It’s pretty much a given that if it has garlic on it, I’ll eat it.

This vegetarian pizza is no exception.

It gets its rich, mellow flavor from slow-roasted garlic and fresh, baby spinach. Fontina and Parmesan add depth and a little salt. The tangy white sauce balances out the flavors.

Vote Hungry Mouse!

OK, so here’s the deal.

This is my entry in the Breakstone’s Battle of the Kitchen Bloggers, hosted by Sandra Lee. . (Yep, the same folks who hosted last year’s Triple Churned Challenge.) Check out my appetizer, Sweet & Spicy Coconut Shrimp.

For the Showdown, Kraft invited me and 2 other bloggers to duke it out. Picture American Idol meets Iron Chef and you’ve kind of got the idea. (Our secret ingredient? Breakstone’s sour cream.)

I picked pizza because it’s something that’s easy to throw together on a weeknight if you have dough on hand. (And if you don’t, grab a ball at your local market or pizza joint on the way home.) You can get pretty creative with ingredients–and you’re almost always guaranteed to have something you can use on hand.

Don’t believe me? Go take a peek in your fridge and come up with a pizza. (Leave a note in the comments below!) I’m bracing for that artichoke heart, bacon, and broccoli pizza. (Ya know, I’ll bet it would be delicious.)

The participating bloggers have a chance to win a cash prize (1^st place is $350, 2^nd place is $250, and 3^rd place is $150).

Enter to win!

As part of the Holiday Showdown, you can enter win a handful of different prizes. If you enter, you’ll have a chance to win a $50 gift card (one winner each week).

You’ll also automatically be entered to win a grand prize of $2,500!

Sound enticing? I thought it might. Click here to enter to win. You can go back and vote and enter every day!

Alrighty, to the ovens!

Roasted Garlic & Spinach Pizza

1 large whole head of garlic
good quality olive oil
½ cup whole milk ricotta
1/4 cup Breakstone’s sour cream
1 ball pizza dough
Fontina cheese, shredded
Parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup fresh baby spinach

Makes 1 large pizza, serves 4-6

Roast the garlic

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Whack the garlic head in half horizontally.

Put it in a small baking dish (paper and all) and drizzle with olive oil.

Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Roast for 25-40 minutes, until soft, golden brown, and fragrant. Remove from the oven & uncover the pan.

Yank the roasted garlic cloves out of the skin with a fork and put them in a small bowl.

Mash them into a paste in a small dish with a fork.

Strain the oil (that’s pure roasted garlic flavor), pop it in the fridge, and reserve it for another use. (Add to salad dressings, brush bread before toasting, rub a roasting chicken with it, you name it…)

Make the white sauce

Put the ricotta, Breakstone’s sour cream, and roasted garlic in a small dish. Whisk together until uniform. Set aside.

Assemble the pizza

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Roll the pizza dough out on a lightly floured board.

Transfer to an unlined, nonstick pizza pan. Stretch it out with your hands so it covers the whole pan.

Spread the dough evenly with the sour cream & roasted garlic mixture.

Sprinkle with a thin layer of Fontina.

Add a thin layer of baby spinach.

Sprinkle with another thin layer of Fontina. Dust with Parmesan cheese. I tossed on a little freshly cracked pepper, just for good measure. You get the idea. (Pizza is a great canvas. Don’t be afraid to improvise.)

Bake the pizza

Bake the pizza in your preheated, 500-degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until crisp and lightly browned.

Remove from the oven and slide it onto a wooden board. Slice and serve immediately.

Serving tip

Add more protein to this pizza with thinly sliced, leftover roast chicken or par-cooked shrimp. (And a handful of crispy, crumbled bacon couldn’t hurt, either…)

Please vote for The Hungry Mouse!

Click here to enter to vote and enter to win.

Related posts:

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2. Maple Roasted Figs I put figs in the same camp as black licorice:...
3. Sweet & Spicy Coconut Shrimp (Plus, enter to win $2,500!) This is my appetizer entry in the Breakstone's Battle of...

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Alright, as with any salsa, the golden rule is: The riper your ingredients, the better your salsa. (Shop local. Hit your farmers’ market. Grow your own!) You guys know the deal.

