| There’s a strange little scene from my childhood that still plays in my head sometimes, over and over, like a missed prophecy: I was somewhere between twelve and fifteen, I think, and my whole family was home sick from work or school, so we were actually having a sit-down lunch together–a real rarity for us. Of course, everyone was completely exhausted, and tasks were being distributed on the customary who’s-the-most-tired-I-win-you-do-it basis . . . |  |
No, I have not suddenly gone crazy and decided that road kill is vegetarian … this is just the name I’ve always known this dish by. I think the original idea is that the rice pokes out of
the ball shape a little bit when they cook, so they look a bit like little scared porcupines. I’ve never really seen it myself (who ever saw a red porcupine, anyway? Even Sonic was blue…and supposed to be a hedgehog!), but the name certainly catches the attention. Also, I can’t think of anything better that doesn’t make them sound gross, which they aren’t.
Now, I have titled this post “Vegetarian Pizza,” but most of the work of the dish is the pizza crust. I thought about just posting pizza crust, but it seemed silly to give you the recipe for that and then deny you a quick and easy sauce recipe too. After all, the cheese and toppings are no trouble to come by at all, so if I just give you both recipes than you’ll pretty much be ready to go!
| This recipe started from one of Jocelyn’s, but it’s been transformed many times since such an auspicious beginning. The procedure for rolling them out is a little unusual, but it works well as long as you’re attentive to detail. From start to finish, it’ll take about 2 1/2 hours to make a whole batch of this dough. I highly recommend making a full batch even if you aren’t planning to eat more than a little of it right away, since you can just parbake the remaining crusts, freeze them, then thaw them out to use later. |  |
