Rosemary Pizza

I really, really wanted to call this Rosemary Flatbread, but after some in-depth research on Wikipedia I learned that this is actually pizza. According to the almighty Wikipedia, flatbread is unleavened bread (made without yeast or other leavening agent), and you had better believe that there was yeast in my dough. I did find a few sources that say pizza actually is flatbread, but I am going to stand by Wikipedia on this one. I guess I need to make flatbread one of these days to satisfy my need to label something as such.

You might be wondering what the big deal is with calling it pizza or flatbread, and boy do I have a few things to tell you.

1. Mind your own beeswax.

2. Remember the part in The Life Aquatic when Steve and Ned are wandering around the ship arguing and end up on the deck punching each other? Ned says, "I can't believe I asked if I could call you dad. Of course you said no," and Steve responds, "I let you call me Stevesy. It sounds better." That's exactly how I feel about this. I really want to call it flatbread, but Wikipedia will only let me call it pizza.

3. Go to bed, you sons of bitches. Just kidding! That's a Steve Zissou line that always makes me laugh, and I heard it again today when checking my quotes for accuracy. I don't really want you to go to bed. I want you to keep reading.

Rosemary Pizza

Pizza dough

Cheese, grated or crumbled

Rosemary (preferably fresh, but dried should also work)

Olive oil

Sea salt

Garlic in some form (optional)

Freshly cracked pepper (optional)

Preheat your oven and pizza stone to 400-450. I usually stick to 400 because I have a fire alarm that has adverse reactions to oven temperatures over 400, and some days I just don't feel like setting myself up for the stress of flinging all my windows open, turning a fan on high and frantically waving a towel in front of my fire alarm. If I did not have such issues to deal with I would turn the oven up as hot as I could get it.

I used the remaining dough from my recent bread making for the crust. I was planning on using some Trader Joe's pre-made pizza dough that I bought a while back, but there was some ominous liquid that had developed in the bag. Kind of weirded me out. If your dough is in the refrigerator, let it sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before working with it.

I recently discovered that rolling dough out on a silicone baking mat is super easy.

You just flip it over onto a pizza peel dusted with cornmeal and slowly peel it off the mat. If you don't have a mat just stretch or roll out the dough however you normally would.

Drizzle the dough with a little olive oil, and rub it over the entire top of the crust. If you go overboard with the oil just blot some off with a paper towel.

Cover the dough with grated cheese and a few sprigs of rosemary that has been torn into little pieces. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Add cracked pepper if you wish. As far as garlic goes, I meant to rub a clove of garlic over the raw dough, but I completely forgot. My back up plan was sprinkling on a little garlic salt when it came out of the oven, but next time I will either rub the crust with garlic or infuse the olive oil with a little garlic.

As far as cheese goes, you can use just about anything. The first time I made this was during our Italian dinner party when I was stressing out about not having enough food. I happened to have fresh rosemary and monterey jack in the fridge, so I threw them onto some pizza dough and everyone loved it. This time around I used mozzarella, and that worked as well. Be creative.

Bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is done to your liking.

Yum.

Peach + Prosciutto Pizza

On our way back to small town Iowa last week, Matt and I rendezvoused with my mom in Iowa City for an al fresco lunch at Atlas and a trip to the co-op to buy some goods for our weekend of cooking.  For some time now I've been reading about and wanting to try La Quercia prosciutto, and I figured that New Pi would be the place to find it.  Unfortunately, every time I step foot in there my mind is a complete blank, save the ticker running a constant message of "peppered bacon peppered bacon peppered bacon..."  I stock up on Amana peppered bacon and I'm out of there.  Ironically, the peppered bacon caused me to discover the LQ prosciutto this time around.  I went to grab a package or two of the bacon from its usual spot in the top left section of the refrigerated case, and it wasn't there.  There was plenty of maple bacon, but there wasn't a package of peppered bacon to be found.  While the nice, ponytailed guy from the wine section attempted to track down some peppered bacon for us, I glanced over the rest of the cured meats.  Lo and behold, about three feet down and to the right of the bacon were several packages of La Quercia Prosciutto Americano.  My mom and I each grabbed one, settled for some maple bacon, and checked out.  

