Thin Crust Caramelized Onion, Sausage, and Spinach Pizza

 
The photography department here at Macy Bakes has been on an extended vacation, but they're back with (mediocre) pictures of (awesome!) pizza.  They kind of forgot to take a picture of the masterpiece before it was mostly-devoured, but here's a little slice (groan) of what was going on in the kitchen:

Please excuse the terrible cell phone picture. 

Last night I revisited the awesome thin crust pizza dough that I posted about in January, with real toppings that were only partially pilfered from the dining hall!  I wanted to make pizza, but didn't want to shop, so I poked around my pantry and freezer and came up with Caramelized Onion, Spicy Sausage, and Spinach Pizza with Pecorino-Romano and Mozzarella.  

Easier, Thinner, and Tastier Than Ever

 
No, I'm not talking about myself.  Stop that.  

Today I tried a new pizza dough recipe, and readers, I am hooked.  It's another recipe from My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss, (with the technique modified by me to make it even more simple, using a stand mixer). In her book Luisa prefaces this recipe with a sweet story about falling in love (with her now-husband); my story is simply that I love pizza, I love making pizza, and now, I have newfound love for this pizza dough.

I was experimenting with this dough as a trial run for a pizza lesson tomorrow, so I hadn't given any thought to toppings.  But once you've made pizza dough from scratch and stretched it out you can't just leave it there.  That would be cruel...to you, and to the pizza.  The recipe makes enough dough for 2 sheet pan-sized pizzas, so I had room to play.  Improvising, I topped the first with a handful of baby spinach, some sliced kalamata olives, roasted onions, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese (because I am that person that has all of those things on hand...).  I also wanted to see how this dough would stand up to a more traditional, saucy pizza, so for the second I pilfered some marinara sauce, green bell peppers, and shredded cheese from the dining hall.*  With such a thin crust a little goes a long way--I used less than a cup of sauce spread sparingly over the pizza, distributed half a cup of green pepper slices over it, and covered with about a cup of shredded cheese (I supplemented the pilfered mozzarella with some grated cheddar that I had leftover from chili).  

A Shaved Dinner

I know this sounds weird, a "shaved" dinner.  As far as I know it's not a new food trend or anything, it just happened to be the theme of tonight's dinner.  It started with a pizza recipe, which was complemented by a simple salad, and then, when I started to write this post, I realized they each contained shaved components, and there you have it, the theme for this post.  So without further ado...


Part 1 of Shaved Dinner: Shaved Asparagus Pizza

 

I just finished eating this pizza about 5 minutes ago, and I'm already itching to share it with you, because it's darn good.  I found the inspiration for it on smittenkitchen.com, which is a fantastic blog.  I can't remember if I've plugged it before, but I will now: it's a great site. 

This simple pizza has elevated asparagus in my book simply because it is shaved.  Never thought of that before!  For me shaving asparagus takes away what I don't like about the veg (the stringiness) while enhancing the flavor, and particularly bringing out the sweetness.  I tweaked the recipe a little bit, adding pancetta (because I thought it would be good) and omitting scallions (because I completely forgot to buy them, although I bet they would be good).  Other than that I followed Deb's sound advice, and I have to say, I will be returning to shaved asparagus again and again.  Why?  Because it's easy to prep, versatile (I'm already envisioning some sort of pappardelle/shaved asparagus pasta something or other), and brings out a whole new side to this fantastic veggie.  Which, as it so happens, is in season, so you should get some ASAP and whip up this tasty pie.

Shaved Asparagus Pizza (Adapted from SmittenKitchen.com)

Makes 1 thin crust 12 to 14-inch pizza

* 1 recipe of your favorite pizza dough (see below for my fave easy recipe), or pre-made dough from the grocery store, at room temperature
* 1/2 pound asparagus--8 or 9 stalks, perhaps?
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
* 1/2 pound mozzarella, shredded or cut into small cubes--you can use pre-shredded bagged mozz here, but I love the fresh mozz balls that you can find in the specialty cheese section of your grocery store, or at the very least, the vacuum sealed mozz balls, such as Bel Gioioso or Dragone brands
* 2 teaspoons olive oil
* 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1 scallion, thinly sliced

* 1 scant cup finely diced pancetta (about a 1/4 inch dice)

* A few tablespoons of cornmeal, for dusting

1. Preheat your oven to the hottest temperature it goes--500 is typical. If you use a pizza stone, preheat it in the oven now.

