Gourmet Pizza

Recently we made an award winning pizza recipe. The recipe came from the Fedora Café which was open in the 1980’s in Kansas City. Gourmet pizza is still making it into the best fine dining restaurants. I’ve eaten pizza at Olives in Las Vegas, Chez Panisse Café in Berkeley, California and at Zuni Café in San Francisco. This pizza though is honestly the best pizza I’ve ever eaten.

This particular recipe hasn’t been made in twenty years. First we made an 18 lb. batch of the dough. Then we let it set for one hour letting it double in size. After doubling in size we knocked it down letting all the gas out of it. Once we rounded the dough we covered it with plastic wrap on a sheet pan to let it proof. Then came the challenging part of hand rolling the dough into thin round shells. After brushing the crust with olive oil and herbs we blinded baked the pizza on a pizza stone at 500˚ till it started to brown.

This may be the most crucial part of the whole procedure; ingredients. Everyone always wants to pile toppings on a pizza. The real key is a quality thin layer of ingredients. These pizzas were no “Meat Lovers Mess” smothered with ingredients. First we applied a thin layer of sauce. Then we put down a thin layer of cheese. Finally we put down our meats or other toppings. Then we topped it with a little more cheese. The whole idea behind this is quality not quantity. These pizzas are cooked on a pizza stone for the second time at 500˚.


Second Proofing

















Blind Baking
















Extra virgin olive oil, mozzarella, provolone

Baking Temperature

















BBQ Crispy Shortrib Pizza




























Sweet baby rays bbq sauce, fontina, provolone, parmesan, red onion

Fig Gorgonzola Pizza
















Fig Puree, Prosciutto, fontina, provolone, parmesan, gorgonzola

Pizza Margherita















Tomato sauce, fontina, provolone, parmesan, fresh tomatoes, basil, pine nuts

Chorizo Pizza
















Tomato sauce, fontina, provolone, parmesan, red onion, pine nuts

Coming To An End

As summer ends, fall begins and winter then is quick to follow. During this process gardens are ripped up and all you remember are the tomatoes, jalapenos, rhubarb, sage, chives, basil and flowers. A few of my memories from this summer are the tomatoes and the stuffed zucchini blossoms. Now, there are no more fresh herbs and vegetables from the garden but instead all you see are huge birds we call turkeys.
Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, T.V. shows and cooking magazines are loaded with recipes on how to cook a turkey. Now truthfully how many of us need this constant abuse. Unless you plan on making stove top stuffing, you don’t need a whole magazine explaining the process of cooking a turkey.

Before you know it though the snow will be gone and you’ll be staking those tomatoes plants again.

Chez Panisse Café Cookbook

Currently I’m reading the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook. I thought this was appropriate since I ate at Chez Panisse last March. The book contains all the recipes from Chez Panisse Café. After reading through the book I decided to make the savory herb meatballs with spaghetti. The recipe turned out perfectly and the meatballs were to die for. On this recipe you can time everything to work together. First get the tomato sauce going and let it set for the recommended time. While it’s cooking make and form the meatballs. Next while you cook the meatballs put the spaghetti in for the recommended time. If you time it out right everything should flow nicely.

Tomato Sauce Recipe

Makes about 2 cups
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced finely
3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
2 pounds sweet, ripe tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon salt
Bouquet garmi of parsley, thyme and basil springs


Warm the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until softened and slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and let it sizzle for half a minute. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and salt, and add the herb springs, bundled together with kitchen twine.
Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the flame to low. Simmer the sauce, uncovered, for 30 to 45 minutes; it will thicken as it cooks. Remove and discard the herb bundle. Taste for salt and adjust. For a refined sauce, pass through a food mill or purée in a blender.

Meatball and Spaghetti Recipe

½ cup milk
¼ cup soft bread crumbs
1 small yellow onion, very finely diced
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
1 pound freshly ground beef sirloin
Egg, beaten
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley, plus 2 tablespoons more for sauce
1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme
⅛ teaspoon cayenne
Black pepper
1 medium red onion, sliced thinly
Olive oil
2 to 3 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
2 cups tomato sauce (See recipe)
¼ teaspoon hot pepper flakes
½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh oregano
Salt
1 pound spaghetti


Put the milk and bread crumbs in a small bowl and mix with a fork. When the bread has softened, squeeze out most of the milk with your hands. Discard the milk.
Sauté the onion in a little olive oil with letting it color. Season with a light pinch of salt and set aside to cool.
Combine in a medium-size bowl the beef, bread crumbs, onion, egg, 3 tablespoons Parmesan, 2 tablespoons parsley, the thyme, cayenne, black pepper, hot pepper flakes, and 1 teaspoon salt. Work the mixture gently and thoroughly with your hands until it has an even consistently. With wet hands, shape the mixture into walnut-size balls. The meatballs can be cooked in the time it takes to boil the spaghetti.
Heat a skillet large enough to hold all the meatballs in one un-crowded layer. Add the red onion with enough olive oil to coat it lightly and cook over medium heat. When the onions begin to sizzle, add the meatballs, shaking the pan to keep them from sticking. Using tongs or a wooden spoon, gently turn and toss the onions and meatballs so they brown lightly. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds, taking care that it doesn’t color. Add the tomato sauce, oregano and the remaining 2 tablespoons parsley. Season with salt to taste. Simmer gently, uncovered, stirring the meatballs to coat them with sauce. Test for doneness by cutting one meatball in half with a paring knife. Keep warm.
The dry spaghetti will take 7 to 10 minutes to cook. Boil the pasta in a large quantity of salted water. Drain the spaghetti and turn into a pasta bowl. Pour the meatballs and sauce over the pasta. Serve with more Parmesan cheese.


Tomato Sauce

Meatball Ingredients
















Rounded Meatballs















Savory Herb Meatballs with Spaghetti

Seared Alaskan Halibut

The other day we decided to make dinner. We started off by searing the halibut then topped it with grilled peaches, buttered grits and smoked yellow coulis.

Grilled peaches, zucchini, buttered grits, smoked yellow and gold tomato coulis

Homemade Pretzels

The great thing about pretzels is they have a chewy outside and a soft inside. The other day I made homemade pretzels in the kitchen. First I made the dough from scratch and then rolled them into long ropes. After forming, blanching and baking the pretzels I put brown sugar on two of them and sea salt on the others.


Dough

















Dough Ropes

















Blanching

















Brown Sugar Pretzel

















Sea Salt Pretzel

Tomatoes

The other night we started with a round, ripe golden tomato from the garden. Then we blanched and peeled it, soaked it in extra virgin olive oil and inserted basil leaves. We topped it off with sea salt, cracked black pepper and shaved parmesan.




























Golden tomato, zucchini blossom, parmesan, basil leaves

Dinner

Sunday night we cooked dinner at home the way it’s supposed to be during the summer. At 5:00 I went out to the garden to see what was ripe and cooked with those ingredients. I know most of my posts are eating out in restaurants but I also love to cook and help coordinate dinner too. Photography wise I shoot all my own photos with a Nikon D60.













Stuffed goat cheese zucchini blossoms, cherry vinaigrette, basil oil














Sourdough pan fried in olive oil, fresh mozzarella, golden tomato and jalapeno gazpacho, balsamic glaze














Seared sea scallops, lemon vinaigrette, cucumber ribbons, oranges















Seared sea scallops, golden tomato and jalapeno gazpacho, cucumber ribbons
















Seared sea scallops, orange salad with lemon vinaigrette, chives