Meatball Deep Dish Pizza

Did you know April 5th is Deep Dish Pizza Day? You will notice that I have tagged this post under "holidays". Okay, obviously it is not a real holiday, as in you don't get to stay home from work and get paid. Would somebody get on that please? I think it would boost citizen moral.

I have given you a recipe for deep dish pizza before on Four Seasons Kitchen, in fact it was one of my very first posts, but that one was all boring with mushrooms and pepperoni. This pizza has meatballs. Meatballs on a pizza. That's right folks- let's celebrate this "holiday" in style.

MEATBALL DEEP DISH PIZZA

Serves 4 to 6

Although the dough is easy to make, it does take some time to rise. Pre-made dough will work too.

Pizza Dough
2 cups frozen mini meatballs
1 medium onion, sliced
100 g or 1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, shredded
olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Drop in meatballs and simmer until thawed. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil and saute onion, mushrooms, pepper, garlic until just cooked and onions and mushrooms are starting to get some colour. Remove to a bowl. Drain meatballs, add to skillet and saute until browned on all sides.

Spread a tablespoon of olive oil each in two 8-inch round cake pans. Divide pizza dough in half and roll out each to fit into pan with a little dough coming up the sides. Spread each with tomato sauce, add equal amounts of onion mixture and meatballs to each. Top with cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes, until crust is browned and cheese is starting to brown. Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing and slicing to serve.

Vegetable of the Week: Tomatoes

Is your garden exploding with tomatoes? Mine is. I picked all the tomatoes pictured here in one go. I can't grow flowers for the life of me, but if there's food involved I'm all over it. What to do with all these tomatoes? Here are some ideas from my list of recipes to try.

Tomato Basil Tartlets
Fried Green Tomato BLT
Jarred Tomatoes
Spaghetti with Cheesy Broiled Tomatoes
Summer Fettucine
Chicken Breasts with Tomato-Herb Pan Sauce
Tomato and Cheddar Pie
Corn, Tomato, Feta, and Basil Salad
Tomato Tian
Goat Cheese Stuffed Tomatoes
Tomato Tart

And from the Four Seasons Kitchen Archives:
Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta
Tomato Bruschetta with Feta


"No one is going to improve upon the tomato sandwich. No one- not Alice Waters, not that Danish guy whose place was noted Best Restaurant in the World, maybe not even God. Put a few slices of the juiciest tomato you can find on your favorite toasted bread with mayo, a sprinkle of sea salt, and a couple of grinds of pepper. Eat open-face."

-Bon Appetit June 2011

Also, I made a PESTO AND TOMATO FLATBREAD that was so good that I forgot to take a picture. Bonus: it used up four tomatoes in one go. It's easy-peasy:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F with oven rack on bottom position. Roll out pizza dough, spread with pesto, cover with sliced tomatoes (I squeeze them a bit to remove the seeds which will make it watery), sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Bake 15 minutes or until crust is golden and tomatoes are softened.

One Year Ago: Vanilla Iced Coffee  

Ham, Swiss and Asparagus Crepes

Goat's Milk Mozzarella

Just a quick share today. I discovered this cheese a few weeks ago and have bought it every week since. Put it on pizza and you'll have the best pizza ever. I've also used it in lasagna in place of half the regular mozzarella cheese and that was delicious too.

Pasta or Pizza?

I was torn whether to write about the pizza I made last night or the pasta I made tonight, so I am going to include both in this post. The link between them is the wine. There is no wine in the dishes, but the glass of wine that I drank both nights was perfect with each dish. The wine: 2007 Wayne Gretzky Un-oaked Chardonnay. I usually don't drink white wine and actually, I usually only have a glass of wine on the weekend, but I'm glad I made an exception with the pizza and the pasta. Do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle of wine and make one of the below recipes. Even if it is a Wednesday.

One Year Ago: Pulled Pork, Broccoli, and Goat Cheese Pizza

 

POTATO, PROSCIUTTO, AND CAMEMBERT PIZZA

• 1 pizza dough, homemade or store bought
• 1 potato, sliced as thinly as possible, using a mandoline if you have one
• 3 slices prosciutto, sliced into ribbons (roll into a cigar shape and slice)
• 170 g round Camembert cheese, sliced
• 3 tbsp white sauce

White Sauce:

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• salt and pepper to season

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F with oven rack on lower middle setting. Boil a large pot of water and season the water with salt as you would for pasta. Add potatoes to water and cook 4 minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside.