 

2.  Prep the asparagus: wash your asparagus and pat dry.  Don't snap off the tough ends like you normally might when prepping asparagus, as they are useful to hold on to while you're shaving the asparagus.  Holding a single asparagus spear by its tough end, lay it flat on a cutting board and run a vegetable peeler from the base to the top of the spear to make long shavings.  Repeat with remaining stalks.  Don’t sweat it if some pieces are unevenly thick (i.e., the last slice of the stalk)--it all works out once it's cooked.  Discard the tough end and toss the shaved asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl.  

3.  If you are using pancetta, cook it in a saute pan over medium heat, tossing occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until browned.  Some of the fat will render out here, so no need to grease the pan.  Transfer the pancetta cubes to a paper towel lined plate to drain (just like you would with bacon).

4. Assembly time: Stretch out your pizza dough to a 12 to 14-inch round.  Dough should be quite thin, although you can leave it a little bit thicker around the edges.  Either transfer to a floured or cornmeal-dusted pizza peel (if using a pizza stone in the oven) or to a cornmeal-dusted cookie sheet or round pizza pan to bake it on. Sprinkle pizza dough with Parmesan, then mozzarella and pancetta.  Pile asparagus on top. Bake pizza for 10 to 15 minutes, or until edges are browned, the cheese is bubbly and the asparagus might be lightly charred. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with scallions (if using), then slice and enjoy!

Deb had the following suggestions for ways to tweak this recipe.  I think they would all be fantastic--perhaps I will try one next time:

-Toss a pinch of red pepper flakes with the asparagus, oil, s&p.

-Squeeze lemon juice over the asparagus after you remove it from the oven

-Add a few eggs by baking the pizza for 8 minutes, breaking the eggs on top, then finish cooking pizza and eggs together

Part 2 of Shaved Dinner: Shaved Fennel and Arugula Salad 
 

If the concept of shaved veggies has you really excited, I would suggest a shaved fennel and arugula salad to accompany this fine pizza.  Shaved fennel and arugula is one of my all time fave salads, a combo that we have adopted & adapted from Jamie Oliver and Pi Pizzeria, our local high(er) end pizza place.  It's super easy:  

1. Take a fresh fennel bulb, cut off the fennel stalks, halve the bulb, and peel off any outer pieces if they are brown and bruised.  Using either a good chef's knife or a mandolin (my tool of choice), thinly slice either one or both halves of the bulb (depending on how many people you're making the salad for), stopping just before the tough root.  

2. Toss with arugula (I like buying the pre-washed organic boxes of arugula, but if you buy it in bunches, be sure to wash it well, since it is often sandy).  If you want, shave some Parmesan on top (your veggie peeler is a good tool for this).  

3. Dress with a simple Dijon mustard-lemon juice-EVOO dressing and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste.  

This was a winning combo with the pizza.  Enjoy!!!

Easy Pizza  Dough (From the new Gourmet cookbook)

* 1 1/4 oz package (or 2 1/4 teaspoons if it's from a jar) of active dry yeast

* About 1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour, divided, plus more for kneading.  You can replace up to half of this flour with whole wheat, if you'd like

* 3/4 cups warm water, divided. (105-115 degrees F)--if you don't have a thermometer, this is quite warm to the touch, just slightly cooler than shower water

* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

1. Mix 1/4 cup of the warm water, the yeast and 1 tablespoon of flour in a cup and let sit for 5 minutes. The yeast mixture should look creamy

2. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 1/4 cups flour and the salt. Pour in the yeast mixture, the rest of the water, and the olive oil, and stir until smooth.

3. Mix in the enough of the remaining flour (about 1/2 a cup) until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.

4. Turn the dough out on to a clean surface and knead with lightly floured hands, adding more flour if the dough starts to stick to your hands. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Here is a good YouTube video that demonstrates kneading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWj8oHMPFm0

5. Form the dough into a ball and place on a lightly floured surface. Dust with flour and cover with saran wrap and allow to rise in a warm, draft free place for about an hour and a quarter, until doubled in size.