Be sure to pick the plumpest, juiciest looking peaches and tomatoes you can get your paws on. A good, ripe peach should be mouthwateringly fragrant and really smell like a peach when you sniff it.

This is one of my favorite fruity salsas. The sweetness of the peaches is offset by spicy Serrano chilis, lime, cilantro, and an unexpected party guest: cool, crisp cucumber.

I don’t add a lot of additional spices to this, just a little fresh garlic and some chopped shallot (which is milder than onion). Dial the amount of chili up or down to suit your taste.

Ideally, make this a few hours ahead to let the flavors meld. The whole thing is ridiculously refreshing and delicious. It’s a great way to enjoy the flavors of summer.

If you wanted to, you could even try cooking this recipe down for a saucier salsa. (My best guess: I’d omit the cucumber, add a little sugar, then simmer for an hour or so, stirring frequently, until the mixture is reduced by about half.)

Serving ideas

Serve it with chips (try my Easy Baked Tortilla Chips Dusted with Chipotle Salt).

Use it to top grilled chicken or pork. Tuck a layer into wraps or fajitas. You can even semi-puree it and serve it as gazpacho.

The short version of the recipe goes like this

Whack up all the fruits and veggies into bite size pieces. Combine. Let sit for a few hours if you can bear to wait. Inhale. Enjoy.

Read on for more info on chopping, etc.—as well as some unabashed fruit porn.

Spicy Peach Salsa

3 cups ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced (about 4 tomatoes)
4 cups ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and diced (about 5 large peaches)
2 shallots, minced
1 English cucumber, diced (about 4 cups)
2 serrano chilis, diced
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
1 bunch cilantro, minced
1 Tbls. rice wine vinegar
kosher salt to taste

Serves 8-10

Chop, chop, chop!

Grab your tomatoes. (I’ll admit it: These are hothouse tomatoes. When I went to the market for this post, I couldn’t find a good looking, local tomato to save my life.) Give them a rinse under cold water and dry them off.

Whack them in half.

And then in quarters. Scoop out the seeds and discard. (Some people prefer to leave them in.)

Dice them up. Don’t make yourself nuts trying to get them all the same size. (After all, it’s salsa.)

Toss the tomatoes in a large bowl.

Peel your peaches.

I peel mine in a big, spiral ribbon using a paring knife.

Chunk the peaches up into bite-sized pieces.

Peel and chop the shallot. (I usually do slightly smaller pieces of the shallot.)

Slice and dice the English cucumber. I leave the peel on, but feel free to remove it.

(English cukes are those long cukes that usually come shrink-wrapped in plastic in the U.S. I like them because they’re nearly seedless. They also tend to be less bitter than regular cukes, and their skin is usually thin. If you can’t find one, you can definitely use a couple of regular old garden cucumbers. Just peel them and scoop out the seeds before you chop.)

Roughly chop the serrano chili. Now, serranos are just above jalapenos on the Scoville scale (which measures the hotness factor of different chilis). Definitely swap your chili up or down on the scale to adjust the heat.

Did you know?
A lot of the heat from chilis lives in the seeds and ribs of the chili. I like my salsa on the hot side, so I use the whole chili—ribs and seeds and all. If that’s not your thing, slice the peppers long-ways and remove the ribs and seeds before chopping. (Always wash your hands after. If you want to be extra cautious, don’t feel bad about wearing gloves.)

Chop the garlic and cilantro and toss them in, too. Add a pinch or two of kosher salt. (Go easy. You can always add more after you taste it, but you can’t get it out once you put it in.)

Add the rice wine vinegar and squeeze in the lime juice. (For extra lime-y flavor, add the lime zest to the salsa, too.)

I always tend to use a citrus reamer on the limes, because it helps you wring every last bit of juice out. (Don’t have one? Grab one on Amazon for about five bucks.)

And…mix away!

Give it a taste and add more salt if you think it needs it.

Ideally, let the salsa sit for an hour or two in the fridge to let the flavors mingle. It will get a little juicier as it sits (the salt will draw out some of the moisture from the fruit and veggies).

