Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Fun With Basil

To begin having fun with basil, we must first begin with the foundation - homemade pita bread. Don't be frightened; it is very easy, especially if you have a bread maker, which I do (thank you, Aunt Joy, for not needing yours anymore)!!!

So, toss all this in your breadmaker or bowl, if mixing by hand:

1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups white flour (or all 3 cups can be white)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP sugar or honey (I use Agava, 'cuz a healthy friend gave me some)
1 packet yeast or 2 tsp yeast from bulk
1 1/4 cup room-temp water
2 TBSP olive oil

If using a breadmaker, put it on the 'dough' cycle. If using bowl, lightly grease clean bowl, plop dough ball into it (after mixing and kneading it for 10 minutes), cover with towel, let rise till double.



Preheat your oven or BBQ (yes, this is how I cook just about everything in the summer, including muffins!) to 500 (my barbie got hotter; it was great).


Next, divide your dough into 8 pieces. Roll them into balls and we're going to flatten them out with a rolling pin to a 8" circles.



On a cookie sheet, place two of the rolled out balls and cook for 3 -4 min on each side. (The pictures show the oven and barbie open, but that was only to snap a shot...close them both when baking the pitas.) To me, the hot barbie worked best.




And that is all there is to it - complete with pockets for stuffing!!! However, I mostly just smoosh mine down and use it as a pizza crust... yummers! Beautiful!

I make two favorite pizzas on these.

One is the typical tomato paste, garlic granules and crushed oregano, garden basil, olives, mushrooms, bell peppers, goat cheese, freshly grated Parmesan.


But my second favorite is barbecue sauce, garlic granules and crushed oregano, garden rosemary, shredded chicken, mushrooms, mozzarella... and, sometimes, salsa - ole!
Just heat this in the oven, toaster oven, or barbie....and eat up!

And now.... I AM HUNGRY!!!! Off to fix my pizza lunch! C U tomorrow....


P. S. Be sure to read my blog below on growing basil. :)




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