There are lots of recipes people claim taste better if made by hand, but there�s no easier case to prove than pesto. That the name means, �to crush,� should tell you something, and while this method does take considerably more physical effort, when you taste this you�ll forget every pestle-pounding minute.
The intensity of the flavors is beyond compare, and as if by some kind of magic, this gorgeous spread develops an addictive spiciness. You can taste each ingredient, and yet when smashed together, new and wonderful flavors are released. If you�re in the market, I recommend the marble mortar seen herein, as long as the inside has some texture to it. If it seems smooth and glassy, keep looking.
Of course, you can play around with the ratios of the five ingredients, and easily adjust this to your tastes, but no matter how they�re combined, taking the time to crush them by hand is well worth the effort. I hope you give this fresh basil pesto a try soon. Enjoy!
The hardest thing about this amazing tarte flamb�e recipe isn�t the prep, or finding some exotic ingredient, it�s actually trying to explain to your guests why it�s not called pizza. I�m reminded of that old saying, �If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and looks like a duck, sometimes it�s a trout.�
That�s right, while this is a pizza almost everywhere else, in certain places on the German/French border, it goes by the totally dessert-sounding name of tarte flamb�e. Just tell people the name comes from the fact it used to be cooked in a fire, and then trail off.
Once your crust is pre-browned and topped, you have several options for bringing this to a successful, and hopefully crispy conclusion. Since the bottom is already browned, I usually just broil it on high, about 8 inches from the flame, for about 5 minutes, or until the top is looking just right.
The other method would be to pop it in a 500 F. oven, for about 7-10 minutes, or until you�re completely happy. Or, you can actually do both � start in a hot oven, and then give it a minute under the broiler to seal the deal. Either way, I really hope you give this tarte flamb�e a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 4 tarte flamb�e:
4 balls prepared pizza dough (about 5 ounces each) Note: Wolfgang Puck pizza dough recipe would would perfectly
12 ounces bacon, sliced
1 large yellow onion, sliced, cooked with salt, until soft, but not caramelized
I once made a mini-pizza using a crumpet. No, I�m not starting a limerick.Anyway, I toasted it nice and crisp, topped it with sauce and cheese, and it really was not bad. So I thought, what if this was much thinner, and made from the same ingredients as pizza dough? After a few tests, this pourable pizza was born.
Besides being kind of fun to make, this method features a few nice perks. There�s no kneading required, nor do you have to roll/stretch/spin your dough into shape. While thick crust pizza is relative easy to form at home, few can pull off stretching the dough really thin, so this is a very easy way to achieve that.
Also, the great challenge with homemade pizza is the under-cooked crust bottom, and this method allows for that crispy, near-charred bottom you usually only get from a pizza oven. Once topped, I like to finish under the broiler, but a 500 F. oven will also do the job nicely.
Please note, I�m not trying to replace the classic method with this drippy dough, but rather offer a possibly easier-in-some-ways alternative for your next pizza night. And yes, this does work for making thicker crusts. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 4 eight-inch pizzas:
3 cups (14 ounces by weight) *flour
2 cups warm water (105-110 F)
1 package dry active yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
Note: Like I said in the video, use a whisk attachment, not a dough hook! You can also simply whisk this by hand for 5 minutes.
* I used something called double-zero flour or �00� flour, which is an Italian flour used for pasta and pizza making. It is very finely milled, and lovely to work with. If you can�t get or find, just use all-purpose.
What started out as a frustrating attempt to test some pizza dough, turned into what we�re calling salami bread. This 14-inch long loaf of delicious serendipity was a revelation, and I didn�t even get to use it for it�s most obvious purpose�to make the world�s greatest Italian submarine sandwich.
As I mention in the video, I�m not even sure I�d do a meat sub with this, but instead may just load it up with lots of Italian cheeses, as well as fresh and pickled vegetables. Then I�d find a picnic, where I could sit back to soak in the sun, and the compliments.
There are hundreds of possible variations, so that�s going to be your homework. Why wait until the unlikely scenario of having pizza dough, but no toppings? Let�s be proactive. But no matter how you roll, and I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for one salami bread:
12 to 16 ounce ball of pre-made pizza dough
8-10 slices salami or other similar meat
1/4 cup tomato sauce, or other crushed tomato product
freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to cover
scattering of freshly chopped herbs, to taste
olive oil, as needed
- Bake at 400 F. for 25 to 30 minutes until browned and cooked through.
