Cacio e Pepe Pizza

Despite this October masquerading as some kind of summer vacation, I have innately been craving warmer, more comforting foods.  The heat can be punishing during the day (so I am still consuming incredible amounts of salad for lunches), but by evening our little cabin is cold enough for a piping hot bowl of stew and a fire dancing in the fireplace.  Or no fire if we're making pizza.  Much to Daniel's discontent, I insist upon preheating the oven for at least an hour before making the pizza, just to ensure that our stone is piping hot.  The pizza is really great, so he just has to deal with a 100 degree house for the evening.  It is a small sacrifice to pay for an excellent homemade slice, in my opinion.

Our newest pizza obsession is a riff on the classic cacio e pepe pasta dish that we fell in love with recently.  I had never thought of putting black pepper (let alone spoonfuls) on my pizza, but Daniel suggested it, then aced it, and now it is our new go-to.  Pizza parties are frequently enjoyed in our home.  If you come over for dinner, chances that we're serving you pizza or a roast chicken are extremely high.

The beauty of this pizza is that it is actually rather light.  It isn't bogged down with lots of cheese and sauce, but it still feels rich and indulgent.  Mushrooms add pleasant earthiness, which is balanced by the sweet onions and spicy black pepper.  Taleggio and parmesan add savory and intense cheesiness.  We always serve our pizzas with a zippy arugula salad, which generally is thrown on top of each slice as we eat.

And the wine!  This pizza is uber wine friendly - anything from a brooding Nero d'Avola to some spicy French Syrah will keep you happy, but our pairing was a lovely surprise.

Domain Rolet in the Jura region of France is family-operated and is lauded for their exquisite attention to detail and general respect for the land.  They make traditional, rustic wines and are proud stewards of their vineyards, which are planted in valuable limestone and clay soil.  This bottle of their 2010 Rouge Tradition (Poulsard, Trousseau, Pinot Noir) was an unexpected winner.  I personally love all of the lighter reds from the Jura region, but this particular bottle was more complex and earthy than I was expecting.  It had lovely deep cherry and plum notes with a good hit of black peppery spice, but still remained light and airy on the palate.  Herbal and soft.  For me, it is a near perfect red wine - it lingered in the nose and on the tongue, but wasn't overwhelmingly fruity or tannic.  With every sip or sniff a new flavor presented itself, adding layers and layers of exciting complexity.  And, even more wonderful is the price is square in my wheelhouse - just over $20. 

CACIO E PEPE PIZZA
makes one pizza

1 pizza dough (see my recipe here)
1/2 lb - 1 lb mushrooms, sliced (I always like more mushrooms on my pizza, your pick)
1 onion, sliced
taleggio
parmesan
2 - 3 tablespoons coursely ground fresh black pepper

Preheat your oven as hot as it will go, making sure to place pizza stone on the bottom rack.

Saute your mushrooms and set aside.  Saute the sliced onions until soft and sweet, set aside. 

Roll out your pizza dough.  Top with onions, mushrooms and black pepper.  Cover with grated parmesan and slices of taleggio.  

Slide into oven and cook for about 8 minutes, until crust is browning and the cheese is melted.  Let cool for a minute, then slice and serve!

Zucchini Flower Pizza alla Romana

The 5 months I spent in Rome in my early twenties were some of the most delicious, indulgent and rewarding of my life.  This city is an unbelievable mishmash of modern and ancient, fabulous and bizarre, decadent and decayed.  Around every corner is a thousand year old secret, just waiting for me to happen upon unexpectedly.  The Pantheon is so hidden in a maze of cobblestone streets and a sea of tourists that you don't even realize you've found it until you've nearly smacked right into the front door.  All of the chaos surrounding that ancient temple melts away the moment you enter the inner sanctum, which is so humbling that anything more than a whisper seems disrespectful.  It is this juxtaposition between contemporary disorder and crumbling sanctity that sparked inspiration and wonderment in my young little mind.

The food in Rome continued this pattern of blending high and low, old and new.  If you knew where to go (blessedly I had plenty of time to make many many mistakes before finding the local gems), it was possible to have an outstanding Italian feast with few frills.  In fact, the more frills, the less likely you've found someplace traditional.  My absolute favorite was Pizzeria ai Marmi, named for the marble tabletops in the restaurant.  Just off the main street running through the Trastevere neighborhood, the interior of this pizzeria is absolutely barebones, the volume is loud and it is always crowded.  It has been many years since I was a frequent visitor, so it might not be as amazing/maybe everyone goes here now and is just for tourists, but I'll just keep picturing it as it was then: superb.  House wine in carafes, the simplest of pizzas, happy tradition.

