Smokey Mountain Breakdown

When I first sent the cheese pizza recipe to Rosie, I had only experimented a little- and only two toppings! As tasty as Roma tomatoes and mushrooms are, there are so many more food items to be explored.

The addition of artichokes, spinach, onions, leeks, basil leaves and even pickled beets, can be an interesting taste explosion in the mouth- for those who enjoy small salty fish, please consider them. Be creative and think how all the flavors will enfold upon each other as the pizza bakes.....

Each taste is to be considered before you add the ingredient to your pizza- a kind of gastronomic fore-play- imagine all those tastes individually in your mouth before you decide just which ones to put together on the pizza, but remember, the more that goes on a single pizza makes that 6" personal pizza harder to hold and enjoy- so why not expand your horizons and go for a 10" or even a 12" pizza, just so you can explore the possibilities.....Besides, cold pizza and warm Coke for breakfast......

The basic pizza recipe:

Take a 6" personal pizza, or larger as you feel the need, your favorite marinara sauce (I chose Newman's Own as that's my favorite commercial product), olive oil and fresh goat cheese crumbles. I put the ingredients together as follows, but they could go together a bit differently:

Spread the Marinara onto the pizza dough- I found that if it goes on too thick, the cheese combines a wee bit too much with the sauce- add as much goat cheese to this as you like, then use your toppings. I also found that adding the slices of Roma tomato on top allows the finished product to stay together a little better. Now for your toppings- the thinner they are sliced or diced, the better, but add as much of what you like, with tomatoes on top. Then drizzle the olive oil, about 1 tablespoon. Bake at 350 degrees until the crust is brown and the tomatoes are baked, about 30 minutes.

That's it- mangia!

One other tip- take the rest of the Marinara and add the rest of the goat cheese to it, then warm appropriately. Add spices if you wish, especially fresh basil cut small. Cook your favorite Italian noodle- angel hair pasta is good for this. On a plate of hot pasta, cover the pasta with the goat cheese sauce, toss a wee bit and serve with fresh buttered garlic bread- and fresh goat milk, served ice cold! Oooooh-weeee! Or red wine and a romaine lettuce salad for a late romantic supper.





Blessings to you all- Goat Yoda:-)