Eggplant, Prosciutto, & Mushroom Pizza

This could also be considered a "Leftover Pizza" but really I was just fortunate with what I had on hand that I could make something this awesomely tasty!

Raw dough left to rest and the stretched by hand got topped with some olive oil and salt and was then given about 5 minutes to pre-cook in a 475º oven.

I had some leftover eggplant that had been cooked in tomato sauce, so I used that for my base. Onto that I added some sliced mushrooms I sautéed with just a splash of olive oil and salt, some thinly sliced fresh mozzarella, some prosciutto, and some torn fresh basil.

Sprinkled with a light dusting of pecorino and it was ready for the oven.

14 minutes later this was bubbling madness, but it was delicious madness. 

Pizza is pretty much always a crowd pleaser, and a really easy way to make use of little bits and pieces of leftovers that otherwise would not make up a meal by themselves.

Get creative!

Breakfast Zucchini Pizza

Take home your leftovers whenever possible.

Because really, you've paid for your meal, you may as well get to eat it all!

Granted, some things are harder to rejuvenate the next day, but in general, I'm all for doggy bags. Especially as I am more of a Grazer than a 3-Squares-A-Day type of gal.

Below see a gorgeous half zucchini pizza from Franny's that I just could not finish the night before.

Now known as Breakfast Pizza.

I opted to add a poached egg because I like the runny yolk and soft white, but if that's not your style an egg fried in bacon fat would be a perfect topper for this (including some crumbled bacon, of course.)

You've got carbs, vegetables, and protein ready to go.

Just make sure to use a skillet to re-crisp your pizza crust while your egg is cooking.

I do not understand countries that don't believe in doggy bags.

Like my dear beloved Italy, a country that knows not to waste stale bread because they can thicken soups with it or make a panzanella salad, but they don't believe in taking home leftovers.

Luckily I'm writing this in the USA, so doggy bags are go!

Get creative with your leftovers next time.

Kale & Pancetta Flatbread

This is tasty.

And really simple. Watch.

Sauté chopped pancetta in olive oil (about 2 TBSP) until crispy. Lower the heat and add 2 cloves of minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute.

Add chopped kale leaves (about 2 cups) and wilt down.

(Some chopped porcini mushrooms would also be delicious in this. Add at the same time as the garlic if you choose to include them.)

Use a minimal amount of salt to season as the pancetta is salty by itself.

Spread over pizza dough or flat bread that you have rolled out to your desired thickness.

I par-bake my crust for about 5 minutes before adding toppings.

Do not waste any of the flavorful oil in the pan. If you have enough, brush the edges of the crust with the oil so they brown nicely and have extra flavor.

Top with some torn fresh mozzarella and basil.

Bake as directed for your dough.

For me that's 12 minutes at 450º

Optional finish to this would be to drizzle some good olive oil over the top, or even an infused oil.

I have a lovely sage & mushroom infused olive oil which added a lovely depth of flavor.

Yum

Devour.

Simple but tasty, and yet another way to use up ingredients in your fridge.

Outside The Box

OK - I have a backlog of posts I need to write up, so my cop-out post of the day is the following:

The Best Pizza Box Ever

(or that I have found thus far...)

Click to enlarge

But whoever designed this box is clearly someone I need to be friends with, because this is the kind of thing that I would write on a pizza box! Except for the waiting for hours part. I am not cool with delivery that takes longer than 30-40 minutes. That's just uncool.

They could also use a little help in the spelling/punctuation field, but I forgive that because it still made me laugh out loud.

And the pizza was pretty good.

Soon: actual posts about food...

San Francisco: Day 1

We started our day with a quick yet tasty couple of sandwiches from Café Venue (a chain, but it became the place we started most of our mornings because it was convenient and made to order) and then set off for the Golden Gate Bridge.

As you would expect, it was overcast over the bay. However, the last time I visited San Francisco it was so cloudy that you couldn't even see the bridge from the pier, so this was actually a vast improvement.

The sucker is TALL!

We walked across it, took a little break, and walked back through seriously windy conditions... only to have the sky turn (briefly) blue once we got back to the beginning.

The hubs still has not gotten to visit Alcatraz because apparently buying tickets 1 week in advance is not nearly far enough in advance. Myself, I don't see the draw.

Watching "The Rock" is about as close as I need to get.

Next we went around the corner (in a manner of speaking) to the Palace of Fine Arts.

Which was closed, fenced off, and had bulldozers inside it.

Bummer.

But the park bit was lovely, if a bit chilly.