Meanwhile, make white sauce. Place butter and garlic in a small sauce pot. Turn on heat to medium, saute until garlic starts to sizzle. Whisk in flour, cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in milk, thyme, salt, pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick. Turn off heat and set aside.

Roll out pizza dough- not too thinly as the toppings are somewhat heavy. Transfer dough to pizza pan. Spread 3 tbsp sauce over dough. Top with potatoes, overlapping slices to cover pizza. Scatter over cheese, then prosciutto. Bake 15 minutes or until crust is browned on bottom and cheese is starting to brown a little.

FARFALLE WITH TOMATO MUSHROOM SAUCE

Adapted from Ricardo Larrive

Serves 6 (can easily be halved)

• 500 g farfalle (bow tie) pasta, or other dried pasta such as penne
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 3 tbsp butter, divided
• 227 g package sliced mushrooms
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup vodka
• 2 1/2 tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup juice from canned tomatoes
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus additional to serve
• 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper to season

Cook pasta in salted boiling water until just al dente. Meanwhile, place pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat until golden brown, shaking pan a few times during cooking.

While pasta is cooking, melt 1 tbsp butter in a large saute pan over medium high heat and add mushrooms, breaking them up a bit as you add to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Saute mushrooms until they have released their liquid and are browned. Add garlic and green onions, cook for a minute. Add vodka, boil until pan is almost dry.

Move mushroom mixture to sides of pan and add remaining 2 tbsp butter and flour in the middle. Cook flour and butter for two minutes to in order to cook out the flour taste. Add milk slowly while stirring to ensure no lumps occur and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes and juice. Simmer until sauce is thickened, about 3 minutes.

Pasta should now be just al dente and ready to finish cooking in sauce. Remove pasta from cooking water with a slotted spoon and drop directly into saucepan with sauce. Stir for about 2 minutes to coat pasta with sauce and finish cooking. Remove from heat, stir in Parmesan cheese and parsley. Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper as needed (I found this dish shockingly bland until I adjusted the seasoning- with enough salt and pepper it is stellar).

Mexican Pizza

Lettuce on pizza is weird, right? Two words- warm lettuce. Just saying those words makes my bum suck in (don't pretend you don't know what I mean). But I sucked it up (haha) and made the pizza, lettuce and all. Don't let the lettuce deter you from making this pizza! It tastes like nachos, and you don't think lettuce on nachos is odd, right? Plus, it really a very healthy recipe. More so than pizza normally is anyways.

The recipe is from Food and Wine Magazine. It's by Spike Mendelsohn, who was on a recent-ish season of Top Chef. He drove me nuts on the show (seriously, dude, don't talk back to Tom Colicchio), but after seeing his food in F &W and trying out this recipe I actually want to buy his new cook book. If that's not an endorsement for you to try that recipe, I don't know what is. As you know, I can be a little judgmental.

MEXICAN PIZZA - Food and Wine, July 2010

Here it is without lettuce, if you must.

Easy Entertaining

We had people over for dinner every night this weekend- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Thinking about what to make when we are having guests stresses me out a bit. I bookmark lots of recipes in magazines, etc that I think would be a good meal to make when we have people over, but when it comes down to it I worry that they may not like an ingredient or that it won't turn out right (following the old principle of never make a recipe for the first time for guests). I think I hit the jackpot with this menu though- nothing difficult, not fancy but not boring, things that everybody likes with a bit of a twist. Trust me on these recipes- even if you have company coming and don't have time to test the dishes before hand!

Gougeres with drinks*

Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella, and Basil Pizza

Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese Pizza

Best -Ever Chocolate Cake with Berry Coulis

GOUGERES

Makes about 24, depending how big you make them

Instructions below use an electric hand mixer. If you don't have one, beat with a wooden spoon instead but your arm will get tired. I didn't take a photo of these, but there's a good photo here

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1 cup flour
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups finely grated cheese - Gruyere is traditional, I used a mixture of Parmesan and sharp white cheddar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Put the butter and water in a saucepan with salt and pepper, bring to a boil. Remove from heat, dump in flour all at once and beat with an electric mixer on low until mixture is smooth and forms a ball. If dough is a bit wet, put the pan back over low heat and beat for a minute until mixture dries out a bit. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating with mixer on low until combined between each addition. Stir in the cheese. Fill a small glass with warm water. Using a soup spoon (I think those are what the big ones are called that come with your cutlery set), scoop a heaping spoonful of dough. Dip another spoon in the warm water, then use this spoon to drop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat, dipping spoon in water each time. Alternatively, dough can be piped onto baking sheet. Dough doesn't have to be spaced too far apart- gougeres will puff up, not so much out.

