Here’s my Dark Days Challenge meal #5: Pizza. This meal is two challenges in one: the local food challenge and finding foods my almost 12-year-old niece will eat.

Cheese Pizza:

• whole wheat and all-purpose wheat flour from Wild Hive Farm, Micro Mill and Bakery Cafe
• tomato puree made from Sport Hill Farm‘s San Marzano’s that I roasted and froze in September
• Vivace Bambino cheese from Cato Corner Farm via Artisan Made, Northeast
• basil from here, Late Bloomers Farm, dried
• sea salt from Kenyan’s in Rhode Island
• olive oil from Italy (a lifetime exception)

Of course, I used Kaela’s fabulous whole wheat crust recipe. It’s absolutely delicious and the child will eat it!

The USDA is right–put more cheese on the pizza.

Popcorn:

• corn kernels on the cob from Maple Bank Farm
• Butter from Ronnybrook
• sea salt from Kenyan’s in Rhode Island

Ice cream from Ferris Acres Creamery (closed for the winter–had to do a bulk buy and I have no idea how long this will last).

Pizza goes well with Foxon Park cane sugar soda. Or Spumanti from the Connecticut Valley Winery.

Here’s the pizza I made with the other half of the dough (toppings the child won’t eat): beets, goat cheese, leeks, and proscuitto .

Sources:

• roasted beets from Riverbank Farm
• sauteed leeks from Maple Bank Farm
• fresh chevre from Beltane Farm
• prosciutto obtained at Artisan Made, Northeast, made by Steve Ford at Butcher’s Best from Rowland Farm pork (whew!)

I can’t begin to describe what a treat it is to have local prosciutto and pancetta to cook with! Thanks Steve!

And while I prefer a good plain cheese pizza, I have to say, it’s a lot of fun to experiment with unusual toppings (but never ham and pineapple—that’s just wrong).