Shortly after arriving home that evening, we tore open the first package of prosciutto.  It was incredibly delicious, as you would imagine from prosciutto that comes from happy pigs.  That first night we just ate pieces straight from the package alongside chunks of crusty bread, slices of mahon, and creamy Reichert's Dairy Air sun-dried tomato basil goat cheese.  

A few days later when we headed back to Minneapolis with an unopened package of prosciutto and a couple of juicy peaches I heard the kitchen calling my name.  I initially considered using them in a salad, but for one reason or another I opted for the less healthy route of using them to top a pizza.  My thighs may be a little worse off, but my taste buds rejoiced.  The combination of the salty, crispy pork and the sweet peaches was phenomenal.  

Peach + Prosciutto Pizza

Pizza dough

3-4 slices prosciutto

1 fresh peach

2 tbsp crumbled blue cheese and/or

2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan 

Olive oil

Start by tearing the prosciutto into about 1" pieces and slicing the peach into 12-16 pieces.  

Roll out the pizza dough on a flour or cornmeal dusted surface and brush it with olive oil.  Top with prosciutto, peaches, and cheese.  I couldn't decide between blue cheese and parmesan, so I added a little of both.  This is More Cheese More Chocolate, after all.  I'm a sucker for blue cheese on pizza, but the parmesan also worked well and was a little more toned down.  

Cook on a pizza stone in a 450 oven for 15 minutes or until the crust is browned to your liking.  

The prosciutto crisped up and was absolutely delicious paired with the soft peaches.  If you don't want all of the prosciutto to be crispy I imagine you could just place it under the peaches instead of on top or just throw it on when you take the pizza out of the oven.  You really can'tgo wrong either way.  

Caper + Cheese Pizza

Five summers ago my friends Lindy and Stephanie and I took a little break from our strenuous jobs in small town France and booked it to Amsterdam for a weekend to check out the scenery and the museums and stuff like that.  Shortly after we disembarked the train and found our hostel, we set out for food.  The only things I really remember about the restaurant we found was that it was near the train station and I had a pizza with cheese and tons of capers.  At the time I thought the volume of capers they dumped on my pizza was slightly obscene, but lately I can't get enough of the salty little suckers and I've been craving a caper-dotted pizza.  I couldn't tell you what kind of pizzas my cohorts ate or if they even ate pizzas or how good the crust was or what kind of cheese was on the pizza.  All I remember is the capers.  The hazy memory is likely due to the fact that we were in Amsterdam and I was stoned out of my gourd.  Just kidding!  That came later in the weekend.  Still kidding, Mom and Dad!  

Anyway, I recreated the caper pizza a few nights ago, and it was delicious.  I used a combination of mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, and instead of a sauce I used a garlic-infused olive oil.  Next time I might use a red sauce to make it more pizza-like, as the garlicky olive oil made it slightly more akin to garlic cheese bread.  I have nothing against garlic, cheese, or bread, though, so I thoroughly enjoyed my creation.  

Caper + Cheese Pizza

Pizza dough

3-4 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup grated mozzarella

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1 tbsp capers

To make the garlicky olive oil, heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the garlic and let it cook for just a few minutes or until fragrant.  Turn off the heat and set the oil aside.  

Roll out the pizza dough onto a pizza peel or pan dusted with flour or cornmeal.  Brush the olive oil over the entire crust (or red sauce if you're going that route).  Spread the cheeses over the crust leaving a 1/2" border.  Sprinkle on the capers.  Be as liberal as you want to be with the capers.  I used about a tablespoon, and I kind of wish I would have used more. 

Bake on a pizza stone or pan at 450 for 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is browned to your liking.  

Mine ended up looking like the surface of the moon and tasting somewhat like Domino's cheese bread, although my version was slightly refined with the addition of capers and made by me instead of a stoned 16-year-old.  

