I’ve been hankering for pizza and itching to use more of my sourdough starter, but didn’t have any mild (ricotta/provolone/mozzarella) cheese, so I decided to try an experimental 16″ Quattro Stagioni.

Basically, the idea was to use some of the more strongly flavored cheeses I’ve made, load up on the toppings (mostly vegetables), and with a nice tomato sauce, it will all come together in a delicious mix and they’ll all sing “kum-by-yah.”

These cheeses are not only more strongly flavored, but also salty, so I didn’t add any salt to the crust or sauce.

Alas . . .

Stir together 1 C. of sourdough starter, 2 C. of flour, and 1 C. of water, then leave overnight at room temp.

Far too goopy for crust, so I added just shy of 1 C. of this (first experiment!):

That’s better!

Lightly oil the pizza pan:

And spread the dough:

Push the dough over the edges of the pan, because it will shrink (less or more) during baking:

This must be the first time I spread out the dough in the pan NOT on a kitchen counter, because it left a groovy pattern on this place mat 🙂

I like it better than the original design. Another excuse to put off doing laundry? 🙂

Now you can leave it out for as long as it takes for the yeast to rise to your pleasure, or use as is. Like my men, I prefer my pizza crust thin and somewhat dense, so I didn’t wait.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for 7-10 minutes, until *very* lightly browned.

(Cook’s tip #1: It will look anemic and under-done, but don’t be tempted to cook it for longer, or the bottom may burn during the final baking.)

Meanwhile, make the sauce:

If you have canned diced or whole tomatoes, whizz them in a blender until you get the texture you like. This one (from Aldi), which I hadn’t used before, was perfect, slightly chunky:

Sauté the onions over medium heat for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic and stir for another minute. (Cook’s tip #2: despite what a recipe might say, it’s always best to cook the onions first, because if you add both the onions and the garlic at the same time, you have to be very careful with the temperature or the garlic will burn before the onions are done.)

Add the tomatoes and simmer the sauce as long as you like, but at least 30 minutes please!

Sauce on crust (there’s a reason for the quadrant disparity):

And have all the toppings ready to go:

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then check every few minutes until of desired doneness.

But, you ask, how did it taste? Which season was best?

Let’s clear up that pesky burnt part. It was the “two blue cheeses + scallions” part, and because it had less sauce, burned. Definitely the winter of my pizza despair.

The Manchego/Feta/Thyme was okay, but you couldn’t taste the salmon. A drab fall.

Things were perking up with Broccoli and Feta, spring:

But Taleggio with Onions/Peppers/Tomatoes, despite Taleggio being the strongest of the cheeses (maybe because I used less?) was the best. Finally summer!

I’ve tried to put a positive face on it, but this was a failed experiment. So, a couple of observations. Like any experiment, failures increase your knowledge.

So here’s how it increased: (1) I never thought I’d moan about tomatoes being too “tomatoey,” but the sauce was very intense. Maybe next time I can make a sauce with tasteless supermarket tomatoes, but that somehow seems like an admission of defeat.

(2) Even though I had sliced them fairly thinly, there was too much strong flavor of the cheeses. Strong sauce flavor and strong cheese flavor made for, at best, awkward bedfellows, so you couldn’t really taste the other toppings.

So, next time, if I want to use some of the cheeses I’ve made, I’ll probably make a white pizza (necessitating blander cheeses, but that will make the stronger flavors stand out), maybe with a bit of red sauce, use crumbles rather than slices of my cheeses, and double up on the veggies. What do you think?

-R