farmdoc's blog post number 598

Last night I made – and ate – pizza for dinner. It was a ‘pizza lite’. One reason’s because I omitted yeast from the dough mix. I’ve been yearning to make thin-crust pizza, but even ¼ teaspoon of yeast rules that out. In Hertzberg and François’s 2007 book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day they write that pizza dough doesn’t need to rise. So I tried a dough mix without yeast. And hey presto! Another reason it was a pizza lite was that I made it on the spur of the moment, so I hadn’t bought in some ingredients including capsicum and mushrooms. But its toppings still included the three mandatory colours – red, white and green – of the Italian flag. In last night’s the green was provided by herbs and spinach. Which brings me to the reason why I made and ate pizza last night (instead of on weekends when I usually have pizza). It’s because yesterday was the birthday of Elzie Crisler Segar (1894-1938). ‘Who’s he?’ you ask. E C was the man who in 1929 created Popeye. As a lad I loved Popeye. But I detested his muscle food – spinach. Now I’m a bit more grown up, I like spinach, especially in pizzas and pies. I even grow it. Hence last night’s pizza. So thank you E C. And thank you too, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. It tasted mighty fine.