Flatbread with Tapenade & Vegetables

It’s been incredibly busy lately and I’ve been incredibly lazy when it comes to cooking dinner. We’ve been eating out a lot lately, but Eric started back to work on Monday and I decided to make a nice dinner for when he got home on Monday night (and by nice, I mean actually cooking something). Part of my problem with cooking lately is that I come up with ideas, think through the effort they would require, and then decide against cooking anything. LAZY. Or maybe a better way to look at it would be that I’m spending my time doing other school-type things. Either way, it was fun to actually make some dinner on Monday. The day before, I had made another batch of the hard-to-resist kalamata basil tapenade, so we had a big container in the fridge. I made some pizza dough and then made a flatbread topped with the tapenade and some sauteed vegetables.

My sister is a big flatbread fan. When I first asked her the difference between flatbread and pizza, she said “Flatbread’s just fancy pizza”. But when we talked about it again yesterday, she said that pizza typically has sauce, then cheese, then toppings. Flatbread has a little cheese, or none, and the vegetables are usually cooked first before they go on top. Call it pizza, call it flatbread–It was heaven, if I do say so myself–the tastiest thing we’ve had in a while.

The Recipe

Serves 2

FOR THE DOUGH:

1/2 cup warm water (105F-115F)

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1 tsp agave or sugar

1 tsp olive oil, plus a little drizzle for the bowl

1 1/4-1 3/4 cups flour (half whole wheat pastry/half all-purpose)

pinch of salt

1 Tbls cornmeal

FOR THE TOPPING:

1/2-3/4 cup tapenade

1 cup onions, diced

1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup mushroom, diced

1 large leaf of kale chopped fine

salt & pepper to taste

FOR THE DOUGH: In a mixing bowl, add the warm water, the agave or sugar, and the yeast. Stir to combine. Let sit in a warm spot for 10-15 minutes until the yeast has formed a puffy top on the water. Stir in the olive oil and salt, and add the flour a little at a time. Stir in flour until the dough is a kneadable consistency. Turn out on a floured surface and knead for several minutes. Drizzle a little oil in the empty bowl and place the dough ball in the bowl (rolling it in the oil slightly to coat it). Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for about 1 hour in a warm spot. When doubled in volume, punch down the dough. While the dough is rising you can prepare the vegetable toppings and make the tapenade (if you haven’t already).

FOR THE TOPPING: Preheat oven to 425F for the baking of the flatbread. Chop all vegetables. You can use any variety of vegetables you like for topping–these are just the ones I had on hand. Saute the vegetables in a little olive oil, adding them in the following order: onions, peppers, mushrooms, kale. Saute until slightly soft. Add a little salt and pepper (keeping in mind the tapenade is salty). Turn off heat and press out the dough.

ASSEMBLY: On a baking sheet, dust a layer of cornmeal to prevent the dough from sticking. On a floured surface, press out the dough to about 1/4-1/2 inch thick depending on how thick you like the crust. Lay the pressed out dough on the pan and spread the tapenade over the dough. Spread the sauteed vegetables evenly over the tapenade. Bake at 425F for 15-20 minutes. Cut into pieces and enjoy.

What would you put on your flatbread?