Life is hectic these days. If I catch eight hours of sleep , then its a great day. My day is scheduled with small breaks . I have to be constantly on the go to complete the tasks and daily chores , Face book is also a part of it . Yesterday was one of those days that K generously offered to make dinner . I am a “sit and eat at the table” kinda gal and its been a little more than 3 months since I sat at the table without being interrupted while eating. So with my little one tucked into bed earlier than usual, we finally had some time to ourselves , cook and eat without interruptions.

I used the whole wheat pizza dough from whole foods this time and it was good. Its not available in the aisles , but they will give u some if you go to the sandwich and pizza selling counter.  The amount they give is huge for a thin crust , so  I normally halve it. If we are making the dough at home , I love Jugalbandi’s whole wheat pizza crust along with peter rienhart’s pizza dough .

The toppings were chosen from whatever we had in our crisper. Red Onion, Asparagus, Paneer, Bellpeppers . At the moment , pepper jack is our best friend , so in it went into pizza.

For the marinade , we do it two ways , one with yogurt and the other with tomato paste.

If we are doing a yogurt marinade  it consists of

1 teaspoon of minced ginger and garlic

1 teaspoon kasuri methi

1 tablespoon of yogurt ( do not overdo , else your pizza will become soggy )

1/2 teaspoon of garam masala

a squirt of lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon of chili powder(optional)

1 teaspoon of Oil

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and keep aside for atleast 20 min. This can be made ahead and can be stored for 2 days in the refrigerator.  It is optional to stir fry them later in a teaspoon of oil .

If we are doing a tomato based marinade we , eliminate the yogurt and add the tomato paste instead. then we do not smear the pizza sauce to the crust.

For the crust :

We dont work on having a perfect shape for the pizza , our only goal is to roll it out evenly .

Its really important to sprinkle flour liberally on the surface before you start rolling and keep using it little by little as when you require. Use your palms to flatten out the discs . If you find the  dough sticky , let it rest for 5-10 minutes and start again . Use a wax paper as the surface  to flatten it. I have transferring the pizza crust onto a peel , so I dust it with cornmeal and then upturn it onto the baking stone. If you don’t have a baking stone , use the back of the cookie sheet as a base.

Preheat the oven to 500F , roll out the pizza , prick it with a fork , add a timato sauce if you want , but limit it to 2-3 tablespoons else the crust will become soggy. Add the toppings , some cheese and then bake it for 10-12 minutes.

Here is a slice for you…