Veggie Ciabatta Pizza with Spicy Basil-Mint Pesto

This dish came about as a way to use up some of the large bunch of basil that I picked up at the farmers' market.  But we wanted to do something a little different.  So I decided to throw in some mint.  And then I saw a Mario Batali pesto recipe online that used a serrano chili, so I threw that in as well.  We also got the idea to throw in fennel seeds from the Batali recipe.  We were out of pine nuts and I wasn't feeling like pistachios or walnuts, so we used blanched almonds instead.  Alex wanted to use the pesto for sandwiches, but I thought that pizza sounded like a better idea.  I just wasn't feeling sandwich-y.  And then I started thinking that if we were going to make a pizza, we should make it a vegetable pizza with lots of produce from the farmer's market.  I love the farmers' market.  So we defrosted a ball of pizza dough.  And then I started thinking that a ciabatta pizza would be even better than a typical pizza.  So we picked up a loaf of ciabatta at the farmers' market.  And we will use that ball of pizza dough to make another pizza later in the week - I'm thinking pizza with zucchini and speck.  When I told Alex my idea for the zucchini and speck pizza his response was "don't you ever eat normal pizza?!?!"  Whatever.  I have tried that combination at a restaurant near my office called Pizzarte (where the zucchini and speck pizza is their signature pizza) and it's delicious.

The thing I loved about this pizza is how easy it was to put together and how tasty it was.  The veggies were fresh and flavorful and made me feel virtuous, even though I was eating pizza.  And I really liked how the ciabatta got nice and crusty and crispy.  The dish was also mildly nostalgic - it reminded me of the french bread pizzas I used to eat.  Alex's favorite thing about the pizza was the pesto.  It was very flavorful - a little spicy, a little salty, and nicely herbaceous.  I think the pesto worked wonderfully here, but it would work really nicely on sandwiches and on pasta too.  I always find pasta with just pesto to be a little boring, but this pesto is a little kickier than most, so it might work. 

Recipe after the jump!

White Pizza with Ramps

This is recipe number 2 from our experiment with ramps.  And I have to say that this one was more successful than the first.  Alex actually said that this might just be the best white pizza he has ever eaten.  I was stunned.  If I am not mistaken, my response was something along the lines of "Really? Wow."  And then I think I looked at him dumbfounded.  But let me back up a few steps.  Yesterday I went to the farmers' market down at Union Square during my lunch break.  I was just poking around to see what vegetables were available, but when I saw the ramps I had a hard time resisting them.  And once I had them in my shopping bag I started thinking about pizza.  I was thinking about this pizza recipe from the new Jim Lahey cookbook we just bought - the bird's-nest pizza (a white pizza with asparagus and quail eggs).  I was going to just toss a few ramps in with that pizza and call it a day.  But then I started thinking that a white pizza would be a better way to feature the ramps.  So I found a recipe from Food & Wine by Tony Mantuano for a White Cheese Pizza with Ramps.  I used that as the base recipe, but used Jim Lahey's no-knead pizza dough recipe for the crust because he makes amazing breads and pizzas.  Plus we had the new cookbook so I had to try it out.  I have to say that the pizza was one of the best we have ever made at home.  Everything about it worked.  It had the perfect ratio of cheese to topping, the crust was delicious, and it cooked up like a dream.  And the flavor of the gentle, garlicky ramps was fantastic.  I was thinking about adding some crushed red pepper flakes, but I am so glad that I didn't because the pizza was perfect as is.  Man was it good.  I have to admit that I wasn't sure what all of the fuss was about with ramps in our first attempt at making them at home, but now I totally get it.  Yum.

Recipes after the jump!

Lavash Pizza with Eggplant and Arugula

What do you do if you're home alone for the weekend and you have a little bit of a lot of different produce in the fridge to use up?  You come up with a variety of salads, sides, and lavash pizzas!  And you order sushi on Friday night when you just don't like cooking.  But as a trade off, you make a deal with yourself to cook/eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at home on Saturday.  This recipe started as a way to use up some eggplant, basil and cherry tomatoes.  While I was at Zabar's this morning it occurred to me that I could make a lavash pizza.  So I picked up some whole grain lavash (it's that resolution to eat healthy again), some smoked mozzarella and some more arugula.  And then I decided to go ahead and wing it for dinner.  In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty into winging it.  Sometimes it works out well and sometimes it doesn't.  But I always have fun along the way.