The major problem with this cauliflower pizza crust is that there�s already something called pizza. If you�d never heard about pizza before, and someone served this to you, I think you�d really enjoy it.
Unfortunately, we�ve all had pizza before, and so this will invariably be compared to the awesomeness of the real thing. You know, sort of like what happens to deep-dish, Chicago-style pizza (said the New Yorker).
Regardless, this was very tasty, pleasantly textured, and contains almost no carbs � in case you�re into one of those alternative lifestyles. For the cheese, I decided on goat after seeing this recipe on Detoxinista. All kinds of cheeses are used for this technique, usually mozzarella and something else, but I figured the tart ch�vre would best simulate the fermented dough of a classic pizza.
Another important tip is to make sure you use parchment paper. Because of the moisture and cheese, this stuff can stick to foil, but nothing sticks to parchment, which is obviously a key here. You can find it next to the foil and plastic wraps in any large grocery store.
Texture aside, the flavor of this final product was very pizza-like, and I�ll be doing further experiments to be sure. By the way, if you have a version that�s clearly superior to this one, feel free to share. Otherwise, I hope you give this cauliflower crust pizza a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for one 10-inch pizza crust:
1 head cauliflower (about 3 packed cups ground)
1/2 cup water
- Cook cauliflower with water for 5-6 minutes, let cool, and squeeze out ALL water with a towel. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of dry cauliflower pulp left.
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 ounce finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (about a 1-1/2 inch square grated)
When I treat myself to a personal �food wish,� it�s usually something I�ve eaten out and become obsessed over, and this episode is a classic case. There�s a Ligurian restaurant called Farina near us, and I�ve become a full-blown focaccia di Recco stalker.
After watching them make it in front of me so many times, I had to give it a try. It doesn�t look like the focaccia most of us are used to, but come to find out, �focaccia� simply means any flatbread cooked in a hearth, and varies region to region.
This particular example hails from Recco, and is nothing more than some Stracchino cheese trapped in between two, super-thin layers of dough. The dough is nothing more than flour, water, olive oil, and salt; but thanks to a very hot oven, and this probably ancient technique, some serious flatbread magic happens. As I confess in the video, I was scared to use too much cheese, but I�ll use more next time. At Farina, you can see a thin layer of the molten Stracchino oozing out between the layers. My Crescenza cheesewas basically absorbed, but while you couldn�t see it, you could certainly taste it, and it was amazing.
The obvious question is, can you add other fillings to this? Yes, but don�t. It�s perfect�as long as you find the cheese. Please, find the cheese (no substitutions will be offered #toughlove).
By the way, I�m officially recommending the quarter sheet pan seen herein, which is what they use in the restaurant, but I think a round tart pan would work as well. In fact, from what I see online, the round pan seems to be the standard. I can�t wait to try this again, and sincerely hope you give it go as well. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 2 small or 1 large Focaccia di Recco (Tip for first timers: Make a double batch of dough so you have plenty to work with!)
*2 cups all-purpose flour (9.5 by weight)
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp water
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp fine salt
*use enough flour to form a soft, but not too sticky dough. Knead for about 5-6 minutes to from a smooth, elastic dough. Let rest 1 hour at room temp.
12 oz Crescenza or Stracchino cheese (6 oz for each focaccia) extra virgin olive oil and sea salt, to taste for the top
Bake at 500 degrees F.for about 6-7 minutes, or until well-browned
That's right, apparently October is National Pizza Month, and to celebrate I'm sharing these links to some of our most popular pizza-related posts. Both pizza doughs, the no-knead, and Wolfgang Puck's classic California-style, get rave reviews, and are easy to master, even for a beginner.
Of course, man cannot live by crust alone, so you'll also need some sauce, a few creative topping ideas, and a brilliant technique to reheat those cold, leftover slices. You know the drill; simply click the links to watch/read the original recipe post. Enjoy!
The rain finally stopped this afternoon, so I went for a nice long walk through the City. I was traveling through Little Italy when I happened upon Lombardi's.
I have seen this on countless food and history channel shows, as it claims to be the "original" NYC pizzeria.
