Friday, April 16, 2010

More Fun With Pizza

I baked orange muffins last Sunday. Just as they came out of the oven Laura called so I said, "get over here."
And.
She did.
Half way through the muffins I started talking about pizza and then, of course, I had to make some.
It's a long process. She left for awhile while the dough was rising and I was making toppings: caramelized red onions with fig balsamic, sauteed leeks, crumbled feta, sliced roasted lamb, (from Whole Foods deli) crumbled smoked trout and crumbled feta.
I liked the dough better. I added a bit of whole wheat and a bit of corn meal, brushed it with roasted garlic infused olive oil and I cooked it longer. It isn't perfect yet.
First pizza was tapenade, the red onions, roasted lamb, feta and watercress. The second was
leeks, trout and creme fraiche. Both were pretty bleepin good.
The dough makes four pizzas and one is very filling. We each ate half and half and I took a half and half combo over to Kev and Mimi. I saved the remaining pizza till the next day, which worked. Fresh is best but it worked.
Today I roasted some roma tomatoes and garlic sauteed leeks and made sauce. It's hard when you should only make one pizza and you have a gazillion ideas. Fortunately Kev and Mimi are willing to be taste testers. And I'm experimenting with keeping two half baked doughs for tomorrow.
I'm getting better at the doughs. I shaped them into rounds and then used the rolling pins to get a more uniform shape. I'm not overly concerned with uniformity. I like rustic looking pizzas but working the dough is a good idea. I'm not likely to be one of those dough tossing types. Because the sauce was really saucy I pre-baked the dough. I took the first pizza over to K & M: tomato/leek/garlic sauce, fresh mozzarella, a mix of olives and pancetta. Since there was garlic in the sauce I brushed the dough with truffle oil. It smelled SO great when it was cooking.
My shopping stupidity is still in play. I bought a nice mix of olives, all of which had pits. So I was slicing them off for the pizza and then sucking on the pits for awhile. Not a bad thing. The pizza I made myself was more complicated. I wanted to use some stuff up. It was good but a little messy looking.
Friday night.
Belly full of pizza.
Sink full of dishes.
Left over sauce and dough.
What will tomorrow bring?

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