Majorly Delicious Potato Pizza

This pizza takes the prize of THE BEST PIZZA I'VE EVER MADE.  Especially the blue cheese half of it.  It's a little on the decadent side, but it is so very worth it.  I sometimes wonder what my life would be like without carbs, and after eating this pizza I refuse to let my mind wander in that direction.  My personal hell would probably involve all of the carbohydrates in my diet being replaced with cooked mushrooms and wilted lettuce.  Miley Cyrus would probably be singing in the background.  

I had some cooked red potatoes in the fridge, a leftover strip of bacon, and plenty of cheese, and the result of throwing them all together on a piece of dough was incredible.  Blue cheese takes on a slightly different flavor when it melts, and it is to die for.  The bacon gave it a little something more, but I think it would still be a solid pizza without it.  

Blue Cheese + Potato Pizza

Pizza dough

3-5 cooked red potatoes, sliced to about 1/8"

1/4 cup blue cheese, crumbled

1 strip bacon, crumbled (optional)

Olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

A few basil leaves

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over low heat in a saucepan.  Add a clove of garlic and a little basil, and let it sit over the heat while you're getting the rest of the toppings ready.  

After rolling out the dough, brush it with the garlic oil.  Top with a generous layer of potatoes and a sprinkle of blue cheese and bacon.  For some reason I decided to do half blue cheese and half mozzarella, and it didn't take long to realize that I should have just stuck with the blue cheese.  The mozzarella half wasn't bad at all - it just wasn't as awesome as the blue cheese side.  

Bake at 450 until it looks a little something likes this.  Enjoy!

Raspberry + Nutella Pizza

First off, I have to apologize for the abysmal quality of the photos (and I don't mean abysmal in the way that Joey used it in that episode of Friends).  This was the fourth pizza of the night, and the daylight was pretty much gone at that point.  On the bright side, this pizza was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!  I'm fairly certain you can spread Nutella and raspberries on anything and enjoy it.  Try to prove me wrong on that one.  

Raspberry + Nutella Pizza

Pizza dough

Nutella

Raspberries

I'm not even going to make up measurements because it all depends on how big  your pizza will be, how much Nutella you have, and what kind of fruit you're using.  I was scraping the bottom of the Nutella jar, which is probably a good thing in hindsight.  Knowing me, I would have slathered on a quarter-inch of Nutella if I could have gotten my hands on it, and then I would have to guiltily run an extra mile or two the following day.  I used raspberries because I had just picked some up at the farmers' market, but strawberries or blackberries would also work.  Apples might work well if you're making this in the fall, but I'm only basing that on my history of dipping apple slices into jars of Nutella. 

Start by rolling out the dough like you normally would.  This might be a good time to roll it out on a floured surface instead of a cornmeal-covered surface, but that just dawned on me now.  You'll probably be too distracted by the delicious chocolaty-hazelnutty flavor to even notice whether there's cornmeal stuck to the bottom of the crust.  

Here's a fun fact: hazelnut in German is haselnuss.  My friend Kathryn and I learned that on a boozy flight to Ibiza in college.  In case you were wondering what the German word for cornflakes is, it's knusperflakes.  It's amazing what you can learn from a chocolate bar wrapper. 

Bake at 450 on a sheet pan or pizza stone until it looks a little something like this.  

Then try to refrain from eating the whole thing.  

And finally, Happy Wedding Day, Kelsey! 

BBQ Pizza and Fun Facts

1. I still hate Comcast.  They are the worst.  I've been on the phone with them an average of 5 times per day since Monday, and I finally have internet again.  Here's a brief summary of my last 48 hours.

10:03AM, Wednesday: Comcast calls to confirm that a technician is coming on Thursday between 10 and 12.  

10:10AM, Wednesday: Someone else at Comcast calls to ask when I am going to return my equipment or if I need a technician to pick it up.  What equipment?  I just picked up new equipment!  As Ren would say, "You iiiiiiiiiidiots."

