The Orange Kitchen

Rocket Toppa.

I grew up in a small town in regional Australia that has a very large Italian population. Aside from fostering an environment wherein we all, Italians and non-Italians alike, love to gesture enthusiastically with our hands when we talk, this large Italian population bestowed upon we townsfolk a great and mighty gift; Italian cuisine.

Sure, you can pretty much get 'Italian food' anywhere and everywhere these days, but let me tell you, there's Italian food and then there's actually good Italian food. I myself am a big fan of the latter, and courtesy of my upbringing in this delightfully Italian influenced little town, I have exceptionally high standards when it comes to that good Italian food. The Italian food in my hometown is mindblowingly good. Even today, generations after many of the first Italian migrants moved to the town, you can still find restaurants serving nonna's traditional lasagne recipe and my god is that one heck of a flipping lasagne!

There are lots of Italian restaurants in this mini-Italy hometown of mine, all of which are exceptional, however for reasons largely unclear to me, my family (N.B. my dad) have always had our favourite. And at the favourite restaurant there is a family favourite dish humbly known as the 'rocket toppa.' It's a very simple dish, which is probably what makes it so great and I'm yet to ever eat at this restaurant and not have a rocket toppa. Traditionally it comes with proscuitto (a kind of Italian ham that's thinly sliced), which is obviously not very vegan friendly, but I'm pleased to report that the humble rocket toppa still tastes absolutely spectacular without. For my interpretation, I added in some semi sundried tomatoes in the place of the traditional proscuitto in order to keep an additional level of flavour within the pizza as a whole.

My biggest tip for this dish is to get a good quality pizza base, also known as a 'toppa' because it plays a starring role in the dish. Add in some fresh rocket (arugula for all the Americans out there!) and some vegan parmesan and you friends, have a recipe for a damn tasty time!!

Ingredients;
1 large pizza base
8 large tomatoes, chopped into quarters
2 tsp raw sugar
Pinch salt
Cracked black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

1 cup (approx.) semi sun-dried tomatoes (I use oil free ones from the same isle in the supermarket as the canned veg)
1 handful fresh basil, roughly chopped

2 cups fresh rocket (arugula)
2 tbsp vegan parmesan (I use 'Green Vie' available at The Cruelty Free Store in Aus)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 red onion, very finely sliced into half-moons

1. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees fan-forced.
2. Take a lined baking tray and place your quartered tomatoes on it. Sprinkle over the raw sugar along with some salt and pepper, then a generous amount of olive oil. Mix the tomatoes around well then bake for approx. 30 mins.
3. When your tomatoes are roasted, remove them from the oven (leave the oven on though!) and transfer them into a fine sieve/colander. Place a bowl underneath then use a fork to mash the tomatoes, leaving a delicious paste in the bowl below.
4. Take a large pizza base and place it on an oven tray. Use a spoon to spread your homemade tomato paste generously over the base. Finely slice the sun-dried tomatoes and then sprinkle them, along with the finely sliced basil, over the pizza base.
5. Place the pizza in the oven to cook for approx. 10 mins. The base should start to go crispy, but make sure you remove the pizza before the tomatoes on top start to burn!
6. While the pizza is cooking, take a large bowl and combine the fresh rocket, vegan parmesan, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and finely sliced red onion. Mix them through together until well combined.
7. When your pizza is cooked, remove from the oven, cut into pieces and then serve each piece topped with a generous handful of the rocket mixture (plus some extra parmesan if you're cheeky)! Enjoy!!

This dish was inspired by a dish of the same name available at La Scala Restaurant in Griffith, NSW. If you're ever in town, I'd recommend trying it! The restaurant will make it vegan upon request (make sure to tell them you want both the proscuitto and cheese removed). Alternatively just make my version, because truthfully I think it's possibly even better than the one that inspired it!!