My favorite of their pies involved a light red sauce, anchovies and zucchini blossoms.  Upon spying these gorgeous flowers at the farmer's market last week I recalled my ai Marmi meals and knew immediately what we were going to have for dinner that night.  Daniel maybe was a little skeptical, but as soon as I began waxing lyrical about the greatness of my inspiration, he happily let me get to work.  This pizza is utterly simplistic - the ingredients are scant but pungent, the crust is thin with a slight chewiness.  Zucchini blossoms, though very pretty, are not bringing a whole lot of flavor to the dish, which is why the red pepper flakes and anchovy are essential.  It doesn't need to look perfect and symmetrical, in fact I like it looking a little messy.

To drink: definitely a few glasses of an Italian red wine!  Our newest favorite is a light red from the Piedmont region in Northern Italy.  Produced by Marco Tintero, this "Rosso" is a blend of primarily Nebbiolo and Barbera with a touch of Dolcetto and Cabernet Franc for lightness and verve.  The Barbera tames the tannins of the Nebbiolo, creating a soft, vibrant and wholly drinkable wine.  The fruity acidity is reminiscent of just ripe cherries and raspberries, balanced by a touch of earthy herbal spice.  All of the ingredients of the pizza played very nicely with this exceptionally food-friendly wine, and at just over $10 a bottle, how could it get much better?

ZUCCHINI FLOWER PIZZA

1 ball pizza dough, see my recipe here
pizza sauce (recipe to follow)
6 - 8 zucchini flowers
6 - 8 anchovy fillets
mozzarella
basil

THE SAUCE
1 28oz can of whole, peeled tomatoes
pinch of sugar
a little more than a pinch of salt
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp dried oregano
red pepper flakes, to taste

Put tomatoes in a fine-meshed sieve over a bowl and let drain.  Mash the tomatoes with the back of a spoon to get out as much juice as possible.  Save tomato juice for dressings, bloody marys or stocks. 

In a bowl or blender, combine all ingredients and whizz until smooth.  I use an immersion blender, which works beautifully.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Preheat oven as hot as it will go - 550 degrees if possible. 

ROLL OUT THE DOUGH
Lay down some parchment paper and use semolina flour to keep the dough from sticking. Using a rolling pin or your hands, stretch the dough until it is quite thin, then lay it on the parchment paper.  

Spoon sauce over dough.  Top with anchovy fillets, zucchini blossoms, and torn mozzarella. Slide pizza (and parchment paper) onto your pizza stone and cook for 8 - 10 minutes, depending on your oven.  The crust should be browning and the cheese bubbly. 

Remove from oven.  Top with basil and more red pepper flakes.  Slice and serve. 

A very satisfying slice of pizza.

Happy Holidays!  I'm sure most of you thought I'd perished in some kind of turkey brining accident or was left behind at that Mexican disco bar we swung by on New Year's Eve.  But no, folks, no.  I've been adventuring and exploring and creating and doing a whole lot of eating.  For whatever reason, this page has been the least of my worries, which I regret.  Keeping you in the dark about what we're cooking up in California?  For shame.  Apologies all around!  To make up for it, I leave you with this delightful pizza post.  Because:

We make a lot of pizza.  And you should too.  Because it's easy.  Because it's delicious.  Because it's fun.  Because it's cheap.  Because it goes so nicely with wine.  Because we can make enough for two or twenty without having to think too much.  Because because because.

Recently, I tackled a new pizza topping, for me at least.  Both Daniel and I have tasted this pizza many times, but I hadn't put the effort in to recreating it at home.  Our friend, the excellent chef and author of her own slice of blogosphere at http://butterdate.blogspot.com/ is a master of this pie and proudly contributes it to every pizza party.  Unfortunately, we live many miles apart and are not treated to this deliciousness enough, and so we made it ourselves.

Some might call it a dessert pizza, but I think the combination of sweet and savory is perfect for a main course.  Do pair it with a glass of the 2009 Vaona Valpolicella, which has enough acidity and vibrance to play nicely with the toppings.  This pizza is addictive, and it's all about the sauce.

Salsa di noci.  Nut sauce.  Walnut sauce.

WALNUT and HONEY PESTO
adapted from Epicurious

2 cups walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp fresh thyme
salt and pepper  

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and whir until a thick pesto forms.  Season with salt and pepper.  

Roll out your pizza dough, slather with walnut pesto, top with sliced pears and crumbled blue cheese.  Bake until bubbly and crust is fully cooked and starting to brown.  Lightly dress arugula with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a hit of lemon juice.  Top pizza with the greens, pour yourself another glass of wine and eat eat eat!