11:56AM, Thursday: Comcast technician shows up, tells me the wiring in my building is old, and spends an hour making it work again.  It worked perfectly fine a week ago, in case you were wondering.  

2. I love cooked pickles.  Deep fried?  I'll take them.  Cuban sandwich?  Yes, please.  On pizza?  Give it to me.  Pickles are one of the few ingredients with which I'll stray from my less is more motto for pizza.  More is more with these puppies.  Try it and you will think the same.  They get warm and soften up a bit, but they still retain their crunchiness around the edges.  Perfection.  

I made this BBQ pizza last night with ingredients I had laying around, and it was really delicious.  Instead of pizza sauce I used barbeque sauce as the base.  I had a couple frozen mini turkey burgers and a frozen hamburger that I thawed and sauteed with some oregano and garlic.  Some of the meat went this pizza and the rest went on a second pizza.  Next came the all-important pickles.  I had a big jar of hamburger dills, and I just loaded them on.  The more the merrier.  I drizzled on a little more barbeque sauce, topped it all off with some grated white cheddar, and cooked it until the cheese was all melted.  It was tasty.  

3. I got burned.  And not just by Comcast.  It was by a hot pan this time.  A couple of days ago I made Chicken Tikka Masala from the Pioneer Woman's website (it was delicious), and a hot pan of chicken branded me with a heart.  And stole some of my skin.  Gross, huh?  

4. I just discovered there is a Trivial Pursuit show.  How do I get on it?  As of last night I am up 2-0 over Matt, and I think with a little more practice I will be ready for TV.  The only downside is that the host is that Brady guy that married the America's Next Top Model girl.  

5. My mom is on her way to Minneapolis!  My dad decided he would rather reconstruct the driveway than eat good food and hang out with us, so our girls' weekend will commence shortly.  You can find us at Brasa, Chino Latino, possibly Sebastian Joe's, and then running around the lakes to work it all off.

Pesto Pizza

1. I HATE COMCAST.  I want them to make my internet start working again so I can stop calling them every two hours.  Doesn't it seem like an "outage" that has been affecting my apartment for a day should also affect the coffee shop on the first floor of my building?  I think so, but cable companies defy logic.  (In Stephen Colbert voice) Comcaaaaaaast!  

2. I LOVE PIZZA.  I love pesto, too.  

I love making pesto because you can use different combinations of ingredients depending on what you have around.  This time I used basil, walnuts, garlic, parmesan, and olive oil, but you could use pecans or pine nuts, lemon juice, parsley, or anything else you can think of.  

Start out by toasting about 1/3 cup walnuts.  

Rinse a bunch of basil and add it to the food processor.  I'm not really sure how much I started with - maybe one package.  You can always add more later, so start with less and add more as you go.

Add the toasted walnuts, about 1/3 cup parmesan (grated or in chunks), a couple cloves of garlic, about 1/3 cup olive oil, salt and pepper.  

Pulse it until everything is chopped up and combined.  

Then add olive oil until it's a decent consistency.  You don't want it super runny, especially on a pizza, but you don't want it super dry either.  Taste it and add more ingredients to adjust the flavor to your liking.

Don't worry about making too much pesto.  You can use leftovers for a variety of things.  Either plain or mixed with a little mayo and spread on a sandwich.  Watered down with more olive oil and used as a salad dressing.  Or on pasta.  What a novel idea.  

I don't know what it is with the people I cook with, but when I say less is more they ignore me.  I could say it until the cows come home, and it would have the same effect as me saying nothing at all.  My mom was in charge of assembling a pesto pizza, and I went about making two others.  

"Less is more, Mom."  I swear I said it at least once.

And I turned around to face a piece of dough with enough pesto to choke a horse.  

Then came the cheese.  When it rains, it pours.  

I'm pretty sure this is not what my doctor had in mind when she told me to make sure I get three servings of dairy every day.  

