Pizza !!!

Nothing spells celebration or fun, like Pizza does! If I want to get my daughter all excited and make her weekend fun, its pizza time at our house! It is the best accompaniment to a movie, a cricket match, a beautiful sunday afternoon, a fun night out and pretty much every thing in between!

I do think, both the crust and toppings+sauce are equally important. And, I realise how strongly people feel about the crust! Some like a deep dish, some like it stuffed, for me, its the really thin and crispy crust that does the trick.

Today I am going to share a rather fun and easy way to make the perfect pizza. It ensures a crunchy and light crust, without any of the kneading, rising and waiting! The flavours are balanced and the pizza, perfection itself. The sauce keeps well in the fridge for a couple of weeks, so if you have it on hand, it can all be put together pretty quickly. You can go ahead and use your preferred vegan cheese, I haven't, because I like my pizza without cheese. Another great addition is a bit of arugula or fresh basil on top after baking, they add a bit of fresh nuttiness and a healthy dose of greens. Unfortunately I didn't think of it while taking the picture, only while greedily gobbling it down :)

Ingredients (makes 6 pizzas)

Crust -
Get a pack of tortillas. Yes, you read it right, tortillas. This will be the base of the thin crust pizza. It will ensure the right crunchiness and lightness and won't be doughy and heavy. They also bake and crunch up  real quickly.

Sauce -
6 medium sized tomatoes
5-6 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp marjoram
2 tsp basil
7-8 peppercorns freshly ground
sea salt to taste
1 tsp date palm sugar

Topping -
1 small red pepper diced
1 yellow pepper diced
1 small zucchini diced
1/2 cup steamed pumpkin
12 plum tomatoes (cut or pierced)
4-5 basil leaves
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
a pinch of salt

Process

For the sauce, puree 5 tomatoes and chop 1. Heat the oil and sauté the garlic. Add the puree and cook for a few minutes. Add the chopped tomato herbs, spices, sugar and salt. Simmer and cook till the sauce thickens. You know the sauce is done, when you move the spatula in the pan and the watery bits don't separate from the chunky ones. Turn off the heat.

For the topping, heat the oil and sauté the vegetables for a minute. Add the pepper, salt and balsamic vinegar. Cook for another minute or two and turn off the heat.

Preheat the oven to 250*C. Now, lightly brush some olive oil on the tortilla (on the side that will go on the pizza stone or oven rack), this will make the crust brown evenly and be crunchy. Spread a bit of sauce (not too much, otherwise it could become soggy), leaving the edges. Now add the toppings.
Bake till the sides are brown and serve hot. Celebrate :)