Greek Pita Pizza

There is this Greek store just around the corner from my place - it has the most delicious and good quality ingredients: Greek feta shipped in wooden barrels from Greece, the most flavourful Kalamata olives I have ever tasted, and super fresh pitas. I also picked up some very tasty grape tomatoes from Co-op. What better inspiration for a Greek pizza? With spring fast approaching and the days getting warmer every day (however, it could still snow, a lot, so I hope I just didn't jinx anything!) it's time to start embracing the fresh produce that is becoming available. Seriously, if you have not bought some of the great asparagus that's out you need to - now! The recipe...

Greek Pita Pizza
For one large pita pizza

• 1 large pita - I used whole wheat
• pesto (recipe below)
• brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
• quartered grape tomatoes or sundried tomatoes
• spinach
• sweet onion, caramelized is best*
• Kalamata olives
• feta
  

For the Pesto:

• 2 cups roughly chopped fresh oregano (could also use basil, thyme or a mix or all three - just be heavier on the oregano or basil if using thyme)
• half a head of roasted garlic (to roast slice off top of head so all cloves are exposed. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake at 375 for 15-20 mins, or until golden brown. Let cool).
• 2 Tbsp of freshly squeezed lime juice
• 4 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and pepper, to taste

Put first 4 ingredients in food processor and blend until well combined. (just squeeze the roasted garlic in, the cloves will pop right out). Add salt and pepper to taste, and perhaps a little more lime juice - you should be able to taste the lime.

Spread the pesto and on the pita and top with other ingredients. Don't overload the pita or else it will be too heavy and the pita may not crisp up enough on the bottom.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until pita is crispy. Cut up into wedges, serve and enjoy!

*To caramelize onions, check out this website with step-by-step photo instructions. I would cut the onions smaller for our purposes in this recipe. I use extra virgin olive oil too, only up to medium heat, and it works great (remember, that unless you are buying organic canola oil it is all genetically modified (GMOs) and it's not good for you, at all):

http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/vegetables/ss/onionscaram.htm

Cooking al fresco - Pizza

We were so lucky this year to find the most beautiful
camping site on Kootenay Lake. The grounds were
crawling with flowers, herbs, vegetables, and dogs (the dogs have nothing to do with cooking, no worries, it was just
notable). The oregano pictured here was growing mere feet from our tent just begging to be put to good use.
What better than a twist on a classic - pesto - with oregano
instead of basil.

We decided to use the pesto as a base for our pizza, since
we love making it on the grill. See our ingredients
pictured on the right. Using good quality extra virgin olive oil was key in this dish. I used some olive oil to finish by drizzling it all over when the pizza was cooked.













Applying the pesto to the crust, yum.
We used oregano, olive oil, garlic, a little lime juice, salt and pepper.














And.....the finished product! Growing alongside the oregano were chives in blossom. We used these edible flowers to decorate the pizza, very pretty and very yummy.

Thank you to Percy for taking these great pictures!

You can check out these

sites to see more edible flowers:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8513.html
http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

I think pansies in a salad would be beautiful! I also saw on one of these links the idea to freeze flowers within ice cubes - what an elegant drink that would make.