Oh, Sweet Pea

I'm not sure how the weather has been for everyone else these last two weeks, but here it has been absolutely gorgeous. Rather than quickly jaunting from place to place, I found myself slowing down to enjoy the perfect early spring weather. As soon as Daniel or I got home, the windows were opened to take in in the crisp spring air. To celebrate being one step closer to the Farmer's Markets that will kick into gear later in the spring, I put together this bright Friday Night concoction.

The cornucopia of possibilities that instantly spring to mind as I take a precious ball of our pizza dough from the freezer is perhaps the single reason Daniel and I enjoy making pizza so much, and do it so often. You may notice it comes up often on here, but trust me, there's plenty of more pizza baking going on, usually about one a week.. There's just so much you can do with a few simple, straightforward ingredients and flavors. For this particular pie, for example, I went through a few different possibilities. Originally planning for an arugula centered concoction, I was disappointed to discover its absence, as the fresh produce is at that odd juncture between winter and spring. Instead, I replaced the peppery bite of arugula with the sweet refreshing bite of the green pea to make a bright green sauce for a vivid March welcome to spring. 

Green Spring Pizza
Prepared Pizza Dough (recipe available here)
Green Pea Pizza Sauce (below)
2-3 Slices Prosciutto
1/4 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan
1 Medium Sweet Onion, Halved, Sliced Thinly, soaked in Balsamic Vinegar for 1-2 hours
Cornmeal for covering pizza stone and pizza peel
Directions:
1. Place pizza stone in oven and preheat oven to 475 at least an hour before cooking.
2. Lightly cover pizza peel with cornmeal to prevent sticking. Stretch pizza dough to desired size. Spread pizza dough to coat pizza thinly. Top with onions, prosciutto, and grated parmesan.
3. Place cornmeal on pizza stone and carefully slide pizza onto stone. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven once crust begins to brown. Let cool slightly before cutting. *Garnish with additional parmesan cheese if desired.

Green Pea Pizza Sauce
3/4 Cup Green Peas
Small Handful Baby Spinach (Stems Removed)
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Juice and Zest from 1/2 One Medium Lemon
Salt & Pepper to Taste
Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients except salt and pepper in blender.
2. Puree, blending until smooth, adding extra olive oil if needed. Mixture should be smooth but will be thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

A Holiday Pizza; AKA Early Ideas for Leftovers

I'll admit, I'm one of those stubborn people who complain about Christmas items showing up in the store before Halloween is over. And rightly so, in my opinion. I love Christmas. I'll never forget how shocked Daniel was to experience just how much my Mom, Sister, and I love Christmas.  And, now that Halloween is over, I'm ready to be in the Holiday mood. I wont start playing my Christmas movie marathons until it gets a little closer, but I'm already looking forward to an evening with Jimmy Stewart and claymationed Rudolph, not to mention the baking and candy-making marathons.

Anyways, on to the recipe before I get too excited. With the holidays on my mind, I reflected that it seems as if its been a little while since we blogged about a unique pizza creation. So, while I should have been thinking about school and reading, I decided to try a new 'Thanksgiving-esque' Pizza. Naturally, I decide this under our new 'eat from the pantry' policy, which I more or less failed at. Already. One week in. Oh well.

Originally I wanted to do something that included turkey, cranberries, kale and pumpkin. While at the store, I forgot about the turkey, could only find dried cranberries, and the decided to allocate the kale for another meal. I did however find some tasty Brussels sprouts and portobello mushrooms to make up for the green and 'meaty' portions of the pizza. Ideally, I think it would be fun to try and make it again with some Thanksgiving leftovers, maybe making a tart with a stuffing crust instead, but for a weeknight 'fun' meal, this worked pretty well.

