I don’t know if any of you frequent sites like foodgawker or tastespotting, but those sites and all of my favourite blogs have been featuring all these delicious asparagus posts. I love asparagus. I had some stir fried into my omelette for breakfast, I had some shredded in my noodles for lunch, and now I’m having asparagus pizza for dinner. I’m going to eat ALL THE ASPARAGUS. I’m surprised I’m not sick of it yet.
I didn’t realize how much asparagus is actually in one bunch at the grocery store. I tried to figure out what I could do with all of it, and one of the many posts on foodgawker and tastespotting included an asparagus tart and it looked soooo gooood. So much so that I was determined to make it. But the type of tart I wanted required puff pastry, and I didn’t have any of that. I was tempted to just make a quiche instead, but I’m pretty sick of eggs already because I had a huge three egg omelette this morning. Thus, I went to the grocery store to get some.
Now, I’ve never worked at a grocery store before, but I do realize that certain people are assigned certain sections and are therefore not always knowledgeable of what products are in which sections. That is totally valid. So as I was trying to find puff pastry, I looked up and down the frozen isle and to no avail, I couldn’t find the puff pastry. I thought maybe someone from the bakery would know where it was because I didn’t see a grocery store employee anywhere in sight.
So I asked some young whippersnapper if there were puff pastry dough in the bakery section and he thoroughly had no idea what I was talking about. He pointed me to some ready-made eclairs that were frozen and could be thawed and filled. Not that I expect everyone to know these things, but I think someone working in a bakery, even if its a grocery store bakery, the difference between puff pastry and choux pastry =/
Anyway, I finally found it because I asked an older employee. I was just frustrated because it was on the opposite end of the grocery store.
So then I read the instructions and found out that it would take two hours for it to thaw. TWO HOURS?! That was too long and I was hungry =( So I bought it and decided to use to tomorrow to make an asparagus tart, and just make asparagus pizza today.
SO HUZZAH!
- ¾ cup warm water
- 2¼ tsp yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups flour
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp italian seasoning (which contained some oregano, basil, garlic)
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup pasta sauce of your choice (I used tomato basil)
- 1 scant cup cheese of your choice (I just had some leftover marble brick cheese)
- ⅓ cup parmesan cheese
- 3 stalks of asparagus, woody ends cut off and sliced on a diagonal to 2-inch pieces
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 2 portobello mushrooms, sliced, with the stems trimmed and sliced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- In a mixer (or by hand if you so choose), mix the warm water, yeast, and sugar together until the yeast is activated and creamy.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, italian seasoning, and garlic powder.
- Add oil to the yeast mixture, and then incorporate the flour mixture in 3-4 increments until the dough is even and sticky.
- Knead lightly just to get all of the bits of flour mixture evenly mixed in, then cover in a lightly oiled bowl for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Meanwhile, cook the onions in olive oil over medium heat until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
- Punch down the dough then roll it out to a 13-inch round/whatever your pizza pan is. I curled up the edges to make a crust.
- Spread the sauce and generously sprinkle the two cheeses over the pizza.
- Add a layer of onions and mushrooms, then your sliced asparagus on top.
- Bake for about 20 minutes at 375F until the crust has risen and become lovely and golden.
my grocery store just had a redo and during the construction it was a nightmare to find anything or an employee who had any idea where things were… definitely makes you get creative!
Gorgeous post, lady!
Haha I hope you get reacquainted with your grocery store soon. Thanks for reading =)