Kielbasa Pizza and Why I Still Eat Meat

Last night for dinner I made this kielbasa and onion pizza, inspired by a recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray.

I made the following changes to the original recipe:

• made my own pizza dough (we’re looking for a better recipe though–anyone have one?)
• used a mix of provolone and swiss cheese (the gruyère was really expensive)
• only used one onion
• used dried thyme

The pizza was pretty good overall.  The husband is a big fan of kielbasa and it goes on sale every few weeks at our supermarket, so we eat it a few times a month.  I never would’ve thought to put it on pizza though–I’m terribly uncreative and unoriginal in the kitchen.  Thank goodness for cooking magazines and shows to inspire me!

Why I Still Eat Meat

For the past several days, I’ve been seriously pondering the question of why I’m still eating meat at all.   Honestly, I was the only one pondering this question, at least aloud. My husband, my family and my friends, though generally aware of my views and recent changes to my diet, have never inquired as to why I haven’t gone completely vegetarian. They probably have better things to occupy their minds with.  If the vegetarians whose blogs I frequently read, cite and comment on are wondering, they haven’t actually asked me.

Brian and I discussed this thoroughly while eating the above meat-topped pizza last night.  In the end, I’ve decided it’s probably mentally healthier (and easier, though I mentioned several times that ‘what’s right is not always what’s easy’) for me to remain a flexitarian/semitarian.  Changing one’s eating habits is a gradual process and I don’t have to go radical overnight.  Eating meat once or twice a week, or on special occasions, is not going to make me drop dead.  He also pointed out to me that if I want to “change the world,” I should perhaps focus more of my energy on petitioning elected officials and the like instead of agonizing over the amount of animal products in my lunch.  It is possible to eat healthy AND eat meat (I am in no way labelling kielbasa as a healthy meat!).  Plus, it should be noted, nine months ago the argument Brian and I were having was about the fact that I loved junk food and was going to stock our pantry with it when we got married whether he liked it or not.  Now the tables have turned and I’m the “health nut”.

Interestingly enough, Caitlin on Healthy Tipping Point was answering a similar question this morning: “Do you ever feel pressure to eat “perfectly” or “complete dinners” because of your blog?“.  I realized that I may be feeling pressured to become a full vegetarian because the blogs I admire the most are written by vegetarians and it’s the lifestyle I advocate most on this blog.  However, eating meat isn’t always bad and it is possible to be an unhealthy vegetarian.  My eating (and this blog) is primarily about delicious food that is also healthy, whether or not it fits into a labeled lifestyle.  Food bloggers are normal people, so for now I’m just going to eat as healthy as I can, meat included.

(Almost) No Waiting Pizza

In my search for pizza recipes, I found many crusts which required kneading, waiting for the dough to rise and letting the dough rest.  This recipe needs none of the above.

You’ll need:
Dough:
1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
1 and 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons oil
1 and 1/12 tablespoons cornmeal

Other ingredients (amounts vary based on personal preference):
Tomato/Pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Toppings of your choice (I used onion, mushroom and green pepper)
Basil and oregano (optional)

Equipment:
food processor
pizza stone or baking sheet
measuring cups and spoons
small bowl (which is easy to pour from)

1. Combine the yeast and sugar in the warm water in a bowl (or Pyrex measuring cup, in my case).  Stir to dissolve and let stand for 10 minutes. Note: make sure your bowl or measuring cup is large enough to hold the yeast when it expands.  This is a lesson I learned the hard way.
   Use the 10 minutes to prepare toppings (cut up vegetables, grate cheese, etc.)
2. When the 10 minutes have elapsed, insert the blade attachment into your food processor and add the flour and salt to the bowl of the processor.  With the food processor running, pour the yeast mixture in through the feed tube and process for about 45 seconds, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Add oil through the feed tube and process for about 60 more seconds.  If the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, add more flour 1 tsp. at a time and process for 10 seconds after each addition.
4. Remove the ball of dough from the food processor bowl.  Hand stretch and shape the dough into a disc.  Sprinkle pizza stone with cornmeal and place the dough onto the stone and roll out with a rolling pin.  The dough should create a pizza crust of roughly 14 inches.  It won’t be perfect, I promise.
5. Place pizza crust in 425 degree oven for 6 minutes.  Spend the 6 minutes to finish prepping toppings, if you need to.
6. After 6 minutes, carefully remove the pizza stone (it’ll be hot!) .  Spread the crust with tomato sauce (leave an area around the edges as crust), cheese and vegetables…or whatever toppings you’re in the mood for.  Return the pizza to the oven and bake at 425 for 18 minutes, or until the rim of the crust is golden brown.
7. Enjoy!

As you can see, my pizza baked a little unevenly, but I’m sure that’s my oven’s fault.  The crust is thin and crispy and the pizza tasted excellent.  I really appreciated the fact that the dough was quick and easy to make.

I confess: I used preshredded mozerella and jarred tomato sauce, but that gives me something to work towards in the future…I just wasn’t up for making the tomato sauce from scratch that required 15 tomatoes!  Pizza is the perfect meal to make if your family is picky or can’t agree-its easy to put different toppings on each section of the pizza.  Plus it can be vegetarian!