This recipe worked out pretty well.  Lavash pizza is such a great alternative to making pizza at home.  This lavash pizza was basically a less labor intensive combination of two pizza recipes we have made in the past - Eggplant Pizza and White Pizza with Arugula (which wasn't my intention going into it, but was what resulted).  I didn't want to go to the effort to make a garlic oil (although that would have been absolutely delicious here) and I wanted to use up my cherry tomatoes rather than use a canned tomato sauce.  And I certainly didn't want to go to the trouble to roll out pizza dough.  In the future I would prob throw a little Parmigiano-Reggiano on top of the eggplant slices on the pizza for an additional level of its nutty, salty flavor.  And I would probably whip up some of the garlic oil, because it went so well on the eggplant last time.  Minced garlic and a drizzle of evoo works fine in a pinch, but it just can't compare.  Otherwise, I think it all worked out pretty well for a dish I cobbled together on a whim with the random produce in our apartment!  Speaking of random produce, I went to the farmers' market again today and picked up some more...  I really do have a problem.  So stay tuned.

Recipe after the jump!

Cherry Tomato and Mozzarella Calzones

 Now that we have used up all of our CSA produce (or at least the vast majority of it) we are on a mission to use up everything in our freezer.  I periodically stock the freezer up until it's ridiculously full and then go to the other extreme and try to empty everything out.  After awhile you start to forget just what you have in there.  I know I do.  The other day when I was trying to reorganize the freezer I realized that we had a ton of hanger steak and random cuts of pork in there, as well as a variety of sausages.  Who knew?  We also had a few balls of pizza  dough.  So I decided that at the very least we should use a ball of pizza dough and a hanger steak.  When you start to find forgotten and buried treasures in the freezer (some of which are so freezer burned to no longer be treasures in any sense of the word) it is time to clean out the freezer and start over from scratch.

The inspiration for this recipe came from a recipe for Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita that I found on Epicurious.  I liked the idea of turning cherry tomatoes into the sauce for the pizza, but I wanted to make calzones instead of pizza.  We make pizza all the time, but we rarely make calzones.  To be fair, the last time we made calzones we made one giant calzone and it exploded and oozed everywhere.  Oops.  So I was very careful sealing the calzones this time in order to prevent them from forming another oozing, soupy mess.  And it worked!  I know they're not exactly pretty to look at (and they didn't turn as golden as I wanted them to, but I was afraid to cook them any longer for fear that they would explode), but they were pretty yummy to eat.  Actually, the calzones came out looking a lot like samosas...  Oh well.  My favorite thing about the calzones was definitely the fennel seeds in the tomato sauce.  It gave the calzones a truly unique and delicious flavor.  I also liked the addition of the crushed red pepper flakes.  The sauce is very flavorful - fresh and sweet from the cherry tomatoes and basil.  The sauce is so good that Alex and I were actually discussing using it with pasta in the future.  I think it would work really well with pasta.  And I would definitely use it with pizza.  The sauce is so easy and flavorful that there is absolutely no reason to ever use canned pizza sauce or marinara sauce again.  You could substitute the fennel seeds if fennel just isn't your thing, omit the crushed red pepper flakes, or try oregano instead of fresh basil.  There are all sorts of ways you could adapt the basic recipe and make it work for you!

Recipe after the jump!

