Pissaladière

Here's a yummy little snack I pulled together using leftover pizza dough. I'll certainly be making this again!

Pissaladière is a French-style, tart-like form of pizza. This is almost a pissaladière. Hailing from the southern part of France, traditional pissaladière is a flaky style crust with onions, olives and anchovies.

That was my inspiration.

I had a leftover portion of pizza dough (from here.) I stretched it out into a rectangle and brushed with melted butter. I added about 1 TB dried Italian herbs to the butter. Perhaps some French herbs next time. Thyme, Tarragon, Parlsey...Herbs de'Provence.

I caramelized one medium onion, which I spread out over the top of the buttered dough. I would add a second onion next time.

On top of that, I added freshly grated Parmigiana. Being anti-olive and anti-anchovy, those won't be making an appearance.

I baked for about 17 minutes at 450, on a baking sheet. The last few minutes, I removed the pissaladière to the baking stone in the oven to get the crust more crispy.

Slice and serve. I'd show you a picture, but I was too excited to serve this to my guest that evening, that I forgot. This was tasty and I will certainly make this again.

Grrr

Grrrr! My camera is dying. Well, as far as I'm concerned it's dead! Out of 90 photos I took on two recipes and one restaurant trip, I could use no more than 4 of them. Good thing the new camera is on its way. I should have it by Wednesday!!!! This new camera will be my 3rd since Eat With Me went into business. Oh the things I do for my art! ;o)


In terms of what went down this weekend. I went to one of my favorite joints for lunch on Saturday--Punk's Grill in Annapolis, MD. I wish it was closer, but I had nothing else going on, on Saturday afternoon, so the drive was nice. If you head to Annapolis, give it a shot. Don't judge it because it's at the mall. It's really good! When I have a working camera and head back there, I'll work on a post with more details about the place. In the meantime, if you go, try the Flat Iron Beef skewer! Mmmmm.


In other fun stuff news. A week or two ago a friend shared with me a recipe for Fluffernutter Cookies. All you need is three ingredients. 1 cup of Peanut butter, 1 cup of Marshmallow Fluff and 1 egg. Beat the PB and egg together, then fold in the fluff. Spoon onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Enjoy. They are good and stupid simple to make. A lighter textured peanut butter cookie. I can't taste the Fluff, but you can see it in some of the cookies. I got one dozen cookies from the batter, a nice amount for a snack, but not so many you'll feel like you're gaining 10 pounds by having them in the house.


On Sunday, I did chores around the house and read. When it came time for dinner was enjoying a major Buffy marathon, trying to finish season 3! So Good! I had planned to leave the house and go for dinner, but I just couldn't leave Buffy alone with the Mayor and Faith. She needed me! So, I decided to make a pizza. But what to do with it? I barely have anything in the house at this point. So...I made the dough, let it rise and it rose good! Must have been the right temp and the right humidity in the house for a good rise. I decided to try a white pizza--sort of. I mixed some softened butter with grated Parm, dried Italian herbs, garlic and fresh cracked pepper. I spread that on the dough, then sprinkled some shredded cheese on top (Montery Jack is what I had). Baked until golden brown. Slice and serve. It was good, but a wee bit dry and the garlic kept coming back to haunt me throughout the night. Easy to just keep eating though!

Re-visiting CPK's BBQ Chicken Pizza

Pizza night last night. We don't have a regular pizza night, but we should! It was delicious and the dough is darn easy. Speaking of dough, I use a recipe for this pizza that calls for only a 30 minute rise period and it's good. Certainly not the best, but good. I did do one thing differently last night. I wanted to try to make the dough a honey-wheat version, instead of all white flour. It worked really well, I think I got a good combo of ingredients down. Let continue...

Here's the starter for the dough. Yeast, warm water, and something sweet. The recipe calls for sugar, I used 2 teaspoons of honey. Let that sit for a minute or two, then you can start to add the other ingredients, including 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Then add your flour and salt. I substituted in a half of a cup of whole wheat flour, with the white flour. I found this combination just right, for me, of whole wheat nutty flavor and still a good texture for kneading. The recipe is in this post for Deep Dish Pizza.

