What I Had for Lunch Today: Pizza with Black Olives

This is a pizza covered with marinara sauce, lots of black olives, capers, marinated artichoke hearts, mozzarella, Parmesan, basil, and a drizzle of olive oil.

What I Had for Lunch Today: Artichoke, Olive, Caper, and Mushroom Pizza

Here's a pizza made from scratch with homemade dough. I topped it with homemade marinara sauce, marinated artichokes, black olives, capers, sautéed mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. I made another one with homemade pesto instead of sauce--because I didn't have enough sauce and because pizza doesn't need tomato sauce to be pizza.

I have all kinds of special pans, pizza stones, etc., but I didn't bother with any of them. A thinly-rolled crust, olive oil plus a sprinkling of stone-ground cornmeal on the pan, and high heat (450 degrees) made this pizza deliciously crunchy.

It's also important, I think, to cook vegetables before sticking them on the pizza. I can't stand those veggie pizzas people are always trying to order for me, with onions, green peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, etc., etc., thrown on raw. They cook right on the pizza, exude all their juices, and make for a soggy mess. Yuck.

What I Had for Lunch Today: Eggplant, Artichoke and Mushroom Pizza

Pizza dough from scratch is ridiculously easy to make, but pizza dough you buy in the deli is even easier. One bag, which cost me $2.31, made two freeform pies. I had homemade marinara sauce on hand, so I used that. I sliced half an eggplant very thin and fried the slices in hot oil, sprinkling them with salt as they cooked to wilt them faster. Then I sautéed some sliced mushrooms in the same pan. I distributed the eggplant, the mushrooms, and a few marinated artichokes over the pizza, threw some shredded mozzarella over everything, and baked in a hot oven--around 450 degrees. I greased the pan with olive oil and dusted it with stoneground yellow cornmeal before I placed the dough on it. The crunchy bottom crust was the best part of this pizza.