Today begins an experiment…

The recently released 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend drastically reducing the sodium in the average American’s diet.  The average person should aim for 2,200 mg sodium per day.  Those who are African American; over 55 years old; or have hypertension, diabetes, or kidney disease should decrease their sodium intake even further to around 1,500 mg sodium per day.  To give you an idea of how difficult this may be, currently, on average we consume about 3,400 mg of sodium per day. (1)

You may be saying, “But Shannon, you’re a Dietitian, you shouldn’t have any trouble meeting this recommendation.”  But even I admit that cutting sodium is a toughy.  The reason is, a majority of the sodium in our diet comes from processed and “convenience” foods.  Frozen dinners, advertised as healthy, have almost the entire days worth of sodium in them if you fall into the 1,500 mg category.  Canned vegetables and tomatoes use sodium in the processing.  Anything packaged that says “seasoned” probably has a lot of sodium in it.  Say you’re want a pizza, one of my favorite things.  Frozen pizza is out.  You have a ton of sodium from cheese, meats, crust, even the sauce. 

So this week, I’m trying to reduce the sodium as much as I can in our family meals.  Tonight I’m making a pizza based on a recipe from the Sopranos Family Cookbook (one of the Valentine’s gifts from my hubby – he knows me so well!)  The original, yummy recipe, calls for a standard pizza dough – water, flour, yeast and salt.  Then a sauce with garlic, tomatoes (canned or fresh), olive oil, garlic and basil.  Then finally a topping of fresh mozzarella and parmigiano-reggiano.  How good is that! (2)

I’m making the dough with whole wheat flour*.  This doesn’t reduce the sodium really, but it provides more whole grains. 

For my sauce, I’m using a very low sodium, store brand, italian, crushed tomatoes.  It had only 90 mg sodium per 1/4 cup of sauce.  It was not the lowest sodium canned product I found…that was around 45 mg per 1/4 cup, but that was a plain crushed tomato, and I wanted a head start on my flavor.  The tomatoes I choose were some of the lowest sodium though…average sodium was between 150 mg and 200 mg for most of the canned tomatoes I saw, and that includes organic.  I do think organic products are great and I’m trying to include more of them in my family’s diet, but organic does not equal low sodium, so if reducing sodium is your goal, you still need to read the label. 

The toppings we are using are Bocconcini mozzarella, fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano, fresh tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and peppers.  Bocconcini mozzarella are little 1 3/4 oz balls of mozzarella packaged in little tubs with water.  The brand I purchased have only 45 mg sodium per ounce.  The fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano will be the highest sodium item on the pizza, but by using fresh grated, it will have a stronger flavor and I’ll be able to use much less!

Here’s the recipe if you’re keeping track…

Very Veggie Pizza

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 envelope active dry yeast
• 1 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• one 28 oz can low sodium crushed tomatoes
• chopped garlic
• garlic infused olive oil
• 12 oz fresh mozzarella
• 1/4 cup fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 package of mushrooms, chopped

First, make your crust, add yeast to warm water and let veg about a minute…it will get creamy, then mix to combine.  In a separate bowl mix whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and salt…add water/yeast mix to this and form a soft dough.  You may need to adjust by adding more water or flour till you get the right consistency so keep an extra 1/2 cup flour handy.  Then knead for 10 minutes or until elastic.  I recommend using a stand mixer with a dough hook for this – it’s much easier!  (and takes a lot less time).  Then place dough in an oiled bowl and flip to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and leg veg about 1 1/2 hours until doubled in size.

While dough is rising, make your sauce…in saucepan mix tomatoes, garlic, and garlic infused olive oil.  Simmer about 20 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.

After dough is doubled, you want to place it in an oiled jelly roll pan.  I used my stoneware one.  Then stretch and press it to the edges of the pan.  After you’ve finagled the dough to make it fit, you can cover and let rest for about an hour (again, until doubled in size and puffy looking).

Then cover with sauce – you may want to hold some back mine was really saucy!  Add your veggies – and bake at 400-450 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.  (with stoneware you shouldn’t go above 400 degrees – the pan can crack! – so then it takes longer.)

After 20 minutes, add your cheeses, and bake an additional 5 minutes till cheese is all melty.  Remove from oven and enjoy, but be careful…it’s hot!

*Please note…if you are making dough from scratch, start early!!! I started at 5:30 PM!  My hubby was starving by the time the pizza was ready!

1.  Rucker, Alan and Scicolone, Michele.  The Sopranos Family Cookbook as Compiled by Artie Bucco.  Grand Central Publishing, New York. 2002.

2.  2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2010/DietaryGuidelines2010.pdf.  Accessed 2/12/11.