Pesto, Potato and Red Onion Pizza

When we entertain, which isn’t very often, Robbie and I like to do pizza, with all manner of toppings and themes, like Mexican perhaps. In the summer we use the grill, in the winter the oven—its very convivial to hang out at the bar in our kitchen, chatting and sipping and watching the pizzas go in the oven and come out, and tempting all of us with a new combo. Thank you Deborah Madison, who, in The Greens Cookbook, taught me all about pizza possibilities. Smoked cheese is my latest discovery—I love the extra lilt it gives to pizzas.

Pizza in America is not what people usually make at home—but a quick and easy order and delivery. Robbie even fell for a dinner invitation recently; when the host said we were having pizza, Robbie pictured homemade crust and creative toppings. Boy was he surprised when dinner came out of a box.

We went to Moab for a 3-day desert holiday on Monday and I was in charge of dinner that evening.

Bron French mandoline

I packed our pizza stone and the mandoline and made sure to bring the green chile pesto and the package of Iraqi flatbread, a gift from our friend Peter, that I had been hoarding in the freezer. In Salt Lake City, pick up this yummy Persian flatbread at Pars Market on Highland Drive.

Iraqi flat bread

I used the mandoline to quickly slice the potatoes thinly, and I even impressed myself with how easily the pizzas came together.

This recipe is for one pizza, but you can make as many as you wish. Use my whole wheat pizza dough recipe or pick up some Iraqi flatbread—the cooking time will vary, depending on which you use, the dough and the cooking vehicle itself.

Pesto, Potato and Red Onion Pizza

1 10-inch pizza crust, raw and freshly shaped, or pre-baked

Several Warba, yellow or red potatoes (6 to 10 ounces total) well-scrubbed and very thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Green chile or regular pesto

¼ cup very thinly sliced red onion

About 4 ounces smoked cheddar or mozzarella cheese, grated

Over low flame, heat a couple of tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the sliced potatoes and the garlic and season with salt. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of water and cover the skillet. Cook another 5 minutes, just until the potatoes are tender. Take off the cover and let any remaining water cook away. Set aside.

Place the pizza stone in the oven or grill and preheat to 450 degrees or as hot as you can get the grill.

Put the pizza crust on a pizza peel or an upside-down pizza pan that you have sprinkled lightly with cornmeal. (The cornmeal acts as ball bearings so the pizza can slide onto the stone.)

Drizzle some olive oil on the crust and spread it around with a brush or your fingers. Spread about 3 tablespoons of pesto on next, followed by the red onion slices and some of the cheese. Now arrange the potatoes, so that all of the dough is covered except for ¾ of an inch around the edge. Season with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the potatoes.

Slide the pizza onto the stone and bake it for 6 to 10 minutes, until the edges and bottom are deep golden brown.

Makes 1 pizza

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Alta Special Saturday Nite Pizza

In the overflow cookbook cupboard in my kitchen, I keep a couple of worn and bulging spiral notebooks with quite a few tattered pages. They’re my “culinary journals” where I record recipes for something I’ve made, or most often, I paste recipes that I hope to try, recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers. My homemade kahlua recipe is here and one for the pepper jelly I once gave for Christmas gifts. Ten to one, the cut and pasted recipes outnumber my hand-written recipes. Cluttering both my office and the clear plastic cookbook holder on the kitchen counter are more loose recipes, waiting to be pasted, that I continually accumulate. I know I’m not alone in this recipe saving habit–I have read nostalgic musings by other food writers about their own, or their family’s recipe stashes. My first spiral notebook, begun in 1976, is falling apart. It has recipes like Broccoli Rice Casserole, Wheat Germ Zucchini Bread and Carob Pecan Brownies, reflecting my inclination to desserts made with honey and maple syrup as well as my vegetarian diet. Years ago I numbered the pages and indexed the recipes I turn to regularly. On page 94, dated 1/15/81, is Alta Special Saturday Nite Pizza. (I must have skied Alta that day.)

This whole-wheat pizza dough with its nutty whole-grain flavor is still the one I make. My notebook recipe included a simple homemade tomato sauce, but I confess–nowadays I use a store-bought tomato sauce. And my taste in toppings is fancier than 20 years ago–I often use basil pesto, feta cheese, and imported olives.  Any of my suggested toppings are optional. You can skip the tomato sauce or skip the pesto–I often use one or the other. If you use neither, brush the dough with olive oil before arranging the other toppings. You can add sliced (or diced) fresh tomatoes, especially if they are warm off the vine. Try cubed eggplant sautéed in olive oil–yummy. Or a pizza with Southwestern flavors– mild enchilada sauce, diced green chilies, Monterey Jack cheese and chopped cilantro. A word of caution–use restraint with the toppings–the dough has a hard time cooking and holding it’s shape when it’s overloaded.