Turkey Sausage, Red Onion, and Shiitake Mushroom Pizza

Meal number one in the new, non-Asian leaf we have turned over - pizza.  And a great pizza at that.  Restaurant-quality pizza.  For which I give a lot of the credit to the sausage and the dough.  The turkey sausage came from DiPaolo Turkey Farm at the Greenmarket and I think it is better than most pork Italian sausages.  Their turkey sausage is just so incredibly flavorful and somehow is less dry than other turkey sausages.  It has a ton of fennel seed and other spices to really make it special.  If the sausage hadn't been so flavorful the pizza wouldn't have been nearly as good.  The same goes for the dough (which I picked up from Eataly) - because the cooked pizza crust had the perfect taste and texture.  I guess some of the credit there goes to the pizza stone too.  That pizza stone is a pain in the butt and weighs a ton, but it can really make a difference to your meal.  Aside from the dough, the pizza just had a really nice flavor profile.  The onions gave the pizza some sweetness, the sausage gave it spice and a certain meatiness, and then the mushrooms made the pizza taste earthy and hearty.  I also loved the hint of fresh rosemary in every bite. 

The taste of this pizza had almost nothing to do with our skill as chefs, and everything to do with the quality of the ingredients.  I'm calling this pizza my quasimodo pizza since there was a bit of an incident when I transferred the pizza onto the pizza stone.  Generally Alex and I roll out the dough on a cutting board, then using the rolling pin we transfer the pizza to the back of a cookie sheet that has been liberally dusted with cornmeal.  The cornmeal acts like little ball bearings and turns the cookie sheet into a ghetto pizza peel.  But due to the weight of the toppings the pizza stretched out while I was trying to transfer it from the cookie sheet to the pizza stone, and so the stretched out pizza ended up flopping off the end of the stone.  I took a spatula and flipped the extra crust back on top of the pizza and called it a day.  So I may not be a perfect pizza chef, but who cares when the results are this tasty?

Recipe after the jump!

Pizza with Goat Cheese, Butternut Squash, and Leeks

One of these days I am determined to make my own pizza dough.  I have a Jim Lahey recipe that I earmarked forever ago.  I also have a flatbread recipe and a naan recipe that I want to try to use as a pizza crust.  I just haven't gotten around to making any of them  yet.  Until my motivation really kicks in, I can continue to buy balls of pre-made pizza dough at the grocery store, or even buy my own pre-made crusts.  They also sell pizza dough in those biscuit tubes now.  If you buy one of those tube crusts you don't have to try to roll it into a nice circle - instead all you have to do is unroll the tube of dough and you have a perfect, 3/4-inch thick rectangle of pizza dough.  I have always been a little skeptical of the store-bought, pre-made crusts, but after my recent experiments with the lavash pizzas I thought I might as well give them a try.  I picked up one of the crusts at Zabars the other day and decided to give it a try.  I topped the pizza crust with goat cheese, ricotta, and butternut squash from the CSA. 

So I wasn't a huge fan of the pre-made crust, but I'm spoiled from living in NYC where you can get really amazing pizzas.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to admit that I am pretty picky about my crusts.  This one just seemed a little doughy.  And no matter what I did, it was either a little too soft, or a little too hard.  There didn't seem to be any compromise with this particular dough.  It lacked the elasticity of fresh dough.  But so long as we ignore the deficiencies of the crust, I really enjoyed the flavors of the pizza - goat cheese, thyme and butternut squash are a lovely combination.  So I will definitely repeat the toppings.  But next time I will either make my own dough, or buy actual dough and not pre-made crusts!

Recipe after the jump!

Lavash Pizza with Arugula and Langoustine

In my last trip to Trader Joe's I picked up a few random ingredients, including some frozen langoustine tails, some lavash (a thin, Middle Eastern flatbread), zucchini, squash, tomatoes, arugula, grated Swiss and gruyere cheese, and brussel sprouts.  So I had to figure out a recipe that would use up at least a few of my random ingredients.  Luckily, the Summer Vegetable Gratin last night used up some of the zucchini and the Roma tomatoes.  So tonight's goal was to use up more of my random Trader Joe's ingredients.  In addition to the langoustine tails, lavash, and grated cheeses I threw in the basil Alex picked up at the store today, plus the last of the Salvatore Bklyn fresh ricotta for good measure.  When I bought the lavash and the shredded cheeses I had originally intended to make an Alsatian tarte flambee (a thin, crispy pizza of sorts, topped with creme fraiche, onions and lardons).  Incidentally, Trader Joe's makes a pretty phenomenal version of the tarte flambee in their frozen foods section.  I picked one of those up too for good measure, but I thought I would try making one of my own as well.  Unfortunately, we were out of creme fraiche and lardons, so I had to improvise.  And this pizza was what I came up with.  It was perhaps the easiest and quickest flatbread pizza ever.  Because the lavash is so thin, it crisps up beautifully, as well as very quickly.

