not including the garlic
herb dip, side of potato wedges, and requisite coke), so from my lazy
deliveries alone, I likely consumed nearly 30,000 unnecessary calories. This doesn't include the 7 or 8 pizzas I ate in Naples.
These days my brain is unable to NOT do the math like above
and I’m constantly looking for ways to make my favourite foods healthier
without resorting to processed “low-fat” or “non-fat” chemicalised crap. I was
happy when I stumbled upon a recipe for a polenta crust because I happen to
have a giant bag of coarse polenta in my pantry.
I’ve used my coarse polenta to make a citrus polenta cake
and corn bread, but I’ve never made the actual polenta you put in a bowl and eat with a dab of butter.
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| very sceptical at this stage |
The polenta when mixed with the water and milk gets a
consistency like thick cafeteria mashed potatoes. This is then spread onto a
sheet pan greased with olive oil. I didn’t spread the polenta all the way to
the edges for fear of it being too thin, but in retrospect this would have been
the way to go to get a crisp, thin crust like base.
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| after baking, I added some leftover rocket pesto |
Take the cooked crust out of the oven, add ingredients and
bake until cheese is bubbly and brown.
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| mushrooms, peppers, spinach, and reduced fat mozzarella |
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| you can't really go wrong with bubbly brown cheese |
The flavour of the crust was savoury and not too corny. There was a lovely crunch on the edge pieces. Next
time I’ll add herbs and more salt and make sure it’s spread thinner. All in all
a good vegetarian meal with low calorie crust, sautéed veggies, and skimmed
milk cheese. A lot healthier than its brutish Four Star Pizza cousin.
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