Pizza With Olives, Peppers, and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

I turned my favorite sandwich into a pizza -- and got a nice dose of late-winter color therapy in the process.

This was my first time using the pizza dough recipe from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." As with his bread recipe, I liked the convenience of throwing all of the ingredients in the food processor, rather than coaxing the yeast and kneading the dough. The resulting crust had a nice tenderness, but was a little bread-ier than I'd hoped. I guess I'm still searching for the perfect pizza dough recipe.

I found myself wanting more cheese, so I topped the leftover slices with a little feta before reheating them - yum. The recipe below reflects the increased amount of cheese.


Ingredients
One batch pizza dough (store bought is fine)
Olive oil for brushing
Flour as needed
2 tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)
One batch roasted red pepper sauce
12 to 15 pitted kalamata olives, drained and cut into eighths
1/4 yellow pepper, washed and diced
1/4 orange pepper, washed and diced
1 cup feta or grated/torn provolone cheese - or both

Preheat the oven to 500 F.
Lightly brush a non-stick cookie sheet with olive oil.
Lightly flour a baking mat or large cutting board.
Roll out the dough out on the mat or board (I use a rolling pin) until it reaches your desired level of thinness, turning the dough and adding flour as necessary.
Transfer the dough to the baking sheet.
Lightly sprinkle the dough with sesame seeds.
Spread roasted red pepper sauce evenly over the dough.
Top with diced peppers, olives, and cheese.
Bake for 6-10 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes before slicing.

Serves 4.