This is the first lavash pizza I have ever made and it was wonderful.  I will definitely be making more lavash pizzas in the future - perhaps a Mediterranean pizza with hummus and feta, and definitely my tarte flambee.  I have to say that the langoustine and arugula combination was a lot more successful that I had thought it would be.  The peppery notes of the arugula contrasted beautifully against the sweetness of the langoustines and prawns.  And then you had the wonderful crunch of the lavash crust.  This pizza definitely needs something to give it a little moisture (e.g. hummus, ricotta, or tomato sauce).  Otherwise it might get a little dry.  But with some ricotta?  Delicious.  And super easy.

Recipe after the jump!

Mango Chutney, Prosciutto and Paneer Pizza

Apparently this recipe comes from the winner of The Next Food Network Star, Aarti Sequeira.  I was just browsing the Food Network website and saw some reference "The Pizza Recipe."  So of course I clicked on it.  I love pizza and if there exists a recipe so delicious as to be called "The Pizza Recipe" I want to know what it is.  At first I was a little confused by the ingredient list and then I decided that the combination of those ingredients and flavors sounded like it could be really good.  Then I read the reviews and while most of them were endorsements of Aarti and not the dish itself, it got me intrigued enough to try making the pizza myself.  I figured Alex would be excited by the recipe for, if nothing else, the fact that this pizza is topped with prosciutto.  Don't get me wrong - Alex enjoys Indian food, as well as pizza, but give him prosciutto (or serrano ham) and he is a very happy husband.  Luckily we have prosciutto and I know exactly where to go for paneer cheese, frozen naan, and sweet mango chutney.

This pizza was really easy to make, which I generally expect from Food Network recipes, and was very tasty, but needs some work (which I also expect from most Food Network recipes).  It needs a little tweaking to really make it shine.  We tweaked some while cooking, but I wish we had tweaked a little more.  Alex and I both wished that the pizza had more heat to it.  We used the 1/4-tsp or crushed red pepper flakes that we specified below, but in the future I will probably bump it up to about a 1/2-tsp (at the very least).  We both also thought that the pizza would benefit from more ground cumin to add a little smokiness. All things considered I thought it was an easy and interesting lunch, and would make a nice quick and easy dinner if served with a side salad.

Recipe after the jump!

Eggplant Pizza

The inspiration for this pizza came from our local pizza place (Caesar's, not Little Caesars).  They have a cheese pizza topped with eggplant that I love.  It kind of reminds me of a much lighter eggplant parmigana in pizza form.  The eggplant from Caesar's is very lightly breaded, but I decided to skip that step.  Luckily we had an eggplant from the CSA sitting in our crisper drawer along with all of the baby arugula (also from the CSA) that we used for our White Pizza with Arugula.  I'm really trying to do my best to use up all of the CSA produce in our fridge, hence our two pizza pizza night.  Regular eggplant is something that I have never been a huge fan of (instead I tend to prefer the longer, skinner Asian eggplants), but I have recently discovered that it can also be delicious so I am determined to try it out more.  I have several recipes for eggplant that I have been wanting to try.  And now that eggplant is in season, I'm hoping that we get several more of them from the CSA in the weeks to come so I can try all of my new recipes out!

Anyway, this pizza was Alex's favorite from our recent pizza night.  I took a few shortcuts and used Mario Batali's canned Arrabiata Pasta Sauce.  It is one of our absolute favorite canned pasta sauces, with a nice fresh tomatoey flavor and just the right amount of heat.  I used some of the fresh local mozzarella that I picked up for the white pizza, along with the eggplant and some fresh basil (also from the CSA).  I brushed the eggplant with the garlic oil that I made for our white pizza and I think that was a great touch.  Then I topped the whole thing with parm-reg.  Yum.

Recipe after the jump!