Once the dough pulls together, I give it a little coating of olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in half and start to roll out. I can't twirl my dough, so I actually roll it out with a pin. I was able to get this dough down nice and thin. I folded it up and transferred it to a sheet of parchment paper. Thought that would be a good idea, but not! To bake the pizza properly, you'll want to put it on a pizza stone in a 500 degree oven. Parchment paper isn't designed to be used a temperatures that high. Although it didn't bust into flames, I certainly charred up and got very crispy! So, lesson learned, roll out the dough, then transfer to a cornmeal lined baking sheet for easy transfer to the oven and baking stone. Note to self: I need to clean my baking stone, there is some dough that is completely baked on.

Start topping your pizza. In this instance, we did the BBQ Chicken Pizza we did a few weeks ago that was a huge hit. The sauce is BBQ sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese, then pieces of cooked, bbq'ed chicken. Tomatoes and red onions. Give a sprinkle of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Bake in a 500 degree oven for 12-17 minutes--depending on how thin your crust is. The last time, the dough wasn't as thing and it took longer. Last night, the crust was thinner and only took about 12-15 minutes.

Let the pizza rest for a minute on your cutting board, slice it and sprinkle with fresh chopped cilantro. Very tasty!

a la California Pizza Kitchen

Another hit from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Pizza night is always a fun night, but last night we went a different direction from our standards sausage and/or pepperoni pizzas. With a little help from The Pioneer Woman, we had BBQ Chicken Pizza a la California Pizza Kitchen. Very Good!

Start with your dough. My recipe is very easy and when divided makes two 12 inch pizzas. So, stretch out half the dough to just over a foot round.

Spread on a little of your favorite BBQ sauce. I used two that I blended together, Sylvia's and Carter Que. Perfect blend of tangy, sweet and spicy.

Top with diced chicken breast that was coated in BBQ sauce and baked in the oven for 20 minutes. Finely sliced red onion. I also added diced jalapeno for more heat and some tomato.

Of course, you need some mozzarella cheese. I used the pre-packaged shredded variety, but fresh mozzarella would be wonderful. Also, smoked mozzarella would be amazing in this application. I made two pizzas. One with the cheese on top and another with the cheese on the bottom. Makes no difference.

Fresh from the oven. Watch your oven for hot spots. Turn the pan 1/2 way through cooking if the crust on one side starts to get dark too soon.

Topped with chopped cilantro and sliced.


Here's one that had the cheese on the bottom. You can clearly see the toppings, but there is less of the dark, bubbly cheese. Whatever your preference.


BBQ Chicken Pizza
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
2 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½ cups barbecue sauce
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
½ whole red onion, sliced very thin
½ cup diced ripe tomato
½ jalapeno, finely diced
Chopped cilantro, to taste

Fresh pizza dough; I used the recipe from my Deep Dish Pizza as it only requires one 30 minute rise and makes a nice sturdy crust.

Makes two 12 inch pizzas


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Salt chicken breasts on both sides, then place in an ovenproof dish. Pour BBQ sauce over the breasts and turn them over to coat. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. Remove from oven and cut into a fine dice. Set aside.

Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees.

Divide pizza dough in half. Roll/stretch out two pizza crusts. Lay on two sheet pans drizzled with olive oil. Drizzle a little olive oil on the crust, then sprinkle on a little salt.

Spoon a couple of tablespoons of extra BBQ sauce on each pizza and spread it evenly. Top with half the mozzarella. Sprinkle on half the chicken, red onion, tomato and jalapeno.

Sprinkle again with a little salt, then bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle on plenty of chopped cilantro. Cut into squares and serve immediately.

THIS is what I covet

This is what my dreams are made of...


The Matchbox Meat Pizza: pepperoni / spicy italian sausage / crispy bacon / zesty tomato sauce / mozzarella


Smoky. Cheesey. Meaty. Spicy. Effin' amazing. Nearly perfect*.


But a meal at Matchbox can't start without the Angus beef sliders topped with onion straws.

Seriously, I dream about this.