Super doses of cheese on a grilled pizza lead to cheese melting onto the grill.  FYI.  

Here's the end result.  Even though I still firmly believe that less is more - especially when it comes to pizza toppings - it was pretty good.  And chock full of calcium.  

Grilled Pizza Dough

A couple years ago for my mom's birthday I bought her a pizza stone for the grill.  My mom is the queen of useless kitchen gadgets (avocado slicer!  olive spoon!  pickle fork!) and homemade pizza, so I thought she would get some good use out of a grilling stone.  I can count on my hands how many times she has used it.  Actually, I don't need any hands.  When you add zero to zero you still have zero.  

When I was home a few weeks ago we decided we would finally make some grilled pizzas, and my mom brought the stone up from the basement.  Then she pulled out her grilled pizza cookbook from her cookbook arsenal and discovered that their recipe for pizza dough on the grill did not require a stone.  Good news for all of you out there with a desire to grill pizzas but no desire to spend money on a stone!  Bad news for the pizza stone, which remains unused. 

We ended up doubling the recipe for dough because we thought it would be fun to have a pizza eating contest while my dad was out of town.  Or we just had a lot of ideas for toppings and did not want to limit our fun.  I'll give you the doubled recipe, but you can cut it in half if you want to make just two pizzas.  

Start out by dissolving two packets of yeast in 1-1/2 cups of warm water.  

While the yeast is activating, combine the following ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer:

3 cups flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp salt

4 tbsp cornmeal

Mix the dry ingredients on low speed.  

If you're wondering if your yeast is working properly, here's what it should look like after about five minutes:

The package should say what temperature the water should be for your intended purpose.  If the water is too hot it will kill the yeast, and if the water is too cold it won't activate the yeast.  I used a candy thermometer to test the water temperature.  

Here's what it looked like after about 10 minutes when I finally got around to using it.  It's pretty exciting to watch it grow. 

Pour the yeast into the bowl with the mixed dry ingredients.  Add 4 tbsp olive oil. 

With the dough hook attachment beat at medium speed until it all comes together.  

I should look something like this when it's done.

Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl.  Roll the dough around to coat it with oil, cover it, and let it rise in a warm place until it almost doubles in size.  The book we used hinted that it would take about 2 hours.  I don't know if we had super power yeast or a really warm house, but it only took the dough about 45 minutes to practically triple in size.  

While the dough was rising, we had a very, very adorable distraction.  Our friends brought over their teeny little baby with her teeny little feet and we got to hold her and stare at her and check out her mini fingernails.  

How cute are her little toes?

Once the dough rises, stick it in the fridge for an hour or more to make it easier to roll out.  You can refrigerate it overnight or for a couple of days if you change your mind about making pizza.

 

After the dough chills for a bit, punch it.  I should have let the teeny baby foot step in it.  She's a clean little baby.  I know where her feet have been.  

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.  

With your hands, flatten it out into a disc that's about 1" thick.

Slice it into quarters if you're making the double recipe or halves if you're just making the regular recipe.  

Take one of the pieces and roll it out on a floured surface until it's about 1/8 inch thick.  Rolling out pizza dough - I finally figured out what Ludacris was singing about.  Roll out.  Roll out.

Transfer the dough to a pizza peel or cookie sheet that has been generously sprinkled with cornmeal.  

For the cooking part, you can used either a grill, a grill pan, a griddle, or any similar hot surface.  I think we heated the grill to about 400 degrees.  If you're using a griddle, turn the heat up to high.  Throw the dough on, and after a few minutes you should be able to handle it with tongs.  Don't mess with it too much at the outset because it is still doughy and will stick to the grill.  Just be patient and you should be able to move it around in a minute or two.  

Whichever surface you use, cook the dough until it bubbles and is lightly browned on the bottom.  Remove it from the grill/pan/griddle and flip it over so the uncooked side is down.  You'll add the toppings to the cooked side and the uncooked side will have it's turn after the toppings are on.  

Topping ideas coming soon!