Enjoy!

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Seriously? You guys know me: This is kind of not my style.

Where’s the butter? Where’s the bacon? Why is there no wine? Why does this seem…healthy? Who are you and what have you done with The Mouse?

I know.

To me, edamame (a.k.a. soybeans) are those little salty pods that you nibble on when you’re out for Japanese and you’re waiting for your sushi to show up.

So, when I saw this recipe recently in Better Homes & Gardens, I was kind of surprised that I couldn’t couldn’t stop staring at the picture. It was a bowl of mashed peas and soybeans, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

Visual critter that I am, I knew I had to make it. The stuff was just so vibrantly GREEN. If I couldn’t bring myself to eat it, I reasoned, I could admire it, photograph it, then pawn it off on one of my veggie-loving friends.

But. (You know where this is going.)

I liked this stuff so much that I didn’t want to share.

I liked this stuff so much that I ate an embarrassing amount of it. With a spoon. Standing barefoot at my kitchen counter.

The whole time, I was thinking, this is like mashed potatoes, but it’s all green and good for you.

I swear, this stuff fulfills your craving for some kind of mashed-potato-like substance—but it’s better for you, and actually packs a lot of protein because you use a combination of sweet peas and edamame.

So how does it taste?

These smashed peas are smooth and earthy. Fresh lemon juice and mint add a little brightness and freshly cracked black pepper gives it a subtle heat. A handful of chopped green onion provides just a little onion-y bite. It gets a generous drizzle of fruity olive oil right before serving.

To my vegetarians friends: I think I get the soybean thing now. At least a little better. (Sigh. I know, it takes me forever to figure this stuff out.)

The original recipe from Better Homes serves this with ricotta toasts, which looked really good. I just didn’t get that far.

What kind of peas and soybeans should I buy?

Frozen ones. No joke. I picked up a package of Cascadian Farm Sweet Peas…

…and some Seapoint Farms edamame for the soybeans. I found both in the natural food section of my local Stop & Shop. Whichever brand of soybeans you buy, be sure to get the shelled kind. This is an easy recipe, in part, because there’s very little prep.

What’s the difference between edamame and soybeans?

Good question. And the answer is: Not much.

Edamame are basically baby soybeans. (Edamame is the Japanese word for soybean.) They’re picked when they’re immature and fill about 80 percent of their pod, which means that they’re still plump and green and relatively sweet.

Regular soybeans are dry and hard because they’re allowed to mature fully in their pods. You need to soak them just like dried beans before you can deal with them in the kitchen.

I won’t go on about the health benefits of soybeans, but they’re packed with protein, low in carbs, and are generally thought to be a heart-healthy food.

Smashed Peas with Mint

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

20 oz. frozen sweet peas
16 oz. frozen shelled edamame
water
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper
juice from 1 large lemon
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 scallion, sliced into rings
5-6 fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil

Serves 6-8 as a side

Simmer the peas and edamame

Bring a large pan with about a half-inch of water in it to a simmer on the stove. When the water is simmering, toss in the frozen sweet peas and edamame. No need to thaw them first. (If they’re frozen together in clumps in the bag, knock it against your counter a few times to loosen them up.)

Simmer them for about 5 minutes, until tender. (Yank one out of the pot and give it a nibble. You’ll know when you bite into it if it’s still kind of hard and raw.)

When they’re done, drain them well in a colander.

Puree the peas and edamame

When they’re well drained, toss the little green guys into your food processor. (If you don’t have a food processor, I’m reasonably sure you could do this with a potato masher and a little elbow grease.)

Process them on high until they’re smashed to bits. You may need to stop once or twice and scrape down the sides of your bowl. When they’re fairly mashed up, squeeze in the lemon.

Puree again on high to incorporate the lemon juice. In terms of consistency, you’re aiming for a chunky paste. Some leftover bits of peas are fine, but you should be able to spread it on a piece of toast with a knife.

Season the smashed peas

Toss in the garlic powder and some kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. (Start with a little, add more after you taste.)

Add the mint and most of the sliced scallion (save a little to garnish the dish).

