An Italian Feast

For parents who are the cleaning service, the chauffer, the Laundromat, the money maker, the tutor, the secretary, and the personal assistant, dealing with picky kids who don’t want to eat anything other than  chicken fingers and French fries can be a struggle even bigger than helping them with their homework. Well, this is where I come into play. Each week, I am going to provide some helpful hints and ideas for making both yours and your children’s eating experience simple, quick, and of course, delicious!

This week, I will be focusing on a fast dinner sure to satisfy your fussy eaters. With September here and hectic schedules filling up your calendar, it’s important to make sure that your plans for dinner are easy to achieve and easy to gobble up! So on the menu this week is an oven-baked pizza, a tossed Caesar salad, and the easiest trifle dessert. Parts of this meal can even be taken for lunch the next day, and throughout, I will provide some tips on making sure that your leftovers (if there are any!) stay fresh and just as delicious as they were on the day that you first made them.

As soon as you get home from work or from a busy day running errands, the first thing that you want to get started on doing is making your pizza dough. If you don’t have the time to make dough from scratch, you can go ahead and buy premade pizza dough from either your local pizza place or from the supermarket (Pillsbury’s pizza dough tastes just as good and provides a very quick and cheap shortcut). However, nothing can replace the taste of freshly kneaded dough. Following the recipe attached, make sure that you have enough time in your schedule to allow the dough to fully rise so that you get the fluffiest, airiest pizza dough possible. Once your dough has risen, I follow a trick that my mom always did when I was younger. Divide your dough in half to take a recipe that would originally account for one batch and make it into a recipe that yields two separate pizzas. This also makes your pizza crust thinner and crispier, but if you prefer a thicker crust, just go ahead and keep the batch of dough as it is. You can also put a spin on this and make it healthier by using whole wheat dough instead of regular white flour dough. So now you are ready to spread your dough out to bake. I suggest using a sheet pan similar to the one that you would use to bake cookies. Put some olive oil on the bottom of the pan so that your pizza dough doesn’t stick because it would just be awful to sit down to dinner and see that every single slice of pizza is stuck to the pan. Pizza Dough Recipe

After your dough is rolled out, it’s time for the sauce. If you are crunched for time, you can use a store bought sauce right out of the jar. Even if you don’t have a lot of time, making homemade sauce is something that takes little effort and turns out great. Simply pour a can of crushed tomatoes into a saucepan with a little bit of olive oil and either fresh or dried Italian herbs such as parsley, basil, or oregano. Add a little salt and pepper and simmer on the stove. Presto! You now have a fast, easy shortcut for an authentic tomato sauce.

Once your sauce is ready, you can now start assembling the pizzas. This is a great activity for the kids as well because they can customize the toppings and arrangement of their pizzas. To make sure that this doesn’t turn into a giant mess all over the kitchen, I would set up an assembly line with the pizza crusts at one end, then the sauce, and then all of the toppings. I’ve found that kids like the basic toppings: pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions, olives, and of course lots of cheese. To make an adult version of this pizza, one of my favorites is a margarita pizza with tomato sauce, freshly sliced mozzarella cheese, and torn up pieces of basil with a little bit of olive oil sprinkled on at the end. Once they are all assembled, you can place the pizzas into the oven and move on the next component of the dinner.

To make a simple and quick side to the pizza, I suggest making a Caesar salad; it’s something that both kids and adults love to eat. There are some great bottled dressings that are already ready at the supermarket, but these can be very fattening and defeat the purpose of actually eating a salad. So for a homemade dressing that is packed with a punch, you simply need vegetable oil, a 2-minute cooked egg, anchovy (you won’t even taste it, I promise!), parmesan cheese, a squirt of lemon juice for freshness, Worcestershire, and small amounts of garlic and vinegar. Place all of the ingredients into a blender, and with the push of a button, you have your own homemade Caesar salad dressing. To assemble the salad, start with some torn romaine lettuce leaves, parmesan cheese, and some croutons. If there are any other vegetables that you want such as tomatoes, carrots, celery, or cucumbers, feel free to add them to the mix. I like to serve the salad dressing in a small bowl alongside the actual greens because different people like different amounts of dressing, and you don’t want your salad to get soggy.

So, your pizza is out of the oven, your salad is ready to serve, and you’re feeling a sweet tooth coming. For the perfect no-bake dessert that can be easily made on a school night, always turn to the trifle. A trifle is traditionally a layered dessert of sponge cake and fruit covered with layers of cream or pudding. You can really put any spin on this that you want because the combinations are endless. Chocolate banana, peanut butter, strawberries and cream, fresh mixed fruit, or chocolate pretzel are all combinations that I love. My favorite, however, is a strawberry brownie trifle with layers of fudgy chocolate brownie, juicy strawberries, and layers of whipped cream. It’s the best!

So look at that, making fresh oven-baked pizza with homemade dough and sauce, a Caesar salad with your own dressing, and a truly decadent trifle can be simple when you plan in advance to ensure a delicious meal made in a flash! It's all possible when you're Cooking with Carly!