Cleaning Out The Fridge Calzones

You may have noticed that my recent cooking photos were not taken in my kitchen--or maybe you haven't, I don't know.  But anyway, they weren't taken in my kitchen, because I am still pet sitting, this time for a border collie and 2 cats, my oldest "clients."  What started out as a favor for one friend is now my winter time "business"--I've been booked solid for the past 2 months, with the exception of February 19th, the only day I've been between jobs.  But anyway, back to my point, which is that I've been cooking elsewhere these days.  The best part about this current gig is that the owner has basically every kitchen gadget under the sun, and then some, so Erik and I always have fun experimenting with the things we find.  (I'm pretty sure the only time their pasta maker has ever been used is when we're staying here!)  The latest gadget that I wanted to try was a little calzone mold, available from Williams Sonoma, if you feel so inclined.  

While this little thing is hardly essential for making calzones, it was fun to try.  It's best attribute is that it helps with portion control--when I'm making calzones free form I get so carried away that each calzone is like an entire pizza, just folded in half.  I liked this tool because it makes a nicely sized calzone that left me full but not sick to my stomach because I just don't know when to stop eating.

But enough about a piece of plastic--let's get to the good stuff: the filling.  Since our time at this particular house is winding down, and we will be out every night until we head back to our own cottage, I was trying to figure out how to use up as many odds and ends as possible.  Surprisingly, and luckily, I had just the right amount of this and that to make the perfect amount of delicious filling--a cup of spicy homemade tomato sauce, about a 1/3 of a box of frozen spinach, the butt of a small onion, half a red bell pepper and some kalamata olives.  Tangy feta cheese and melty grated mozzarella rounded out this Greek-inspired combination, which I have to say was amazingly delicious, despite its ad-hoc nature.  In fact, part of the reason I'm posting about it is so that I remember to make it again, even when I'm not just trying to use up leftovers.

Usually when I make calzones I just toss everything on the dough, as if I were making a pizza, before folding it.  This time, however, I tried mixing all the ingredients together before making the calzones, mostly in the interest of saving counter space so I wouldn't have lots of piles of vegetables and whatnot while I was waiting for Erik to get back from the store with the cheese.  I actually really liked this approach, and will use it again in the future, since it helped all the flavors come together, and made the calzones quicker to fill.

The dough I used for these calzones is the exact same pizza dough featured in the flatbread post.  It made 4 individually sized calzones.  It is quite a soft dough, which made it a bit hard to remove from the calzone shaper gadget, although spraying it with Pam helped.  

Greek-Inspired "Cleaning Out The Fridge" Calzones

Serves 4

* 1 batch of this pizza dough, or the dough of your choice, either homemade or store-bought

* About 1 cup of tomato sauce, either homemade or jarred

* About 1/3 of a box of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess liquid

* 1/4 of a small onion, diced

* 1/2 red bell pepper, diced

* 2 cloves garlic, minced

* A shake of red pepper flakes, if desired

* About 1/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives, quartered

* Fresh or dried thyme and oregano, a few sprinkles of each

* Feta cheese, crumbled

* Mozzarella cheese, grated

* Cornmeal, for sprinkling, or nonstick spray

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  In a bowl, combine the tomato sauce, spinach, onion, pepper, garlic, olives, red pepper flakes, and herbs.

 

If you filling is this liquidy, just spoon off the excess so the insides of your calzones aren't runny

2.  Divide the dough into 4 portions and roll or stretch out into a circle.  If you are using a calzone gadget, place the dough on the gadget, if not, just leave the rounds on your work surface.  Place a quarter of the filling and a sprinkle of the crumbled feta and the mozzarella on half of each dough round.  Fold the other half over and pinch firmly with your fingers to seal the calzone.

3. Transfer the calzones to a cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal or sprayed with nonstick spray.  If you want an easy cleanup, cover the cookie sheet with aluminum foil first.  Arrange the calzones so they aren't touching, and have a couple of inches of space between them.  

4.  Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes and serve.  A big leafy salad is a great accompaniment for these calzones.  Enjoy!

A bad example of giving the calzones enough space.  Better to use two sheets if one is this crowded.