Mix together until uniform. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Drizzle with good, fruity olive. Serve warm or at room temp.

Enjoy!

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This is like cheating, it’s so easy. In fact, it kind of IS cheating, since I didn’t make the tortillas from scratch.

No matter.

This is a fast and simple way to make delicious, spicy tortilla chips.

Just take fresh corn tortillas, brush them with oil, whack them into wedges, and bake until crunchy.

That’s it. Really.

I dusted mine with a little homemade chipotle salt. (Spicy. Hot. Smokey. Yum!)

They’re baked, not fried, so they’re a little better for you, as far as snacks go.

One of these days, I’ll make my own dough from masa harina (corn flour treated with calcium hydroxide, a.k.a. lime) and bust out some authentic, totally homemade tortilla chips.

Until then, this is a perfectly acceptable, easy, and fast substitute for the real deal.

Baking is for the birds. How do I make fried chips?

Oh, sure!

If you’d rather fry your chips, cut up the tortillas as instructed below. Fry them in batches in 360-degree vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on a rack.

Sprinkle with salt when they’re hot out of the oil.

How about some dip with those chips?

Coming right up! Serve them with salsa or homemade guacamole, which you can throw together while the chips are in the oven.

Easy Baked Tortilla Chips Dusted with Spicy Chipotle Salt

Chips
12 fresh corn tortillas
vegetable oil

Chipotle Salt
1 tsp. ground chipotle
2 tsp. kosher salt

Serves 2-3

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Spray the tortillas with oil

Start with good corn tortillas. You’ll usually find them in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. If you can get them at a local Spanish market, even better. Check the date to be sure they’re fresh.

Traditional corn tortillas are smaller than the flour tortillas usually used for burritos.

Lightly spray each whole tortilla on one side with cooking oil. (Or brush it on.) Stack the tortillas up.

Cut the tortillas into wedges

Whack the stack into four pieces.

And then in four again.

You want to wind up with 8 wedges.

Bake the tortilla chips

Spread the chips out on two ungreased, unlined baking pans. Arrange them so they don’t overlap (if they overlap, they won’t get as crunchy).

Pop the pans into your preheated 400-degree oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until light brown and crisp.

Make the chipotle salt

Put the kosher salt and ground chipotle in a small bowl. Mix together with a fork until uniform. Set it aside until your chips are done.

Season the tortilla chips

When your chips are done, they should be light brown and slightly curled on the edges. They should also be nice and crunchy.

How can you tell? Test a few. If they’re still a little on the chewy side, toss them back in the oven for a few more minutes, then check them again.

When they’re done to your liking, sprinkle the hot chips with chipotle salt. Toss gently to coat. Serve warm!

They’ll keep well for a day or two. Just seal ‘em up in a zip-top bag. Warm them up for a few minutes before serving in a 200-degree oven.

Enjoy!

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If they’re reading this, my close friends are probably laughing.

“Oh garlic, of course!!” they’ll say to each other. “After all, the Mouse has vampires on the brain lately.”

They would be right.

I probably shouldn’t admit this publicly, I know. But…I just read the Twilight books.

AND LOVED THEM. (I’m sorry, did I just yell?)

Sigh.

It’s true.

I’ve moved on to Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse books (the ones that HBO’s True Blood series is based on), on loan from my good friend over at Rippen Kitten.

Harris’s books are southern vampire detective novels, and they’re good, delicious fun. Pick one up. You’ll see.

So, suffice it to say that there are a fair amount of corny garlic jokes floating around our house these days.

My great love of garlic

Which brings us in a (very) roundabout way to my great love of garlic. I’ve always loved garlic—even before I started obsessively reading campy vampire fiction like a fifteen year old.

I mean, remember my trip to the garlic farm last year? Proof positive.

Now, I like garlic in pretty much all its forms, but roasted garlic has to be one of the best substances on the planet. And making it is one of those ineffable acts of culinary magic.

I mean, really: Take one of the strongest, stinkiest kitchen critters out there.

Drizzle it with olive oil, wrap it up tight, and toss it in the oven for less than an hour. And…voila! It’s mellow, creamy, nutty—and spreadable.

Magic, right? Pretty darn close, in my book.