(I'm fairly certain this is where they apprehended Sean Connery after the car-chase in "The Rock"... but as I could not get inside I can't be sure.)

At this point we got a message from a friend to meet at the Rogue Ale House on Union St. (the hubs grew up in Oregon, among other places, so this was a must) so we headed to the Little Italy part of North Beach. As we had time to kill, I suggested we stop for a late lunch and found a cute little place to eat.

At the time I thought it was just a quaint little place I found among all the other red-sauce joints. Little did I know that L'Osteria del forno has been written up in travel guides and is a legitimate neighborhood gem! But Go Me for spotting the good place to stop.

The hubs and I shared a leek & potato soup (to warm up!) that surprised me, as it appeared more like a regular vegetable soup w/ semi-clear broth, yet you could distinctly taste the leeks while enjoying the little bits of potato and carrot. It was even finished the proper Italian way with a little drizzle of good olive oil, which you could also vividly taste when you had a bite. 

It was a really good way to start off the meal and ward off the 55º chill. 

(Don't forget, it was 90º when we left NYC the day before. It was a big change for us!)

Next we split a thin crust vegetable pizza that had perfectly balanced tomato sauce, zucchini, mushrooms,  and unfortunately onions, which I had requested be left off, but oh well.

I also had two glasses of a lovely white wine from San Gimignano, so was happily toasty and full by the time we left. (Tho not yet toasted.)

Note: they only take traveler's cheques and cash! But prices are reasonable.

After 3 hours at the Rogue Ale House, I was hungry again (not to mention sober as I don't drink beer), and this time we made a REALLY fabulous discovery. Just 2 blocks away on Union Street we found Don Pisto's, a fantastic little Mexican place hiding in the middle of Little Italy, specializing in their take on Mexican Street Food. It may or may not have a sign, but as we found it at 9:30PM it was dark and the only way we spotted it were those 3 red lights over the window!

At that point we were only staving off late-night hunger before heading back to the hotel, so we only shared orders of Al Pastor and Carnitas, but they were sublime! I desperately wanted to go back there again, but there was no time on the rest of our trip. 

Most of the rustic tables seat either 2 or 6, so it is fine for groups. The food came out super quick, the tomatillo salsa had serious kick, and the corn chips are freshly made and some of the best we've ever eaten.

Upon leaving I begged them to open a sister restaurant in NYC!

UWS, naturally... the Villages don't need any more contestants.

Definitely a successful first day as a tourist.

But now I want Don Pisto's for dinner.

Damn.

Spring Ramp-age

There just had to be a pun in the title...

After listening to all the hype about ramps, I finally got myself a nice bundle to experiment with. And now that I have cooked and eaten them, I can honestly say, they live up to the hype. They really are delicious little bites of Spring.

Aside: I'm fairly certain that I used to dig these up when I was younger. I may or may not have wandered into the "forest" (read very open tree-filled area) behind my grammar school during recess once or twice, and  I found and dug up what I called "baby onions".  I remember the smell of the "baby onions" and I'm fairly certain now that they were in fact ramps.

Nifty.

There is this "pizzette" at a new local wine bar that I am obsessed with. It comes on super crispy, very thin crust, and is topped with Manila clams, speck, and garlic. It is delicious! And I decided I should try to recreate it at home, and that this would be a perfect time to try to incorporate ramps in my cooking.

Step one: cook the clams

Ok so I couldn't find manilla clams, but I used some cherrystone clams and cut up the larger ones once cooked. And I did not cook them in gray dishwater. It just looks that way. I cooked them in white wine with garlic, salt, and oregano. Very tasty on their own.

A few of my lovely ramps.

I washed them thoroughly, removed the root ends, diced up the bulbs, and chopped up the greens. 

I sautéed the sliced bulbs in olive oil, and when just tender, I added the greens and a pinch of salt. Very simple. I put that aside and got ready to assemble my version of the pizzette.

I have mentioned before my trouble with breads and dough, mostly because I have no real experience making them. Since I couldn't think of a good substitute for the crisp crust/flatbread the wine bar used, I decided to go another way, and I used naan as my base.

Yes, naan is rather doughy, and while it is delicious by itself, I thought it would be even better with these toppings, and that it would not compete with the flavors I was placing on top of it.  So I went with it, and I must say it worked. (If you try this, make sure you do not buy the garlic naan! That would completely negate the use of the ramps.)

As I was using plain naan, I gave it a light brush with melted butter, and then piled it with the clams, speck (you can easily use prosciutto here instead), and cooked ramps, complete with any oil in the pan.

Just a few minutes under the broiler and it was ready.

And it was really good.