The walnut sauce is the genius behind this snappy pizza, but it could be used in a variety of dishes, both sweet and savory.  Drizzle it over vanilla ice cream!  Or spread it on sour dough with goat cheese and fresh figs.  Eat it with a spoon or as a dip with salty pretzels.  The key is a gorgeous balance of sweet and savory, nutty and herbal, earthy and floral.  It is so so so good.

As requested, next up will be my top ten recipes from 2012.  For my mother, of course.
 

 

Waste not.

Last week at my little farmer's market, I spied Daniel's favorite - bunches of heirloom carrots in all their multi-colored, tangled glory.  If you look at them in just the right way, you'll find they have legs and arms and thank goodness they are rubberbanded together because they might just get up and walk right out of your tote.  I've been told that their gnarliness is an indication that growing conditions weren't quite right, but I think they're fabulous.  They are roots after all.  I snatch up a few bunches and hold tight, happily squirreling them home.  With a simple splash of olive oil, salt and pepper, they're into a hot oven to become the silkiest, sweetest, most gorgeous side dish ever.  Roasted carrots are outrageously easy and make Daniel extremely happy - we're all winners here.

But what to do with those intimidating, guilt inducing carrot tops?  I've heard of carrot top soup, but that sounds rather blegh.  And sure, you can add them to chicken stock and it's great!  I was roasting a chicken that day and should have used the carcass for stock, but I already have two very large jars of homemade stock in my freezer that haven't moved in months.  I take that back, they moved from my last freezer to my new one, despite Daniel's insistence that we need not move frozen jars of stuff we don't use.  But we might!  Just wait until soup season starts!

So what to do with those carrot tops that I just can't throw out because because because?  I decided to do with them what I do with any extra herb or green I have lying around, begging to be made into something more delicious.  Pesto!  Whirred up with some good olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and a healthy handful of walnuts, the carrot tops transformed into something earthy, grassy, and rich.  The walnuts added a gentle toasty depth and thickened the pesto nicely.  Originally I was planning on using it to dress my roast chicken, but upon tasting it I decided that it needed something fattier - bread and cheese.  Thus another dinner was born - carrot top pesto pizza with radicchio, roasted summer squash, garlic blossoms and feta.  Slow roasted tomatoes rounded out the meal, which was made complete with a few glasses of Copain's 2010 Tous Ensemble Pinot Noir, our house red.  We're extremely spoiled, that gem of a wine is just so so good and we have so so much of it!

CARROT TOP PESTO

carrot tops
a good glug of good olive oil
salt and pepper
garlic cloves, crushed
lemon juice
a handful of toasted walnuts

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until a smooth pesto forms, adding olive oil as needed and seasoning to taste.  The carrot tops are a little stemmy, so they take a while to puree.  

Use like any pesto - with pasta, pizza, cheeses, crudites.  

Oh hi there again.

Hi friends and family and dearest, beloved fans.  I know you've missed me just as much as I've missed you.  And really I HAVE missed you all and this silly little blog and it's not that I haven't had things to SAY, it's just that, well, this whole internet thing takes quite a bit of time and I had plenty of other really fun things to do all summer long like swimming in rivers and going to weddings and eating my weight in the freshest salmon I've ever had. 

While waiting for my (much anticipated, surely) return, I do hope you've all been enjoying the bounty of summer's sun and have been cooking up your own storms.  Please stick with me as I slowly ease back into making this little slip of a blog a bigger part of my life, something that I attend to more than a few times a year.  To make it more manageable and fun (because that's the point, right?), I'm again breaking the rules and throwing format out the blogspot window and going rogue.  I'll write some stuff about some stuff when I feel like it.

So today I'm going to write a little about figs.  These gorgeous gems are like a very good dream.  The kind that sneaks up on you, but lingers throughout your day and leaves you with a subtle, healthy smile.  A simple fig, delicate and soft, has one of the prettiest of flavors.  It's all sorts of floral and perfume and breezy fruitiness.  They ripen quickly and must be eaten as soon as possible - do not waste a single one!  An easy task, as they are incredibly versatile.

Think savory or sweet.  Broiled, pickled, raw, grilled.  In salads or spreads, jams or breads. 

Last night I managed to convince my skeptical brother of their worth by using fresh figs as a topping on pizza.  Of course, I wasn't anticipating writing this post so I failed to document said pizza, but believe me it was quite pretty.  And simple:

CARAMELIZED ONION, FIG, AND GOAT CHEESE PIZZA

2 red onions
olive oil
splash of balsamic vinegar
a good handful of fresh, ripe figs, cut into quarters
fresh goat cheese
3 tbsp (more or less depending on your taste) fresh thyme
pizza dough
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven as high as it will go.  If you have a pizza stone, be sure to put it in the oven while preheating - you want it as hot as possible.