Dough:
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) instant dry yeast
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons warm water (105° to 115°)
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoons sea salt
Cornmeal, about 3 tablespoons for the wooden peel
In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and honey, stirring to dissolve; let stand about 5 minutes. Add the olive oil, flour and salt. Use a wooden spoon and stir to blend, then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand about 5 minutes, until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic. Place in an oiled bowl at least twice the volume of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Toppings:
Tomato sauce, homemade or purchased, about 1/2 cup per pizza
Pesto, homemade or purchased, about 1/4 cup per pizza
Cheese–mozzarella or feta or both, maybe 4 ounces per pizza, and Parmesan, a few tablespoons for the final sprinkle
Mushrooms, maybe 1/2 pound raw per pizza, sliced and sautéed in olive oil,
Olives, pitted kalamata or Nicoise, 1/4 cup per pizza
Onions, thinly sliced red or yellow, raw or lightly sautéed
Gimme Lean Sausage Style, maybe 1/4 pound per pizza, crumbled and cooked. That’s right–fake sausage and good enough to fool a meat eater.
To shape, top and bake:
I like to bake my pizzas on a pizza stone, which imitates a brick oven and makes the crust crispier. The stone–an unglazed clay tile–goes in the oven 30 minutes before the pizza so it’s very hot and retains heat when the oven door is opened. Preheat the oven and the pizza stone to 500°F. Gently fold the dough over and divide into 2 portions. Form each into a flattened round. On a lightly floured surface using a rolling pin, roll one portion into a large round, about 12 inches. Place it on a wooden peel that has been sprinkled generously with cornmeal. Spread with tomato sauce and/ or pesto. Lightly top with some of the cheese and scatter other toppings evenly. Finish with more cheese and finally with Parmesan.
Slide the pizza onto the stone and bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the bottom is brown and the cheese looks nicely melted. Use the wooden peel to transfer the pizza from the oven to a serving plate. Then sprinkle more cornmeal on the peel and make the second pizza.
To serve, use a pizza wheel (or I use scissors) and cut into portions.
This recipe makes two (12-inch) rounds.

 

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Caramelized Three Onion and Thyme Pizza with Fontina Cheese

On the Grill

This is pizza on the grill; even though it has cooled down a bit I am still avoiding turning on the oven, especially to pizza baking temperatures. Earthy-flavored Italian Alpine Fontina goes really well with the onions so try to find the original cheese, stamped with the DOP stamp and words Val d’Aosta on the label. The aromatic and also earthy thyme marries with and accents both the onions and cheese.

My family makes a Thanksgiving side dish called Onions Parmesan–I remember it being made in the electric fry pan—so as not to take up stove-top space at the gravy-making crunch time just before the meal went on the table. Our family recipe calls for lots of sliced onions sautéed in lots of butter, glazed with sherry and dressed with the Parmesan cheese. For this pizza topping I cook the onions longer, to the point that they shrink and begin to caramelize, and glaze them with the vinegars for bright flavor.

The pizza dough:

¾ cup warm water

¾ teaspoon instant dry yeast

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

¾ teaspoon Real Salt

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 cup to 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour

The pizza toppings:

1 large red onion

3 small yellow onions

4 shallots

3 tablespoons plus 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Real Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chopped thyme leaves

12 ounces Val d’ Aosta Fontina cheese, grated

2 cloves garlic, minced

To make the dough:

In a medium bowl, mix the warm water, yeast and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the salt and one cup of the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the remaining flour, a cup at a time, stirring until it all comes together. You can work the dough in the bowl with your hands, turning it over to knead. Or you can turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead. Either way, work the dough folding it over and pushing with the heels of your hands until the dough is well mixed, 3-5 minutes. Add sprinkles of four as needed to keep the dough from being too sticky to work.

Place in an oiled bowl at least twice the volume of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour. While the dough is rising prepare the onion topping and grate the cheese. After the dough has risen an hour, turn the dough onto the counter and divide into 4 balls. Cover and let these rise for another 15 minutes.

For the topping and grilling:

Cut the onions in half and slice them crosswise about 3/8-inch thick. Trim the shallots and cut them in half lengthwise, then slice thinly. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onions and shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are very soft, have shrunk to half of their original volume and have begun to turn brown on the edges. Add the vinegars, stirring to mix well. Season generously with salt and freshly ground pepper and the thyme leaves.

High heat bake with grill marks

Pre-heat the grill to high heat. Mix the remaining olive oil with the garlic and set aside. Flatten one dough ball at a time, and on a lightly floured work surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll it into a circle, about 7-inches around and ¼-inch thick. You can pick it up with your hands and gently stretch it. Brush lightly with some of the garlic oil and invert onto a very hot grill. Bake 1 or 2 minutes until there are light grill marks. Turn over and cook the other side a minute. Remove to a clean work surface. When all the crusts are par-baked, lower the grill heat to medium.

Brush the baked crusts with any remaining garlic oil. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of the Fontina cheese, and divide the onions between the crusts. Scatter the remaining cheese over the onions and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Return the pizzas to the grill. Bake about 5 minutes, to melt the cheese and heat the onions.

Serve hot. Makes 4 small pizzas, great appetizers for 4 to 10 persons.

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