The New (Pizza) Style

Ok, as you know I am a Chicago girl, and with Chicago being a serious pizza town, I have missed the gooey richness of a hot cheese pizza, deep dish or thin crust, it was all good! Since being diagnosed, I constantly see people asking for alternatives for pizza and I resisted making recipes because the consistency of the cheese was so hard to duplicate. Well, I finally gave in, below find my version of allergen free pizza, yes free of the major 8 and gluten! With that said, I have a hard time calling it pizza without the cheese, but regardless of what you call it, the results were delicious.

Making pizza requires a lot of prep work, so to make the task a little easier, I enlisted my friends at Whole Foods Market for the crust. They have a gluten-free, frozen crust (contains milk) if you are in a rush or they have several mixes for you to try, including Bob’s Red Mill. Make sure to read the ingredients so it will be safe for your family.

Pizza Sauce
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup onions, diced
¼ cup celery, diced
1/8 cup carrots, diced
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoons oregano
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon rice flour
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock

Over medium high heat in a sauce pan, sweat onions, celery and carrots in olive oil, do not burn them.
Add bay leaf, basil and oregano until fragrant.
Add tomato paste and brown slightly.
Add flour and cook for about 2 minutes.
Add diced tomatoes and bring mixture to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer and add the chicken stock.
You are going to reduce the stock down about ½ way and then blend the whole mixture in a food processor or blender.
Set aside to cool.

Toppings
In trying to recreate the cheesy taste, I grilled all the vegetables before adding them to the pizza, below is a listing of the ingredients I used on each pizza, bear in mind you can shake it up however you like, these are just the things we like at our house.

Grilled Veggie Pizza



¼ onion, carmelized
1 zucchinni, cut in strips, grilled and then cut into small pieces
1 yellow squash, cut in strips, grilled and then cut into small pieces
1 eggplant, cut in strips, grilled and then cut into small pieces
2 cups spinach, sauteed
8 mushrooms, sliced and sauteed
1 tomato cut in slices
3 strips of bacon, fried and cut into small pieces
4 cloves of garlic, roasted and cut into small pieces


Mexican Pizza



¼ onion, carmelized
1 red pepper, cut in ¼ and roasted
1 green pepper, cut in ¼ and roasted
1 yellow pepper, cut in ¼ and roasted
1 ear of corn, cooked and kernels removed from husk
¼ pound of chorizo, sauteed
1 chicken breast, grilled or sautéed and cut in strips
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Other Ingredients to try on your pizza at home

Grilled asparagus Shallots Red Onion Potatoes, sliced thin Ham Pineapple

Artichoke Hearts Olives Broccoli Fresh Basil Sun Dried Tomatoes Butternut Squash

Assembling the pizza is easy, spread on the sauce and apply your favorite toppings, your oven temperature and cooking times will be dictated by the crust you choose.

Enjoy!
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