Coming home, and still not working on school, I set to roasting the Brussels sprouts, soaking the cranberries in hot water, sauteing the mushrooms with some butter and sage, and making a savory pumpkin sauce with onions, sage, and garlic. Combined, the steps did eat up some time, but I could have easily done most of them in advance before heating up the pizza stone and putting the pizza together. Although Daniel came home and looked at it somewhat hesitantly, overall it turned out well. I look forward to trying it again and hope it may serve as some inspiration for you to use your Thanksgiving leftovers!

Dawn's Thanksgiving-esque Pizza

Prepared pizza dough; recipe available here.

Toppings:

1/4 Cup Dried Cranberries

1/2 Cup Warm Water

2 Handfuls Brussels Sprouts (8-10)Rinsed

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to Taste

1/2 Portobello mush room cap; chopped

1/2 Tbsp Butter

1 Tsp Dried Sage

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Sauce:

1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1/2 Small Onion

3 Cloves Garlic

1 Handful Fresh Sage, sliced thinly or 2 tbsp dried

1 Cup Pumpkin Puree

1/4 Cup Dry White Wine

1/2 Cup Chicken Stock

1 Tbsp Dried Thyme

1/4 Tsp Smoked Paprika (Optional)

Salt & Pepper to Taste

1. Preheat oven to 400. If doing in one cooking session, place pizza stone in as well to preheat. If using dried cranberries, place cranberries in small bowl with hot water. Let stand until ready to top pizza.

2. Toss Brussels sprouts with olive oil and season with salt and paper. Place on roasting sheet. Roast for approx 30 minutes, carefully stirring every 5-8 minutes. Sprouts should be brown on the outside with a few crisp black spots.

3. Meanwhile, in small saute pan, melt butter over medium heat and saute mushrooms 5-7 minutes, adding sage midway. Season with salt & pepper. Set aside.

4. In medium saucepan, add remaining olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil and pan are warm enough, place diced onions and minced garlic in and saute until onions are transparent and garlic begins to brown. Deglaze pan with white wine, stirring constantly. Add pumpkin, stock, and spices. Reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until you achieve an appropriate consistency.

5. Once brussels sprouts are done, set aside until cool enough to handle. Increase heat to 475. Once cool enough to handle, cut brussels sprouts in half.

6. Once oven is heated, place cornmeal on pizza peel. Toss pizza dough to desired thickness and shape. Add pumpkin sauce and arrange toppings. Top with shredded cheese if desired (Parmesan & Fontina Cheese recommended).

7. Place cornmeal on pizza stone. Carefully slide pizza onto stone and cook 8-10 minutes until crust is golden brown in color.

8. Carefully slide pizza onto peel and remove from oven. Allow to cool 3-5 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

Cherries to Cheer

So for the last week or so, I have to admit that I've felt completely unoriginal and unmotivated in the kitchen. I'm not sure if its the stress of school that's hitting me early this quarter or what precisely, but it seems as if for the last week Daniel and I have had other commitments or obligations so that we haven't been able to cook, or when we could we were having camera issues, or when it was my turn I opted for something unoriginal and un-blog worthy. Finally though, I was able to break out of my cooking apathy with this bright pizza.

 

Daniel had visited his favorite Asian grocery store earlier in the week and had brought home some quail eggs for us to try. Lack of motivation however, meant that they were not used right away, so I had to come up with something to do with them. For some reason, breakfast food always makes me feel better. I don't know why exactly, because I'm not a huge fan of big breakfast, but there is something extremely comforting about a simple omelet for breakfast. Unfortunately, it would take a lot of quail eggs to make an omelet for us, so I had to go another route, leading to this lovely creation, a quail egg pizza with a cherry ginger balsamic sauce, goat cheese, and of course, bacon.  

Once I decided on this, I wasn't sure quite what to do with the eggs. I opted to try for a very light over easy egg to place on the pizza before going into the oven. This was somewhat difficult because I'm not an expert egg cook, and they are quite tiny. Suffice to say of the dozen, a few eggs ended up somewhat scrambled and maybe not so lightly cooked in the process. I do think lightly cooked is the way to go, since there was one or two eggs on the pizza that were a little more than over-easy going onto the pizza, and they did come out a little on the tough side. I may try in the future breaking them on the pizza once all the other toppings are on and have cooked a minute so the pizza is hot, but we will see.

