Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Faster (& Better) than Delivery


I love pizza. I can't seem to get enough of it. You know that childhood comment, "If you love it, why don't you marry it?"? Well, I would if I could. Except I wanna have kids one day, so I don't think it would work out between the two of us. Plus, do I really want offspring that are half Chinese half Canadian Bacon? No.

But I digress. The reason I brought up pizza is that tonight, B and I made a tasty - and dare I say gourmet - pizza in the time it would have taken to get delivery. We had a hodge-podge of ingredients that we thought would go well with one another. And at the last minute, we decided to use some fruity olive oil instead of tomato sauce for the base. The end result? I still love delivery (Pagliacci's!), but this definitely is up there.

So how did our homemade pizza idea come about? Well, this past Saturday, B and I were grabbing a quick lunch from the Metropolitan Market. We had our Ethic Dinner group later that evening, so we didn't want anything heavy. We decided that we would get some cheese, some soup, and a few slices of Salumi salami to tie us over until dinner. Well, through a mixup with the deli-guy, instead of ending up with a few slices, we ended up with a mega-batch of salami. And since I didn't have the heart to tell him the mistake, we ended up taking home a pound of Salumi's finest (at $18/lb!). Needless to say, we didn't want the sliced cured meat to go bad, so we came up with idea of using it on pizza. So we had picked up some premade pizza dough from Trader Joe's on Sunday, and made ourselves a pie tonight. So if you get the hankering for a few slices, consider this. It's quick, it's easy, and it's delicious!

Much like the vegetable soup recipe I posted previously, this recipe is very flexible. You can add whatever toppings you wish. Want pineapple? Go for it. Love anchovies? Throw 'em on. Hate mushrooms? Skip it. It's really whatever your heart desires. A couple tips for you: 1) although you can pick whatever ingredients you want, don't pile them on too high. Otherwise, you just might end up with a "deconstructed" pizza. 2) I have a pizza stone that I leave in the oven. They're pretty cheap, but I've also heard you can buy a large, terracotta planter plate at your local gardening store, and use it. Just flip it upside down, and you're good to go. 3) And finally, you can use premade pizza crust like Boboli, but I recommend buying pizza dough (or making your own if you're feeling ambitious) and baking it yourself. Just bake it according to its instructions, but without the ingredients. When it's about done, pop it out, throw the toppings on, and then stick it back in the oven. I found by doing this, your dough is cooked through.

The Salumi Salami Special

Ingredients
  • 1 package unbaked pizza dough (I bought mine at Trader Joe's)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • A tenth of a pound of salami
  • 1-2 large mushrooms, sliced thin (not paper thin, maybe a fifth of an inch)
  • 2-3 cloves of diced garlic
  • 1 cup sliced red onion
  • 1 cup sliced cherry or romalita tomatoes
  • Pinch or two of kosher salt
  • 1 sprig of rosemary, leaves removed from stem
  • 8 oz of fresh mozzeralla, sliced

Prepare the pizza dough according to the instructions. However, do not add the ingredients.

While the crust is baking, in a fry pan, saute the mushrooms, red onion, and garlic together until the mushrooms are soft. Take off the heat, and put aside.

After the crust is complete, drizzle the olive oil over the crust. Then proceed to add your ingredients. There's no order, but I do like to add the cheese last... I feel like it binds the ingredients together when it melts.

Place back into the oven at 350 degrees for 6-8 min. This will allow the cheese to melt, and the tomatoes to sweeten a bit. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

Take out, let it rest for a minute, and then devour. Careful of the hot mozzeralla. You don't want to burn the roof of your mouth.

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