White Pizza with Arugula

Friday night of this past week was the first night that I was home before 7:30 pm, so we decided to take advantage of it by taking the dog for a walk and then making two kinds of pizza for dinner.  Even though I was home by 6:30, we still didn't manage to eat dinner until almost 9 pm.  Oops.  If we had stuck to just one pizza for dinner, we probably would have eaten by 8:30pm, but such is life.  I really liked both pizzas (actually I slightly preferred this white pizza, while Alex slightly preferred the Eggplant Pizza), so I think it was worth the extra 30 minutes!

This recipe was actually one of the main reasons I bought this Ina Garten cookbook and it was well worth it.  I love white pizza and I love pizza with arugula, but every time I have attempted to make either in the past it just hasn't been that great.  And I have never tried to make pizza dough before, but I kept hearing that this pizza dough was a great one to try.  I have to admit that this time we didn't bother to make the dough.  Instead, I picked up a ball of whole wheat pizza dough from Whole Foods.  But if you have the time and the inclination to make your own pizza dough, this is supposedly a great recipe to try.  One of these days I promise I will test it out, but until then you're on your own.  Another pizza dough recipe that I have heard is a great basic dough recipe is Jim Lahey's No-Knead Pizza Dough.  I haven't tried it out either, but I hear really good things. Anyway, even with store-bought whole wheat pizza dough, this was a great white pizza.  I loved the blend of creamy mozzarella, tangy goat cheese, and smooth fontina cheese.  I also loved the garlic oil that you brush the dough with before topping with cheese, and then drizzle over the top.  If you want a particularly saucy pizza this isn't your recipe, but I rarely like a lot of sauce on my pizza, so this was perfect for me.  That was Alex's only complaint about the pizza - that there wasn't much sauce so it seemed a little dry, but I love my pizza that way.  It was nice, fresh, and light (mostly due to the arugula with the lemon vinaigrette on top).  I loved it.  Alex liked it.  I consider that a smashing success.

Recipe after the jump!

Pizza night

 

So tonight was pizza night.  We bought the dough (I usually get mine from Whole Foods, but you can also go to a lot of pizza parlors and ask to just buy a ball of dough), and then we had all sorts of ideas for topping ingredients.  I couldn't decide which pizza to make so I tried to convince Alex to make four pizzas in one, but he didn't like that idea.  Then when our pizza dough ended up in the shape of an oval Alex agreed that we could use three different sets of toppings, one set on each third of the pizza.  And it just so happened that I had three different pizzas that I was deciding between.  I love pizza night!

So our pizza was one-third pizza bianca a la Jim Lahey at Co., where the dough is simply sprinkled with rosemary, evoo and sea salt.  And then served with fresh ricotta cheese, mixed with crushed red pepper flakes, evoo and salt.  We added a touch of Parmigiano-Reggiano and a ton of garlic for fun, but overall tried to stay somewhat true to Co.'s pizza bianca.  Granted, I had the pizza at Co. roughly two months ago so I'm not sure how true to the original I actually was, but that's ok.  I tried.  Another one-third was your basic margherita pizza with large slices of beefsteak tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and dried oregano.  The last one-third of our pizza was smoked mozzarella, asparagus, and serrano ham.  All of the pizzas started with a base of dough brushed with evoo, sprinkled with garlic and sea salt.  Our favorite?  Hands down the pizza bianca.  The other two pizzas were good, but the pizza bianca was fantastic.  Since Alex has never been to Co. before he had nothing to judge it against, but I think we totally knocked it out of the ballpark.  So delicious!

In an effort to at least pretend to be healthy, we served the pizza with our version of Anne Burrell's Asparagus, Pecorino and Red Onion Salad recipe.  I love vinegar as much as the next person, but her recipe as written is scary on the vinegar.  We mellowed it out by cutting back on the amount of red wine vinegar and adding some balsamic to sweeten it up and cut out some of the acidity of the red wine vinegar.  This is a great salad when asparagus is in season in the spring and is sweet and amazing.  We jumped the gun a little here since asparagus isn't quite in season yet, but I couldn't resist.

Recipes after the jump!