The sauce I put together had a very mild cherry flavor, but complimented the salted egg and goat cheese quite well. Although I've heard its unhealthy to use food to brighten your mood, I have to say that this pizza was a nice mix of comforting flavors and bright cheery colors that it just might do the trick. Enjoy!

 

 Cheery Quail Egg & Cherry Pizza

Pizza Dough, recipe available here or use your own.

For the sauce:

1/2 Bag of Frozen Cherries

1/2 Tsp Ginger

1 Tbsp Sugar

1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
Salt & Pepper to taste
Toppings:

1/4-1/2 Cup Crumbled Goat Cheese

1/4-1/2 Cup Crumbled Bacon

8-10 Quail Eggs lightly cooked over easy and well seasoned (be sure to salt them well!!!)

1. Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 475. 

2. Prepare dough as needed and place on corn meal coated pizza peel. While dough is resting, prepare eggs and bacon. 

3. Prepare the sauce by placing cherries and sugar in heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring often. Once skin begins to give, press with spoon to rupture cherries. Add balsamic and ginger stirring quickly. Reduce to low heat and reduce liquid until reaching desired consistency. Salt & pepper to taste. 

4. Assemble pizza by spooning liquid onto dough and spreading thin. Gently add lightly cooked quail eggs, cheese, and bacon. Corn meal pizza stone carefully and add pizza to oven. Cook for approx 8 minutes until crust is golden brown. Enjoy!

Playing with Pissaladiére

Although Daniel and I are not really big things of routine or making the same dish more than once, one of the things that we enjoy making over and over is homemade pizzas with unique toppings. As you can guess from the recent plethora of posts on bacon, we still had some of the amazing bacon purchased at the farmer’s market so I decided to try to finish it up on a unique pizza.

The recipe for this dough is the same used in an earlier post, left over from the large batch it makes. Although we like this particular recipe pretty well, we will keep experimenting as always and update on any improvements. Although I knew I wanted to finish off the bacon that we had, I always have trouble thinking of unique things to do with bacon. It’s just so delicious by itself, I want to be sure I’m doing something to improve and compliment the taste of the bacon, rather than hide it. As I looked back through our previous pissaladiére post for the dough recipe, I thought that I’d do a play on the "French Muse" and give it a slight makeover deciding on a BLT style pizza using tomato, bacon, and leeks in place of the onions.

As usual, once you decide what to put on the pizza, it’s pretty easy going from there. I simply prepared the leeks just as you would the onion base for the pissaladiére with lots of roasting and butter and olive oil, added the bacon fried crisp, and the tomatoes soaked in an aged balsamic to enhance the fruitiness of the tomato. Once the pizza was assembled, I decided to add a little bit of cheese as well, deciding on a light crumbled goat cheese. The result was a deceptively complex pizza with an amazing flavor from the leeks, permeated through the fruity taste of the tomatoes, the tartness of the goat cheese, and the salty smoky flavor of the bacon. I usually think my pizza's are pretty plain or boring in comparison to Daniel's concoctions, but I have to say I was pretty proud of this one. Enjoy!

BLT Pissaladiére

 Pizza Crust Recipe, available here

Cornmeal sufficient for dusting (1/2 cup)

3 Large Leeks, Sliced thin, white & light green parts only.

3 Tablespoons Butter

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

3 Fresh Thyme Sprigs

2 Fresh Rosemary Sprigs

Salt & Pepper to taste.

