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| Pizza 1 |
Now that I’ve already made the Gnudi, I had to venture back to pizza this week. I never make the same pizza twice because I constantly have different ingredients on hand for cheese, sauces and toppings. As I’m obsessed with the crust, and I truly believe that good, crispy, chewy crust is the basis for a great pizza, I always make my own pizza dough. I’ve included my recipe below and like my Grilled Corn Pesto recipe, it makes a lot, so just freeze what you don’t use. I’m much like my mother when it comes to cooking because she never new how to feed a few people, she could only cook to feed a crowd. I’ve learned to use the freezer for any leftovers or for an abundance of fresh produce, and you should see how full my freezer is all of the time. I do go through it everyday though to embark on my next adventurous meal. I really should get a deep freezer sometime in the next century.
As I digress, I usually make two different pizzas because I like variety, so these were the pizzas that I made this week: 1) sauce – parsley walnut pesto; cheeses – asiago, fontina, feta; toppings – fresh tomatoes and shredded chicken breast 2) sauce – ricotta with cilantro, garlic and jalapeño; cheese – asiago; toppings – sauté of caramelized onion, garlic, honey, red wine vinegar and dukkah (I’ll add a recipe for this in a later posting), shredded chicken and a sliced peach. Shhhhh…..I took one from my neighbors peach tree. It fell right in front of me! I also grilled both pizzas instead of baking them in the oven because it’s summer and I love to grill just about anything at the moment. I know the second pizza sounds a bit unusual, but that one was the favorite amongst my usual crowd Montana, Paris, and Valpo . I love savory sweet anything, so I had to take advantage of the peach that wanted me to eat it!
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| Pizza 2 |
Pizza Crust
(makes 5-6 pizzas)
2tbsp 2tsp Instant Yeast
8 cups AP flour (or do a mix of 5 ½ cups AP flour and 2 ½ cups of whole wheat flour)
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp each dried basil, thyme, oregano (any Italian spices on hand), optional
3 tsp red pepper flakes, optional
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups warm water
Mix all dry ingredients together in a big bowl. Grease another bowl. Pour water in dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Then place ball of dough on counter with bench flour and knead for about 8 minutes or until dough is soft, smooth and elastic. Place dough in greased bowl, cover with saran wrap and let it rise for at least 1 ½ hours or until double in size.
Cut up dough into 5 or 6 pieces. Sprinkle bench flour on counter and roll out each piece of dough.
Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees F. Top each pizza with your favorite ingredients. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes.
Now for the Grilled Corn Pesto. Since grilling is much preferred, and corn is one of my favorite foods to eat right now, despite the fact that I have braces, I thought of making a pesto out of it. I am fanatical about pesto and replacing grilled corn for basil or parsley makes it just that much better. You can use this as a dip for bread, chips, crackers or even veggies, and you can put it on just about anything….pasta, sandwiches, tacos, eggs, or even invent a new pizza! I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!!
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| Grilled Corn Pesto |
Grilled Corn Pesto
5 ears corn, yellow or white, shucked
1 cup walnuts
1 ½ cups Asiago cheese, grated
4 cloves garlic, or less if you are not a fan
1/3 cup cilantro
1/3 – 1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp Salt
1 ½ tsp pepper
Turn grill on low heat. Place shucked corn on grill and cook for 10 minutes, turning once and cook another 10 minutes. Allow to cool enough to handle.
While corn is grilling, place next 4 ingredients in food processor. With a chef knife, cut the kernels off of each cob. Place kernels in food processor, add 1/3 cup olive oil, salt and pepper. Process and add more olive oil if needed. Should have the consistency of a thick paste.
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