You can toss it with pasta, spread it on bread, or (my favorite) make compound butter. That’s what I did with this batch. I’ve included instructions for how to do that at the end of this post.

When I roast garlic, I tend to use extra olive oil, so I wind up with garlic-infused oil. It’s deeply flavorful. I keep it in the fridge, and use it to fry potatoes and eggs. I also like to rub it on chicken before roasting.

Roasted garlic, three ways

So, this post will show you how to make:

1. Roasted garlic
2. Garlic-infused oil
3. Roasted garlic compound butter

The best kind of garlic for roasting

You can use any kind of garlic for roasted garlic. That said, purple stripe garlic is generally acknowledged as the best, sweetest kind of garlic for baking.

Roasted Garlic

Whole heads of garlic
Olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Off with their heads!

Grab a baking dish large enough to hold all your garlic comfortably. Set it aside.

Take one of the heads of garlic. Whack off maybe a half an inch of the top.

Basically, you want to expose the garlic enough so that it’s easy to get out once it’s roasted. Set the garlic in your baking dish.

Pull out all the tips from the top and toss them in, too.

One word of warning: I always include the tips, because hey, that’s more garlic to love. That said, these pieces are much smaller than the actual heads, so they can burn more easily. Just keep an eye on them when they’re in the oven.

Repeat with the rest of your heads of garlic. I made a ton this time. (Yep, you leave the skins on. Roast ‘em right in their wrappers.)

Drizzle the garlic with olive oil

Drizzle the garlic with olive oil. Pour it over the heads, so the oil seeps down between the cloves. If you want to wind up with garlic-infused oil, pour generously.

Toss the heads and pieces to coat in oil.

Cover your pan with aluminum foil. Crimp the edges tightly.

Into the oven!

Pop the pan into your preheated 350-degree oven. Roast for 30-45 minutes. Start checking the garlic after 25 minutes or so (remember: you don’t want those tips to burn).

Your roast garlic is done when it’s lightly browned, and soft throughout.

How do you know for sure? Poke it with a fork.

The garlic should be so soft that you can do this:

(Nom, nom, nom. Mmmm, pardon me for a moment.)

Remove each clove with a sharp paring knife, or squeeze the whole head until the cloves pop out. Up to you. Just remove as much of that golden, buttery goodness as you can. If any of the garlic tips got hard and crunchy, just toss them.

Put the garlic in a bowl and set it aside.

How to Make Roasted Garlic Compound Butter

Cut up a stick of butter (that’s 8 tablespoons) and set it in a bowl on the counter to soften up for about 20 minutes.

How much butter you use depends on how much roasted garlic you made, and how garlicky you want your butter. I used 2 sticks of butter for 5 heads of garlic, which makes a ridiculous (and strongly flavored) amount of compound butter.

(Trust me, I’ll use it.)

When the butter is soft, mash it up with a fork.

Grab your roasted garlic and toss it in the bowl with the butter.

Mash it together with a fork until you have a uniform paste. If it’s kind of soupy, that’s just fine. It’ll firm up in the fridge.

Rip off a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper. Scoop the butter on to it.

And roll it up.

Keep tucking it under to make it firm, just like making a burrito.

Roll it up into a log.

And twist the ends tight.

Set the butter in the fridge for a few hours, until it’s nice and firm. When it’s hard, it’s ready to use! Use it to make garlic bread, stir it into mashed potatoes, garnish a grilled steak with a nice, fat slice. It will keep for a few weeks in the fridge—if it lasts that long.

Strain the Garlic-Infused Oil

You’re not quite done yet. Can’t forget all that delicious, fragrant oil.

Grab your baking pan. It will be full of oil and littered with garlic skins. Set a strainer over a small bowl. Strain the oil.

Push the garlic skins down with a spoon to squeeze any extra oil out of them.

Keep your garlic-infused oil in the fridge for up to 2 weeks (check this out for food safety tips on keeping garlic in oil).

Like all oil, it will solidify when it’s cold. That’s just fine. Just scoop it out by the spoonful when you want to use it. It will liquify again when it hits the heat.

Enjoy!

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