3 Pieces of Bacon; Fried Crisp, Crumbled

1/2 Cup Tomatoes, Diced

1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 Cup Goat Cheese Crumbles

1 Tbsp Olive Oil* (Optional)

1/2 Tsp Dried Rosemary

1/2 Tsp Dried Thyme

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees while slicing the leeks. Place butter in bottom of casserole dish and place in oven to melt. Once butter has melted add 1/3 of leeks to bottom of pan. Place herbs on top. Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil. Place another 1/3 of leeks on top. Drizzle with remaining olive oil. Season with Salt & Pepper. Return to oven. Bake until leeks are tender and mostly golden, stirring every 20-30 minutes, approximately 1-1/2 hours. Cool mixture, and discard herbs. (Can be made prior and cooled in fridge overnight).

2. When ready to make pizza, place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 450, allowing at least 45 minutes.Place diced tomatoes in balsamic to soak while you fry or bake the bacon until crisp. While bacon cools, prepare pizza dough and place dough on pizza peel dusted with cornmeal.

3. Spread cooked leeks on prepared pizza dough. Top with crumbled bacon, tomatoes, and goat cheese crumbles. Drizzle with balsamic. Sprinkle herbs on top. *Optionally, can also brush crust with olive oil.

4. Carefully dust pizza stone with corn meal, and carefully slide pizza from peel on to the stone. Cook approximately ten minutes, until crust is golden brown in color. 

5. Remove from oven, allow to cool 3-5 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

French Muse

After you have made several of your own pizzas and you experience the variety and quality that can be achieved in-house, carry out or delivery become less appealing. From time to time, certain pies are an adequate substitution for homemade, but last week I wanted to venture outside the realm of familiarity and try something unique. I have become more and more fascinated by French cooking lately (and this is not merely because of "Julie and Julia" which I have not seen) and the other night a Pissaladière struck my fancy.

On a side note, the last pizza stone Dawn and I had lasted several pizzas before it ended in shards after I forgot to place the stone in the oven while it was preheating. This was an instant learning moment and one of those cooking experiences that leave you wiser for the future. Ever since then, the new stone has performed well on the prior pizzas and this one as well.

This Southern French "pizza" as you could call it consists of a caramelized onion base instead of the traditional tomato base often used in Italy. Pissaladière's are loaded with bursting flavors due to the length of time the mound of onions are allowed to cook in the oven with the bits of thyme and rosemary hiding inside to infuse flavor.

Resting on top of the herb infused onions are the anchovies. I realize that anchovies are greeted with hostility and sneers by many Americans because of their pungent odor and salty nature, mostly due to the brine they are packed in. Whether you are on the reluctant team or the robust flavors side, the combination of onions, herbs, mushrooms, and anchovies in this dish is incredible. I chose not to rinse my anchovies prior to placing them on the Pissaladière, but it is a judgment call based on your taste buds. One way or another, these morsels of fishy goodness will leave you wondering why you never forgo tomato sauce for caramelized onions at least when you have a can of anchovies in the cabinet. That, or why you never venture farther than the comfort of Caesar dressing.

Pissaladière Crust
Enough for approximately three to four crusts.
2 (1/4-ounce) packages active dry yeast
4 1/2 to 5 1/2 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 C. water (105–115°F), divided
1/4 C. extra virgin olive oil
2 t. salt
Corn meal for dusting

Whisk together yeast, 2 Tbsp flour, and 1/2 cup warm water in a measuring cup and let stand until mixture develops a foam, about 10 minutes. (If mixture doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Stir together salt and 3 cups flour in a large bowl. Add yeast mixture and remaining 1 1/2 cups warm water and stir until smooth, then stir in 1 cup more flour. If dough sticks to your fingers, stir in just enough corn meal, a little at a time, to make dough just come away from side of bowl. This dough may be wetter than other pizza doughs you have made.

Knead dough on a lightly corn-mealed surface, lightly remealing work surface and hands when dough becomes too sticky, until dough is smooth, soft, and elastic, about 10 minutes.
Divide dough in half and form into the desired size balls, then generously dust balls all over with corn meal and place in medium bowls. Cover bowls with plastic wrap and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Before rolling out, balls of dough can be generously dusted with corn meal for added crunchy texture if desired.