I have received dozens of pizza recommendations from viewers and twitter followers, but since I was standing right there (and hungry) I decided to grab a small pepperoni and take care of dinner and breakfast with one twenty-dollar bill.
The super-heated coal-fired oven gave the impossibly thin crust a great crisp, chewy texture that is the hallmark of New York's famous pies. It was delicious, but I won't call it the "best" yet, since I still have a couple days to sample.
Tomorrow I start a "seven video recipes in 48 hours" job in Brooklyn, which I've heard, from more than one person, is home to the best pizza anywhere. We shall see. By the way, on the same street as Lombardi's I saw "Rice to Riches," a place that just serves rice pudding. Dozens of kinds of rice pudding, and that's it.
I may have to check it out before I leave, and report back. Stay tuned!
One of the cardinal sins of menu planning is putting two starches together on a plate. There are a few exceptions, like Thanksgiving stuffing and mashed potatoes, or potato and macaroni salad at the company picnic, but it's just not something that's usually done.
There have been stories of crazed chefs (redundant?) that have refused a customer's request for a side of rice because they had ordered pasta. That's why I've posted the extra bonus clip below. It's from the must-see movie Big Night. I've posted it here a long time ago, but I never get tired of it, and it's fitting for today's recipe.
Today's video recipe is a potato pizza with pesto, red onions, feta and much, much more. While it may sound odd on paper (or screen), it's quite delicious, and makes a good case for exceptions to the no starch-with-starch rule. Besides, it was a request from my mother-in-law, so what could I say? Enjoy!
Ingredients in order of appearance: cornmeal on pan stretch pizza dough to cover pesto sauce to cover 4 roasted gold potatoes, sliced salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste parmesan to cover 6 oz fontina cheese 1/2 sliced red onion more pesto dripped on top 4 oz feta cheese crumbled on top
This is a picture of last nights dinner (and this mornings breakfast!). It was every bit as good as it looks. I didn't film it, but I have re-posted my pizza dough and white sauce video recipes so you can make this beautiful spring pizza. Keep in mind that these clips are from a while ago, before I got any real equipment, so save the "these videos look like crap" comments...I know they do. By the way, this is called a "white" pizza for obvious reasons, and a very nice break from the typical tomato-based pies.
A few words of instruction: The pizza dough recipe will make enough for 1 large pan like you see here. In the video, I divide it into 6 small balls for individual pizzas, but you can use it all for this, or adjust to your pan size.
You only need 1 cup of white sauce, but make a whole batch, it's a good thing to have around for broccoli gratins, souffles, or just some mac and cheese. Here is what I used for this pizza: 1 batch of dough some cornmeal for the pan 1 pound of asparagus, cut and boiled for 1 minute 1 cup of bechamel (white sauce) to which I added 1/3 cup grated parmesan 4 oz shredded white cheddar 1/3 cup parmesan for the top
I put the cornmeal and dough down. Then the sauce, the asparagus, and topped it with the cheeses. Baked it for 17 minutes at 450 degrees F.
I know what some of you are thinking. Eggs are for breakfast, and pizza is for dinner, and never the twain shall meet. I used to think like that. There was a time, early in my career, when I was a culinary fundamentalist. Chocolate was a candy, and not something one added to a sauce for short ribs (see post below). But, like all fundamentalists, I was missing out on a lot of pleasure. So, if your rigid belief system prevents you from giving this pizza a spin, then it's your loss. This is a truly magnificent pizza.
I first saw pizza topped with eggs in the Chez Panisse Caf� cookbook. Alice Waters, the chef of Chez Panisse, and one of my personal heroes, used eggs to top a similar pizza using proscuitto instead of sausage. I decided to try it, and it was a transcendent experience. The golden yolks oozing slowly over the spicy sausage and melted cheese is TDF (to die for). I hope you give this a try. Which reminds me to warn you that it may take a few tries to achieve the perfectly cooked eggs. But, when you do, there is bliss. Enjoy.
Ingredients: pizza dough (enough for 1 large pizza), brought to room temperature 2 tbsp cornmeal 3/4 cup pizza sauce red pepper flakes (optional) 6-oz shredded fontina cheese (may substitute mozzarella, or Monterey Jack) 6-oz hot or mild Italian sausage, sliced, cooked, drained 4 whole eggs black pepper, to taste 1/3 cup grated Parmesan baby arugula, washed and dried olive oil
