My Homemade Quattro Formaggi Pizza!

I present to you my Quattro Formaggi Pizza, a.k.a. Four Cheeses Pizza! 


Hey guys! :) How's your weekend so far?


I love watching cooking shows on weekends, from Lifestyle Network, to QTV and even Star World. Yes, I'm a cooking show addict! And during commercial breaks, I read my food books. Haha. 


I'm currently loving Junior MasterChef Australia. I wonder, how do they raise their kids to be that awesome in the kitchen? At the age of 8, they can already cook up complicated dishes and artistically plate their food. Wow. Maybe they read cookbooks to their kids as bedtime stories? I don't know but I sure want a kid like that. :)


Anyway, an afternoon of cooking shows marathon inspired me to bake my own pizza, Quattro Formaggi Pizza! 

Instead of tomato sauce, the pizza uses a basil pesto base. You can easily buy this from the grocery or whip it up yourself. Since I couldn't find basil pesto in our grocery, I made my own by mixing fresh basil leaves, olive oil, walnuts, garlic and salt in our blender. 

On hindsight, I should have pounded the walnuts before putting them in the blender since they got stuck. It took awhile before my blender functioned again and I couldn't get the texture I wanted. Oh well. 

Since I was feeling Junior Masterchef-y, I also made my own pizza crust! I don't have my own pet yeast so I used active dry yeast I bought from the grocery. I dissolved it in lukewarm water until bubbles surfaced. Yes, my yeast is still alive! 

I then poured in the yeast mixture into the flour and combined it together with oil and salt. 

I transferred the dough to a lightly floured surface and kneaded it for about 5 minutes. For 10 minutes, I covered it with a kitchen towel and let it rise. Afterwards, I punched it down and kneaded it again for another 5 minutes. It's not as brutal as it sounds, swear. :)

The dough is good enough for two pizzas so I divided it into two parts and flattened them using a rolling pin. Afterwards, I went crazy with the toppings. I smeared the basil pesto and threw in parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, cream cheese and blue cheese cubes. I love cheese so I made sure I didn't scrimp on all four cheeses. 


I popped it in the 375 F pre heated oven for 3-5 minutes. Right before serving, I garnished it with fresh basil leaves. Yaaaay! Nothing beats freshly baked pizza for dinner! Especially an extra cheesy thin crust pizza shared with loved ones. :)

How about you, how do you spend your weekends? 

Here's the list of ingredients:
Pizza Crust
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon salt


Toppings
Basil pesto
150 grams mozzarella cheese, grated
20 grams Parmesan cheese
20 grams blue cheese, cubed
20 grams cream cheese, cubed
fresh basil leaves for garnish 

Basil Pesto

3 cups of fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon walnuts

1 clove garlic

1/4 teaspoon salt

Hope you have fun making your pizza too! And if I were you, go crazy on the cheeses too! It tastes better that way. :) 

Btw, my mom and I both had our haircuts the other day. What do you think? :) 


Have a great weekend! 


*Recipe taken from Yummy Magazine January-February 2011 issue
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~It's the little sweet notes everyday that matter~