Matchbox DC
Vintage Pizza Bistro
Two locations: Chinatown & Eastern Market/Capitol Hill

*I say nearly perfect, not perfect. The outer crust of the pizza was charred and crisp, exactly the way this type of pizza should be. The inner crust was a little weak and wasn't able to hold up to the amazing toppings. No worries, I still devoured the pizza. Perhaps it waited a minute to long to be served; but if they can ensure a crisp crust from the rim to the middle, we'd be talking pure perfection!

Pizza Night

Sunday night was pizza night. I whipped together a batch of dough from this recipe. Made a quick, chunky & slightly spicy tomato sauce with one 14 oz can of petite diced tomatoes, drained and one 8 oz can of tomato sauce. A healthy splash of olive oil, one TB of oregano and a few fat pinches of red pepper flakes, salt & pepper. Simmer, taste, adjust seasoning as needed. 2o minutes in the oven. Perfect. The crust was light and crispy, almost a "thin crust." The sauce was zippy and a great foil to the cheese and sausage. Very satisfying.

Hopefully it will be our last meal before our new fridge!

Grilled Pizza

With a little guidance from Tony Food, I tried something new this Saturday; Grilled Pizza. A pretty good success, but I'm not quite master of my domain yet.

First, we must make dough. You will need just over three hours of time, with short periods of work into between.

The Dough
from Tony Food, adapted from Alice Waters:

2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup rye flour (or whole wheat flour)

1/2 cup plus 1Tbsp warm water,
2 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp table salt (1 1/4 for kosher)
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

The yeast...

The flour...

The sponge...flour, water, yeast. To make the sponge, combine the first three ingredients and allow to proof for 20 minutes. Cover and place in a warmish place.

The sponge after twenty minutes. Add the remaining four ingredients and knead until combined and tacky.

Place the dough ball in an oiled bowl. Cover with a damp towel, again in a warmish location and proof for 2 hours.

The proofed dough. After the two hours of rest, punch down the down and re-form into a ball and allow to rest for another 45 minutes...

Prepped for the second proofing.

After 45 minutes, you can divide the dough into 2 equal size balls and begin forming your pizza rounds. Start with your fingers and push the dough into a flat round. Use a rolling pin to continue rolling to your preferred thickness. Try for about 1/4 inch thick.

Prep your pizza toppings. Sauce...cheese...check. Meats and veg should be partially and/or fully cooked. The pizzas will cook quickly on the grill so you want them to be ready to cook quickly or finish cooking quickly. I made two pizzas, 1) tomato, mozzarella and basil 2) tomato, mozzarella and sausage. I pre-cooked the sausage.

Make sure your grill is hot and the grill grate is cleaned and oiled.

Brush one side of your dough round with olive oil and carefully place your dough round over the coals, oil side down. The dough will immediately start to cook and bubble. Watch closely. With the hot coals, the dough can burn easily. Slide the dough around to prevent too much burning. Oil the top side of the dough and flip to cook the opposite side...

...now with the grilled side up...start dressing your pizza...

...sauce, basil...and later the cheese. Allow the crust to finish cooking. The mozzarella melted beautifully, but it did not get brown and bubbly like a pizzeria style pizza...because I was expecting it...the bottom of the crust burned a bit...

...I learned from my error and corrected pizza two. The sausage pizza was cooked to near perfection...

...the cheese could have melted a bit more...but still very tasty!

...and here's the first pizza.

When all was said and done...we ate very well! The tomato, basil and mozzarella pizza was simple and classic. The parts of the crust that weren't burned black, were very crisp. Per the recipe, the dough/crust was great! The sauce was simple...canned, whole tomatoes, little salt, little sugar, little oregano...done. No cooking. Very nice.

However...the sausage pizza was much better. Something about the sausage and the grill/smokey flavors just played so well together. Totally and completely satisfying. I will certainly try one again.

Lessons learned:
*Don't try to make two pizzas on the grill at once. Especially if the coals aren't even, you'll have uneven cooking and moving uncooked dough around a grill just makes a mess of your crust.
*Make sure you have the appropriate heat level in the grill. To hot and you'll just scorch the dough. To cool and you'll have flabby crust.

Can't wait to try this again...grilled pizza is awesome...pizza goodness in summer, without firing up the oven!

Thanks Tony!

Pizza! Pizza!

