Radicchio pizza with cilantro pesto sauce/ Roasted tomatotillo salsa

S and M both have a Sunday off work together!!!  This is a very rare occasion for us.  It was decided the night before that we would make a pizza for dinner.  Luckily for us, the city of San Francisco provides plenty of gems, in the form of family and employee owned businesses.  Arizmendi is a bakery coop offering a wide variety of popular and original baked goods (not all vegan) and a daily pizza recipe.  Earlier in the day I bought 19 oz of Arizmendi's (vegan) pizza dough.  This is what I used for my dough, although you can use any type of homemade dough or store-bought ready to bake dough.   

Music Inspiration:  It was a very 70's type of day for us.  A lot of Fleetwood Mac (Songbird, Never going back again) and Richard and Linda Thompson (Just the Motion), then jumped to a steady stream of Mumford and Sons.

Ingredients:
Pizza:
19 oz. of pizza dough (homemade or store-bought)
Small head of radicchio chopped
4 shitake mushrooms sliced
1/4 sliced onion
Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic
1/2 lemon juiced

Cilantro Pesto Sauce:
Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic
1 1/2 C Basil
1/3 C Walnuts
1/2 Lime juiced
1/2 C Cilantro

To make sauce simply add ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse.  Sauce should be smooth and bright green in appearance.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Knead and stretch dough using a rolling pin  (or wine bottle like we use!).  Once dough is thin and consistent throughout, spread on ungreased cooking tray and form crust using fingers.  Spread cilantro pesto on pizza dough and add onion and mushroom toppings.  Bake pizza for 7 to 9 minutes.

Once pizza is in the oven prepare radicchio.  In a blender or food processor add about a 1/4 C of olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice.  Blend and add the mixture to a small bowl with radicchio and toss.  After 7 to 9 minutes remove pizza from oven and add radicchio as a topping to pizza and bake for an additional 5 minutes.  Remove pizza and let cool for a few minutes. 

Roasted "Tomatotillo" Salsa:
2 Roma Tomatoes
3 Tomatillos
2 Jalapenos
1 Clove of Garlic
1/3 C Cilantro
1/4 C Onion
1/2 Lime Juiced
Pinch of Sugar and Dash of Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut Tomatoes in Half and place on foil covered cooking tray.  Peel and halve tomatillos and place with tomatoes on cooking tray.  Cut stems from jalapenos and halve.  Place alongside tomatoes and tomatillos.  Place in oven and roast for about 10 minutes or until skin is moderately burnt.  Remove from oven and remove skin.  Place in blender along with other ingredients and pulse about 4 times or until desired consistency.  Enjoy with chips or as a compliment to any meal!!!

The results!

radicchio pizza with cilantro pesto sauce

 

 

 

 

 Roasted tomatotillo salsa

 

 

 

 

 

 

* How it came out- The salsa was pretty much the best salsa I have ever had and if M doesn't put it away soon I might just eat all of it. The pizza was delicious but I think the lemon and raddicho was not my favorite thing; M seemed to like it just fine so maybe it was just me.

We got the idea from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone but we added and replaced a few ingredients.Try it and let us know what you think! 

-S&M