The ramps had a combination of onion and garlic flavor, so the dish almost tasted the same as the one in the wine bar, but at the same time it was slightly different, and I really enjoyed their subtle flavor.

Definitely worth trying at home, people!

Pizza Semi-Fail

I say semi-fail because in the end, it was still pizza, and we ate all of it.

Making pizza from scratch is one of those things you really don't need to do, but sometimes just get the urge to. So, this was one of my less perfect attempts.
Note: I bought frozen dough from Fresh Direct. That was probably my first mistake. And one I will have to repeat because I have four more balls of their "dough" in my freezer. Dang.

After defrosting in the refrigerator overnight, and letting the dough come to room temperature for an hour (and expand) I attempted to roll out the dough into a recognizable pizza shape.

Fail # 1. Apparently I can only roll dough into an oval, not a circle. But then, that's kind of how you buy pizza in Rome, so, it's not really a failure. I can just pretend I wanted an oval pizza on my round pizza disc.
After rolling out the dough, I drizzled it w/ olive oil, spread it around, and seasoned it all with garlic salt for a little pre-baking of the crust.

Can you say air bubbles? Holy crap. Note to self: use fork to prick dough next time. Also, watch out for thin spots, such as the dark brown spot top center. Grr.

On to toppings. I used a basic tomato sauce that I like, and dotted it with fresh mozzarella and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. If I'd had any fresh basil, I would have laid down a nice chiffonade to finish off the pizza. Instead, it just had to suffer with only the basil that was in the tomato sauce.

Apparently I should have checked the crust after 12 minutes, instead of 15, because I let the edges burn. However, the browned and melty cheese was perfect.

A little interesting slicing, and my oblong slightly burnt pizza was ready to serve. As usual, Mike did not care at all and devoured 75% of it. It tasted totally fine and like a normal tasty pizza. It just looked less than perfect.

I learned a few things along the way, so hopefully next time I can improve my dough-rolling skills and create a more uniform crust.

Practice Makes Better Pizza.

Music, Martinis, and Mmmmm-pizza.

This time last week, Mike and I were sunning ourselves in the 70 degree sunshine.
Today's high was about 42 and windy.
Mother Nature can be a cruel temptress. Or, just a bitch.

So last night I went out with one of my favorite people and we drank passionfruit martinis and ate yummy food and bought bottles of wine we didn't need absolutely had to have, before heading to The Bitter End for some live music.
The first person we saw perform was Sean Rowe who had a deep, mesmerizing voice, and reminded me a bit of Tom Waits. If Tom Waits played a plucky guitar and had slightly more of a pulse. He was really good tho, and I bought his cd.
There were two more acts before Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast went on, which unfortunately for me was one too many, because I needed to get up this morning to catch a train to NJ for lunch with the mother-person. Let me rephrase: I needed to wake up in a decent mood, not hungover or sleep-deprived, so I could enjoy lunch with the mother person, instead of being cranky. And I was successful in my endeavor, chatting over a 2+ hr lunch. So, I was really bummed not to get to see my friend's band play again, but I'm sure they knocked it out of the park as per usual.

The point at the end of this is to say, I'm a bit travel-weary, and will most likely whip together dinner out of leftovers including chicken, peas, and prosciutto.
If I didn't have to feed Mike as well, I'd just be eating the following:

That, kiddies, is a thin-crust pizza complete with fontina cheese, paper-thin slices of yukon gold potato, and finished with truffle oil. The smell of it when it comes out of the kitchen it is enough to make you fall off your bar stool following its lush aroma-trail. It is also served at the restaurant/bar that I have been frequenting (and bringing people to) since I moved to NYC in 2002, and at which I drank the aforementioned passionfruit martinis with the aforementioned front-runner of favorite personages.

I of course had leftovers after ordering the pizza just for myself (sometimes your favorite people have issues with carbs some days, and you just accept them in their craziness and enjoy the More For Me mentality), and I brought that baby home to enjoy another day. So, a little sizzle in a dry stainless steel pan (the truffle oil will re-release itself in the pan) and I put a lid on it for about 5 minutes so the cheese would get all melty again.
However, this pizzette still needed a little something. A little something salty to reawaken the flavors. And when you're in the Rock'n'Roll Gourmet's kitchen, you don't just reach for the kosher salt.

That's right.
You reach for the Truffle Sea Salt.
Because it is just enough to enhance the flavors already in the pizza, without being truffle-overload.
Add a glass (or two) of Marquis and we are talking seriously happy campers.

Alas, tonight, the hubs will have to survive with just chicken, peas, and prosciutto.
I think he'll live.