Bake 25-30 minutes- until puffed up and golden brown. Pierce the side of each puff with a paring knife after removing pan from oven- this will let the steam out so that they don't get soggy and/or deflate.

*the French drink these with champagne, but apparently they are also great with beer (I don't even drink beer when I'm not pregnant, so I wouldn't know)

TOMATO, FRESH MOZZARELLA, AND BASIL PIZZA

• 1 pizza dough
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes- either fresh or from a can (I use PC Blue Menu Diced Tomatoes for everything)
• 1 ball fresh mozzarella, sliced
• 1 large clove garlic, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
• 6 or so large leaves basil, thinly sliced (julienned, if you will)

Heat oven to 425 degrees F with an oven rack on the bottom setting. Roll pizza dough really thin. Transfer to pizza pan or baking sheet. Spread with tomato sauce. Scatter tomatoes over dough and top with slices of mozzarella. Scatter garlic all over top of pizza, making sure there are no big clumps of garlic (the garlic kind of roasts in the oven and gets delicious). Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are browned and crisp, and cheese is melted melted and dry (I don't know how else to describe that- if the cheese isn't cooked enough there will be little puddles of water on top of the pizza). Top with basil after removing from oven. Cool 5 minutes before slicing.

BUFFALO CHICKEN AND BLUE CHEESE PIZZA

• 1 pizza dough (I used a whole wheat dough- the ingredients will stand up to this more full flavored dough)
• 2 small or 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast
• salt and pepper, to season chicken
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3-4 tbsp Franks Red Hot Sauce
• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese 
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella (not fresh mozzarella)

Heat oven to 425 degrees F with rack on bottom setting. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Cook in frying pan with oil over med-high heat until golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Remove chicken to a cutting board and cool slightly. Roll dough as thin as you can and transfer to a pizza pan or baking sheet. Spread with hot sauce. Slice chicken thinly across the grain, spread evenly on pizza. Scatter blue cheese and green onions. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake 15-20 minutes or until edges are browned and crisp. Cool 5 minutes before slicing.

BEST-EVER CHOCOLATE CAKE

Go to Molly Wizenburg's blog Orangette for the recipe. I originally found the recipe in her book A Homemade Life. It was her wedding cake. Yum.

 For the chocolate component, I use 2 oz unsweetened chocolate + 5 oz Hershey's dark chocolate chips

This cake will keep 3 days at room temperature, or up to 5 days in the fridge. It won't last that long though. I suggest making this when you have people coming over that can help you eat it so that you and your husband don't polish it off yourselves within 3 days (not like that happened the first time I made this or anything)

BERRY COULIS

• 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (fresh works too- I just always have frozen berries on hand)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp sugar

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Strain through fine-meshed sieve.

This last bite of cake did not go to waste. Trust me.

Call me Clutz

I burned myself cooking the other day. I know this is common, but is it common to burn yourself twice in one night on two different arms? I dunno the statistics, but I'm going to wager a guess of no. I seared the top of my wrists on the oven rack while taking stuff out of the oven. I don't even remember what we ate, therefore I assume it wasn't even worth the pain. I'm ok- it didn't require a trip to emerg (like when I failed to use the safety on the mandoline) but I look like a failed suicide victim with gauze on my wrists. So maybe you should call me Crazy. Plus, we had no "medical tape", so I had to use electrical tape to keep the gauze on.

You'd think this may deter me from cooking anytime soon. At least until the scabs heal (sorry for the visual). Of course not. I made an uber-delicious pizza tonight- a riff on the pizza we had in Hawaii, except that grocery shopping is happening tomorrow so I had to improvise. There is not recipe per se- below is a list of what I put on this time. The pulled pork I used was leftover from earlier from this week, and I love broccoli on pizza 'cause it gets crispy and caramelized in the oven- same with the onions and garlic, which is why I put them on after the cheese. Go with your gut, use what you have in the fridge. It's near impossible to screw up pizza- trust the the burn victim.

