Chock full of Vegetable Pizza

It certainly has been a while since I made pizza and I've been craving a good slice with lots of vegetables. When I go to the pizza stores here in Israel I am always disappointed in the toppings- corn (Israeli's seems to think you should put it on everything including ice cream!-ok, not really but I wouldn't put it past them), olive, or spongy canned mushrooms (why can't they just use fresh!) and only one topping on each slice. The toppings, or lack of them, make me think nostalgically of the pizza stores I grew up with where the options seemed endless and you could get them all piled up on a piece of pizza to make a hearty vegetable slice. That is what I was going for here. Spinach, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, onions, FRESH mushrooms, zuchinni, ricotta and Mozzarella-YUM! Of course, Feel free to add whatever other veggies you want including the much maligned corn and olives or peppers, eggplant, or even grilled vegetables. Enjoy!

For the dough: ( I doubled the recipe to make the size I made)

1 packet dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)

2 3/4 cups flour (divided into 2 1/2 and 1/4)

3 tsp. sugar

1 Tbl oil

1 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

Mix the yeast,  2 1/2 cup flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the oil and water and mix together. When it forms a dough, knead for a couple of minutes adding some of the 1/4 cup of flour if necessary. Spread the dough into a greased pan pushing up the sides a little and top with toppings.

For the Pizza with doubled amount of dough:

 1 1/2 cups Marinara sauce (home made is preferable but store bought is good too)

1 box frozen spinach leaves, defrosted and drained ( about 6 cubes of Israeli spinach)

1 box frozen broccoli spears, defrosted and drained

1/2 of an onion, sliced

1 box mushrooms, sliced

10-15 cherry tomatoes

2 zucchini

1/2 cup ricotta

2 cups shredded Mozzarella

Salt and Garlic Powder to taste

Preheat the oven to 350. Spread the marinara sauce over the dough leaving an un-sauced edge. Put the spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion and zucchini over the sauce and dollop the ricotta all around. Sprinkle the whole top of the pizza with salt and garlic powder and top with the Mozzarella. Bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden.

Wowzah!