Slice the red onion into thin rounds.  Caramelize them in oil and balsamic vinegar until quite browned and very soft.  

Roll out your pizza dough onto parchment paper.  Top with onions and dot with figs.  Slide pizza onto your stone and bake for about 10 minutes, or until crust is cooked and starting to brown.  Remove from oven and spoon goat cheese over pizza.  Top with fresh thyme and a good sprinkling of salt and black pepper.  

Slice.  Enjoy. 

You know what else would be good?  Maybe adding some prosciutto or arugula.  Rosemary?  Variations are really quite endless when it comes to pizza, and I highly encourage you all to get a move on with your experimenting.  Fig season is very short and it would be a shame to miss it.  

I'll keep you all updated with spoonfuls of my life, and promise a few more photos in the future. 

Oh so scholarly.

Fork. On Sunday nights the boy and I have to work late.  Latish.  9pm.  Considering we live very close to the office, we're usually home by 9:30 or so, but that still demands a very quick turn around for dinner.  Pizza is the usual choice, especially because our sister shop sells a very delicious premade pizza dough*.

*Okay, it KILLS me that I buy the dough.  It does.  BUT, I do know the lovely lady that makes it and frankly, it's really quite good.  As close to home-made as I can handle, but in the future (when I have more time on pizza nights) I'm excited to get to making my own.  It will involve a sourdough starter and some hours of rising, but I'm itching for it.  Until then, Rachel's dough will do just fine.  (Thank you Rachel, thank you).

We try to keep it simple with the pizzas.  Too much stuff and your dough is bogged down and limp.  So, we went with a classic tomato sauce (reduced to thicken it a bit), mozzarella, chopped PIOPPINI mushrooms from the farmer's market, basil.  All topped with some dressed greens, a salad pizza, if you will.  Texturally it's very pleasing, and visually it looks pretty snappy too.  I almost always sprinkle my pizza with red pepper flakes, so I suggest you do the same.  If you know, you like some spice.


Glass.  GRIGNOLINO.  Ready to get on board?  I hope so.  Grignolino is a grape from Piedmont that produces a fantastically smooth and easy-drinking red.  Light and bright.  Delicate, even.  The color is a gorgeous ruby and the taste screams of fresh raspberries and strawberries.  Derived from the name "grignole," which means "many pips" or seeds, this grape doesn't have a lot of juice to offer.  Therefore, the wine is a happy blend of fruit and tannins, a very soft and food-friendly red.

 We drank the La Mondianese 2010 bottle with a chill.  Delicious.  Funnily, I'm not that excited about most Italian wines.  Often they are too high-toned and astringent to work well without some kind of food pairing.  Rarely do I want a glass of Italian wine without food, BUT with certain dishes they absolutely sing.  Grignolino and a classic pizza, yes please.


Play.  Think college.  Think booze.  Then think food.  Probably pizza right?  Maybe not in YOUR dorm room, but certainly in the dorm room of EVERY movie you've ever seen about college.

Now think of your ideal night now.  Ideal booze.  Ideal meal.  Easy drinking, easy eating, easy living.  To pair with the oh so high-browness of making our own pizza and drinking a rare Italian wine, we decided upon The Social Network.  You know the one.  That movie about that guy that made that thing we wish we didn't LOVE so much.  Ugh, he is sooo rich.

And like some kind of college classroom debate, the movie spurned lots of discussion on the meaning of facebook, how it has completely shaped our social lives.  Damnit, I've grown up with facebook.  I'm almost the same age as Mark Zuckerburg, I was one of the first to experience The Facebook as a daily thing.  It's hard to even talk about without feeling stupid and duped, but it is an interesting and overwhelmingly relevant topic.  Now that Twitter and these things we call BLOGS have taken over, facebook is a given, a must.  Almost old hat.  I'm legit friends with people I don't even know because of it.  Everyone is connected.

Love you!

So has it made all of our "real life" relationships more worthy?  Because they aren't based on some kind of virtual interaction?  And how many of these "real" relationships do we have?  Without this interweb of friends, how alone are we?

Le sigh.  I suggest watching the movie because Aaron Sorkin is AWESOME, because the acting is superb, because Trent Reznor nails it 2/3 of the way through, because it IS topical and yep, it does involve you.  But PLEASE do not without some very tasty booze and satisfying cuisine.  You need some backup.