• 1 pizza dough*
• 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, depending on how large and thin you roll the dough
• pulled pork
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced**
• 1 small head broccoli florets, sliced***
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• 1/2 small log herbed goat cheese, crumbled
• 2 cloves garlic, minced with a garlic press

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Roll out dough to desired size and thickness. Spread sauce over dough. Top with broccoli and pork. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Evenly distribute onions and goat cheese, lastly sprinkle with garlic. Bake 10-13 minutes on lowest rack- until browned at the edges and cheese is bubbly.

*frozen or homemade- stay tuned for my dough recipe
**I find cutting the onion in half and then slicing into thin half moons is good on pizza
***since I had the oven on a high temp already, I sliced the broccoli stalk into half moons, tossed with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them on a baking sheet on the middle rack at the same time as the pizza. Turn them halfway through baking- they'll take a little longer than the pizza.

Sunday Deep Dish Pizza

Sundays in our house this time of year (actually, August to February) are for football and cooking. The husband watches about 9 hours of football and I cook, read, and nap during this time. Really, do Sundays get much better?

Yesterday I said I would cook him anything he wanted for Sunday as I had been sick and bitchy all this past week- who knew a canker sore could get so bad it required not one but two prescriptions? He wanted a Canadian deep dish pizza (bacon, pepperoni, mushroom) like at Pizza Hut. I remembered a recipe from America's Test Kitchen's Best of 2007 book that would be perfect. America's Test Kitchen (they do Cook's Illustrated among other magazines) never steers me wrong. They test their recipes to perfection and their books/magazines have a paragraph about the testing process. I may or may not have read their entire 900 page cookbook cover to cover because the testing process is so interesting.

So, the pizza. Don't be afraid of making your own dough! I used to be a yeast-o-phobe, but trust me, it's a simple as mixing and then waiting for it to rise. It really was just like Pizza Hut. Yumm... a crunchy, golden thick crust and browned cheese. Not in the least healthy of course- there's a bunch of oil in the bottom of the pan and you can actually hear the crust frying in the oven plus the cheese and such. But on the plus side the thick crust is filling so I could only eat one slice. For now...

CANADIAN PAN PIZZA
- Slightly adapted from The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2007
- Makes 2 pizzas- serves 4-6

Dough

• 1/2 olive oil, divided
• 3/4 cup milk, warmed to 110 degrees F (lukewarm-too warm and you'll kill the yeast)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 envelope (2 1/2 tsp) rapid rise yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt

Topping

• 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 (3 oz) package sliced pepperoni (I used turkey pepperoni- if you use this you can skip step 4 below)
• 3 slices bacon, cooked in microwave until crispy, crumbled
• 1 cup thinly sliced white mushrooms
• 3 cups mozzarella or provolone cheese, shredded

1. For the dough: Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat the oven to 200 degrees F. Once the oven is preheated turn it off. Now you have a warm place for the dough to rise. Lightly spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Coat two 9-inch round cake pans with 3 tbsp of oil each.

2. Mix the milk, sugar, 2 tbsp oil, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add flour and mix on low speed until dough comes together. Increase speed to medium and knead for 5 minutes or until dough is no longer sticky and it is smooth and shiny. If not using a mixer, mix dough with a wooden spoon, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead about 10 minutes. Shape dough into a ball and place in greased bowl. Cover dough with plastic wrap and place in warmed oven 30 minutes.

3. To Shape and Top the Dough: Divide the dough in half and lightly roll each half into a ball. Working with one ball at a time, roll each into a 9 1/2 inch round and press into oiled pan. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot (not in the oven) 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees F.

4. Place half of the pepperoni slices in a single layer on a large microwave safe plate linked with 2 paper towels. Place 2 more paper towels on top and microwave for 30 seconds on high. Discard paper towels and set aside pepperoni. Repeat with remaining pepperoni. This renders a lot of the fat from the pepperoni so that the grease doesn't pool on top of the pizza.

5. Remove the plastic wrap from the dough. Spread approx 2/3 cup of sauce on each round, leaving a 1/2 inch boarder around the edges. Arrange bacon and mushrooms over sauce, sprinkle each pizza with 1 1/2 cups cheese and top with pepperoni (I put the pepperoni underneath the cheese by accident). Bake until cheese is melted and pepperoni is browning around edges- about 20 minutes. Remove pizzas from oven and let them rest in the pan for a couple of minutes before removing and cutting into wedges.