Saturday night was game night. I decided to make pizza as an easy way to feed 5 people. I used the dough recipe from America's Test Kitchen. I did the pizza in a 1/2 sheet baking pan. Also, I used fresh mozzarella that I stuck in the freezer for about 30 minutes, so I could grate it.


I think the pizza was pretty darn tasty. The five of us had a few pieces each and then snacked on chips and pretzels later. Very nice! I tried to make the pizza a little lower in sodium for one guest. Couldn't find a way around it with the pepperoni. The cheese was easy. The fresh moz had at least 1/2 the amount of sodium as the drier, pre-shredded variety from the store. The sauce was also homemade so I was able to use less there, ditto with the dough.

I did burn one corner of the pizza though. Bummer. Still tasty!

Sauce & Pizza...again

Another delicious weekend at the market! We took home a great haul. A lot of tomatoes & apples. Leeks, sausage, peppers, bread, plants, jam, honey...a lot.

Of course, with all those tomatoes, I had to make sauce. It took me about an hour to 90 minutes to prep all the tomatoes! Peeling, seeding, dicing. Overall, a very easy, fast process. But with the volume of tomatoes I had, it took some time. With the final, pre-cooked tomatoes, I had about 4 quarts of diced tomatoes (based on the size of my pot).

Prepped tomatoes.


The tomatoes cooking after 5 minutes. You can start to see the excess juice bubble up on the right hand side of the photo.

Remember to season with salt & pepper; to taste! These were some meaty, hefty tomatoes, so I think I added salt 4-6 times throughout the cooking process. Maybe 2 tablespoons total, but the only thing you can do is to taste and adjust as you go. There is probably 30 grinds of fresh black pepper...again, by taste. When cooking with a fresh, natural ingredient like tomatoes, an exact measurement is hard to give because each and every tomato is different.


An hour of simmering. I gave the sauce a good stir every 15 minutes.


90 minutes later! Sweet, tangy, fresh tomato sauce. Perfect for...


Pizza!
Neopolitan Margherita Pizza!!!
The dough was from this recipe and rolled out thin. The sauce had just been made. The basil was also from the market and the cheese...well, that's from the store.


10 minutes in the oven at 450 degrees. The crust was crisp with a little chew. The sauce was perfect, basil aromatic and the cheese gooey.

While at the market this weekend, I had a neighbor ask if I did anything special to get my pizza dough/crust to turn out so well. I said "no." But was reminded that I do have a pizza stone.

I got one many years ago and rarely used it. Then I read a tip one day, probably from Fine Cooking magazine, that you can leave the stone in your oven all the time. So I do. It helps to even out the temperature of the oven, helps to retain heat and in an instance like this where I'm making a thin, crisp crust, it's in there, getting searing hot and gets that dough working into a great crust. I don't make much bread...it's actually been a long time, but the stone really helps in bread breaking as well.

So I have to say that yes, I do do something special to get my pizza crusts turning out so nicely...a pizza stone that is in the oven all the time and a good hot oven.

Calzone

I mentioned in the post about the Pan Pizza, that I reserved 1/2 the dough for a later use. I bagged it in a zip top bag and left in the fridge for two days. Last night I used it up! To make a calzone. My first calzone.

***

To start, you need the dough and sauce from the Pan Pizza recipe. Using half the dough, roll it out into a circle, about 12-14 inches wide.

Make some filling...your choice. I used 1/2 cup of browned, crumbled sausage. 1/4 cup of sliced pepperoni, cut into quarters. Nuke the pepperoni for 30 seconds to remove some extra fat, again, see the Pan Pizza recipe. I also had about 1/4 cup of diced onion and 1/4 cup diced pepper. Start by browning the sausage, then add the onion, peppers, then the pepperoni. Stir together. Add enough pizza sauce to bind all the ingredients together.

Now add the filling to the center of the pizza dough. Add cheese. I used about a cup of shredded mozzarella and a sprinkle of parm. Now you need to seal up the Calzone.

Stretch the dough over the filling and begin to pinch a seal. Before you begin, lightly moisten the edge of the dough. This will help it seal together as you do the seal. Hard to describe, but start on one side and pinch. Then lift half of that pinch and an unpinched section. Pinch. Move half a lenght over...you can see the pattern in the photo above. My instructions aren't great. Sorry.

