Cauliflower Pizza Base - Gluten Free

The Cauliflower craze seems to be everywhere I look so I decide to give it a go. We have a family member who has been diagnosed as Celiac so when she was coming for a pre rugby game meal where we were cooking pizzas this seemed like a great chance to give it a try.

It was a lot of preparation! Removing the liquid took ages!
The recipe cooked the cauliflower by baking in the oven - I used the microwave.
The pizza crust was really nice but you have to change your expectations from a bread based crust to something totally different.
It seemed really strange cooking the base then adding toppings and cooking again but it worked.

I can imagine doing these again as a snack or nibbles dish.

Cauliflower Pizza Base - Gluten Free

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower 
• 1 egg, large
• 1/2 cup Parmesan or Mozzarella cheese, grated/shredded & not packed
• 1 tsp Italian (or rosemary, basil, parsley) herb seasoning
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line round pizza baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Rinse cauliflower, remove the outer leaves and separate into florets with a paring knife. Place cauliflower florets in a food processor and process until "rice" texture. Some coarse chunks are fine.

3. Place on a prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 mins. Or steam in the microwave until cooked


4. Remove cooked cauliflower from the oven and transfer to a bowl lined with a double/triple layered cheesecloth.

5. Then squeeze the liquid out of the ball, cauliflower inside the cheesecloth, as hard as you can. Be patient and do this a few times until barely any liquid comes out. Muscle work.:)

6. Increase oven T to 200 degrees C. Transfer cauliflower to a mixing bowl along with egg, cheese, herb seasoning, salt, black pepper and mix to combine. Transfer cauliflower mixture onto the same baking sheet you used to roast the florets (I used the same parchment paper but you can swap it for a new one if it gets too soggy), and flatten with your hands until thin pizza crust forms.
7. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes and remove from the oven.

8. Top with your favourite toppings and bake again until cheese on top turns golden brown. Slice and enjoy.
Storage Instructions: Refrigerate covered for up to 2 days. You can also freeze the crust tightly wrapped in plastic, for 1 month.

Garlic Pizza Bread

I had some pizza dough left over from making pizzas with two little ladies this week and couldn't quite bring myself to throw it out. I rolled it out - like I would for pizza, wrapped it in glad wrap and left it over night.
The next day I had a shared lunch and took the dough along.
I brushed olive oil with garlic and smoked garlic salt liberally over it, sprinkled it with herbs from the garden (thyme, oregano and rosemary) and a small amount of grated mozzarella  and baked it in a really hot oven.
The cooked bread was fantastic and disappeared really quickly.
I've since made this a few times and am looking forward to our next big group as it will be an easy starter for large numbers.

Grazie Al Volo!

While it seems like a bit of a cop out writing a post about food and having take away pizza as an early post I think the pizza from Al Volo can be easily justified!

This totally authentic Italian pizza restaurant (yes even the staff are Italian) makes the best pizza I have ever tasted - anywhere in the world. They are great as a take away but even better fresh out of the woodfire oven and straight on to your plate eaten with a glass (or bottle) of Italian Red.

When we were in Italy a few years ago we specifically drove to Naples for a day trip to eat pizza, it is the home of pizza, only to be horribly disappointed.

The thing that really struck me as we ate (and drunk) our way around Italy was the simplicity of the food. It really got me thinking about how I often overcomplicated meals I was preparing. In Italy (and at Al Volo) the simplicity of the flavours is what makes the food so divine.

Just for the record - Al Volo pizza was the dinner of choice of Isabella (3) tonight. I expected that one pizza would easily be enough for us - she managed to eat half all by herself!