TKO! Homemade Pizza

No KitchenAid... no Cuisinart... nothing but elbow grease, and we made outstanding homemade pizza! This experience doesn’t push me either direction in terms of whether or not I want a stand mixer, but it certainly makes me feel foolish for eating pizza out or having it delivered for years. Seriously, what was I waiting for?

The recipe for the pizza crust, from the Patricia Wells’ Trattoria cookbook, was recommended to me by my culinary mentor and inspiration, Alison. Not only is she the most accomplished home cook you’ll ever meet, but she’s also been a personal chef and caterer. Dinner and a bottle of wine in her gorgeous kitchen (which they renovated themselves, down to custom-designed, home-built cabinetry) is truly one of life’s greatest pleasures. No restaurant experience can compare.

Until I started this blog, I always thought I was a somewhat lazy, mediocre cook because the benchmark against which I measured myself was Alison. Now I realize that I’m pretty good and log a decent amount of hours in the kitchen, and that she’s amazing and cooks constantly!

This is an overnight dough, which gives the yeast a chance to ferment and the crust more flavor. It was very easy, if not a little dry, and only required five minutes of kneading. Ben and I took turns and made a double batch (which netted enough dough for six 12-inch pizzas), and it was not too tricky. It rises overnight in the fridge, then rolls and stretches out easily. Sophia and I put the pizzas together, so we didn’t try too hard to achieve any kind of symmetry, but they were beautiful in a rustic, amoeba-shaped sort of way. They slid beautifully off the cornmeal-covered pizza peel onto the preheated pizza stone and were perfectly crisp in 10 minutes.

For sauce, I found a recipe from Gourmet magazine on epicurious—you just simmer crushed tomatoes and olive oil for about 20 minutes. Easy as can be and remarkably flavorful. As for toppings, we chose pitted Kalamata olives, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and a spicy Italian salami, called calabrese, made by Volpi on The Hill in St. Louis. The result was perfect, perfect, perfect! In fact, after just one bite, Sophia turned to me and yelled: “Five stars! Five stars? Definitely five stars!”

We often go to a fabulous local restaurant, Proto’s Pizza, on Friday nights for their happy hour specials on Neapolitan-style pizza. This is no cheesy pizzeria, but high-end thin-crust pizza made with the highest-quality ingredients. There are countless reasons to continue to go there—the affordable happy hour wine, the delicious salads, the big glass window where the kids can stand and watch the pizza guys at work. Not to be too arrogant on my first attempt, but our pizza was just as memorable and satisfying as the pizza at Proto’s, at about an 80% discount! In fact, our most expensive ingredient was the fresh basil, and that problem will be rectified once we’re past our last hard frost and can get some organic basil growing on the back deck.

I froze all of our leftover dough and am going to try thawing some on the counter tomorrow to make another batch tomorrow night. Alison swears by making a quadruple batch (in her KitchenAid Professional 600 stand mixer, of course) and freezing the bulk of it for future dinners. While it takes a bit more advance planning than picking up the phone and ordering in 40 minutes before you want to eat, the result was so superior to any delivery available here, and so affordable, that I think the local pizzerias have lost our business for good!

As a testament to our commitment, the pizza peel, previously relegated to a hook in the storage room, was rehung this morning in a place of prominence on the dining room wall. A sign of more good things to come!  

Pasta Frittata with Broccoli, Roasted Red Bell Peppers & Gruyère

This dish falls into the new category in our house called “fancy leftovers.” I am not a pantry shopper, but instead sit down each Sunday morning and plan lunches and dinners for the entire week. I use a grocery list template to help me to remember staples, like coffee, eggs, milk and yogurt, then add on the specific items that I’ll need for the week’s menus. This is a time-consuming process, but it does inspire me to cook more interesting foods from recipes, and I also waste a lot less food.

On Sunday morning, I also glance through the fridge and determine what “dibs and dabs” I need to use up. This week, I found a small crown of organic broccoli and about 1/2 lb. cooked whole wheat pasta. I remembered years ago seeing a recipe for a frittata that used leftover pasta in lieu of potatoes. I poked around epicurious and found a recipe for Pasta Frittata with Broccoli Rabe and Sun-Dried Tomatoes.

Broccoli rabe is difficult to find, so I subbed out my crown of broccoli, steaming it lightly before adding it to the pan. I subbed roasted red bell peppers for sun-dried tomatoes, and Gruyère for Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The result was delicious. It baked up beautifully in 20 minutes and was a creative and scrumptious use of leftovers. The pasta, because it was whole wheat, kept its al dente texture, and the veggies and cheese made a colorful and flavorful combination. We often have leftover pasta, so I imagine this will become a Sunday night favorite.

Homemade Butterscotch Pudding

This afternoon Sophia and I were reading a children’s magazine, and there was a picture of a little girl with her kitten, named Butterscotch. This, of course, got us to talking about food, and we realized that a) we had no idea what butterscotch was and b) Sophia had never had butterscotch pudding.

Fast forward several hours... the kids are in bed and I’m casually looking up butterscotch pudding on epicurious, curious myself about its key components. Faster than you can say J-E-L-L-O, Ben’s out on a late-night grocery run for heavy cream and whole milk. [Full disclosure: this “late-night” run was at 7:00 PM... remember, we’re tired new parents!]

The resultant pudding was absolutely sinfully delicious! Nothing like boxed butterscotch pudding, the flavor was much more subtle and yet rich. It was remarkably easy, and I thought tasted like the very best things about cookie dough... brown sugar, butter and vanilla! We couldn’t even wait for the pudding to cool, but ate it immediately while it was still warm (yum!).

I have to say, this is only my second time making pudding from scratch, but it’s so easy, I wonder at the popularity of boxed mixes. It took all of 10 minutes (not including the grocery run!). 

And, yes, there is plenty leftover in the fridge for Sophia to sample Friday.

Fresh Berries with Vanilla Mint Yogurt Sauce

Yummo! I made this sauce from epicurious to serve with fresh strawberries and blueberries for Bill’s birthday brunch. It took about two minutes to make and was absolutely delicious. I considered skipping the mint, thinking it was a) costly and b) superfluous, but it was a fabulous addition and absolutely necessary.

Jenn added GF coffeecake to to the meal and Lorraine made egg casserole with Boulder sausage, red bell peppers, zucchini and hash browns. Oh, and Eryc made mimosas with pineapple orange juice. A lovely breakfast!