Once sealed, slice in some vents for steam to escape and if you like, brush the top with olive oil or egg wash. I used some olive oil.

I then sprinkled the top with a little more parm. Now bake for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Remove the hot and steamy Calzone from the oven. Allow to rest for a minute.

Devour! This was very satisfy. Serve with extra sauce if you like.

Very Satisfying! I'd make it again this week, if I knew I could get away with it. YUM!

Make a Pan Pizza

I promised you the full recipe...here you go:

Pepperoni Pan Pizza
from America's Test Kitchen

Makes two 9-inch pizzas serving 4 to 6

Dough
½ cup olive oil
¾ cup skim milk plus 2 additional tablespoons, warmed to 110 degrees
2 tsp sugar
2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for counter
1 package instant yeast
½ tsp table salt

Topping
1 (3.5-ounce) package sliced pepperoni
1 ⅓ cups tomato sauce
3 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. To make the dough: Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 200 degrees. When oven reaches 200 degrees, turn it off. Lightly grease large bowl with cooking spray. Coat each of two 9-inch cake pans with 3 TB of oil.

2. Mix milk, sugar and remaining 2 TB pf oil in measuring cup. Mix flour, yeast, and salt in standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Turn machine to low and slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together*, increase speed to medium-low and mix until dough is shiny and smooth, about 5 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter, gently shape into ball, and place in greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in warm oven until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

3. To shape and top the dough: Transfer dough to lightly floured counter, divide in half, and lightly roll each half into ball. Working with 1 dough ball at a time, roll and shape dough into 9 ½ inch round and press into oiled pan. Cover with plastic wrap and set in warm spot (not in oven) until puffy and slightly risen, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees.

4. While dough rises, put half of pepperoni in single layer on microwave-safe plate lined with 2 paper towels. Cover with 2 more paper towels and microwave on high for 30 seconds**. Discard towels and set pepperoni aside; repeat with new paper towels and remaining pepperoni.

5. Remove plastic wrap from dough. Ladle ⅔ cup sauce on each round, leaving ½ inch border around edges. Sprinkle each with 1 ½ cups cheese and top with pepperoni. Bake until cheese is melted and pepperoni is browning around edges, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven; let pizzas rest in pans for 1 minute. Using spatula, transfer pizzas to cutting board and cut each into 8 wedges. Serve.

Pizza Dough without a Mixer:
In step 2, mix the flour, yeast, and salt together in a large bowl. Make a well in the flour, then pour the milk mixture into the well. Using a wooden spoon, stir until the dough becomes shaggy and difficult to stir. Turn out onto a heavily floured work surface and knead, incorporating any shaggy scraps. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 10 minutes. Shape into a ball and proceed as directed.

NOTES:
*If the dough doesn't pull together, add a TB of water. Continue until the dough pulls together, this can happen based on the weather and the humidity in your kitchen.

**This step will render out excess fat from the pepperoni, soaking into the paper towel, instead of your pizza. We also find that on the finished pizza, you will have pepperoni that is slightly more crispy.

One pizza is the right size for dinner for two. I made the full amount of dough and reserved the second half for a later use. I placed in a zip bag in the fridge and will report back on it's later usage! Perhaps a calzone!

Also, I didn't have skim milk. I used dried milk, reconstituted with water. Worked very well. If I didn't have that, I would have used ½ heavy cream and ½ water for the total amount of liquid needed.

For the sauce, I used one 14 oz can of tomato puree (slightly thicker than straight canned tomato sauce). I seasoned with about 2 TB of Pizza Seasoning from Penzeys and a little extra salt/pepper to taste. Very nice. I was skeptical of the seasoning blend, but it has a very nice balance of all the right herbs and spices.

Let's take a look at the process shall we?

The dough came together with a little coaxing from some additional water. Notice how nice and clean the bowl is!

The dough has been rolled out and the sauce added.

And cheese. I also added a little parmesan to the blend for some extra flavor.

The partially cooked pepperonis. I liked that my pizza was all greasy afterwards.

Sadly, with the best masterpieces of the kitchen, you must destroy them to truly enjoy them.