Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 10, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Adapted from Italian Grill by Mario Batali.
You can make your own pizza dough (here's a great recipe) or ask a local pizzeria if it would be willing to sell you some. You might also try your grocery store for premade pizza dough.
Ingredients
2 large garlic heads
Pizza dough
Flour, for rolling
2 cups grated young or semisoft provolone
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
Procedure
1. Preheat grill. Meanwhile, slice garlic about 1/4 inch down from top of heads so that cloves are exposed. Wrap each head in foil, and transfer to a 350°F oven. Roast garlic about an hour, or until cloves are very soft. Remove garlic from oven, let cool, and then squeeze out the cloves. Mash them with a fork.
2. Divide dough into 2 pieces. With a floured rolling pin, roll each piece into a 12-by-7-inch rectangle that's about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Place one dough rectangle on grill; cook until bottom is golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Flip dough; continue cooking on other side until golden, about 2 more minutes. Transfer dough to cutting board. Repeat with remaining dough rectangle.
4. Let dough cool about 2 minutes. Use a serrated knife and cut it in half horizontally, creating, essentially, a large sandwich. Spread one half of each bread with the garlic paste, then sprinkle the rosemary over it. Place provolone on the other halves; sprinkle those with scallions. Sandwich the halves together; wrap each with foil, and grill, flipping once, until focaccina are hot and cheese is melted, 5 to 6 minutes.
5. Unwrap, cut into 1 1/2-inch-wide strips, and serve immediately.
Posted by Dorie Greenspan, March 13, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Photograph by Alan Richardson
I’m still in Paris (yay!) and while I saw brilliant yellow forsythia when I was at the Sunday market, and while there are a few cherry blossoms out in the gardens that get full sun, it’s been cold and rainy all week—we even had snow for two seconds and a couple of hail showers—which means I’m still making hearty soups and substantial stews, one of which, a daube of red wine and beef cheeks, is simmering in the oven now. Between the chill outside and the breeze that comes through my ancient window frames, I don’t think my friends will find it unwelcome.
The daube will be familiar to my Parisian pals, but its accompaniment won’t—I’m going to serve the stew with a basketful of corn muffins. Of course, I’ll have to use frozen corn, but I can find really good cornmeal here, so it will be fine. And I might add a few herbs and a little bacon to the mix (the bacon here is fabulous), just to make it more savory and because there’s bacon in the daube. The way I see it, adding bacon to the muffins is like pulling an outfit together by wearing a scarf that picks up the color of your shoes. And besides, what isn’t better with bacon?
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, February 18, 2008 at 1:00 PM
One night last month I realized at 9pm that I had no bread for the next day’s bread-dependent lunch. I had intended to make some, but one thing and another got in the way, leaving me breadless. I cursed myself for not having a well-stocked freezer and started flipping through cookbooks in search of an inspired, somewhat-speedy recipe, and sure enough I found one: Deborah Madison’s pita bread from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
This recipe took me two hours start to finish, and most of that was not active time. Though my pita did not “puff” and therefore did not have pockets, it tasted good and was wonderfully soft, despite its generous complement of whole-wheat flour and wheat bran. Adam posted a recipe for white-flour pita here last October: the rising time is slightly longer, but the good tips provided for rolling out the breads properly should work in either recipe.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, February 13, 2008 at 1:45 PM
My biggest liability in the kitchen is my extreme pokiness at doing pretty much everything. Chopping onions, thinking through recipes, and (especially) washing vegetables—I’m just not speedy. Cookbooks that list prep times always make me laugh (a little tightly) because no matter how realistic they claim to be, the authors seem to have at their disposal either a team of prep cooks (and multiple sinks) or magic instant vegetable washing techniques they have forgotten to share. Confronted with a mountain of kale to wash or carrots to peel, I usually cope by trying to convince myself that the task at hand is meditative and even enjoyable. This works on the weekend but is a harder sell on Wednesday night. So why did I try to make Marcella Hazan’s Baked Escarole Torta—bread stuffed with sautéed escarole, a recipe I had been eyeing for years—on a night when I had about five thousand other things to take care of?
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Posted by Adam Kuban, February 4, 2008 at 5:30 PM
The first of our Cook the Book recipes this week is for a simple breakfast Valentine that you could bake up for your sweetheart the morning of Valentine's day or for tea later that afternoon. They require a 2 1/2-inch heart-shape cookie cutter, so dig yours out of the drawer or go grab one at the kitchen-supply store if you don't already have one.
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 13, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Today's Sunday Brunch recipe, Oatmeal Breakfast Bread, comes from the fertile imagination of one of our 2007 Most Serious Eater award winners, Dorie Greenspan. In her headnote she describes this bread as "lightly spiced, fruit-speckled, almost pudding soft." Yum.
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Posted by Jenn Sit, December 23, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Sadly, I’ve never made my own homemade rolls—always just opting for the rolls-in-the-can Pillsbury method (the leap of excitement when the tube bursts open just never gets old). But after seeing the buttermilk-onion pull-apart rolls recipe from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics, I’ve been convinced to break it off with my Doughboyfriend and start a torrid love affair with breadbaking. Every facet of the name induces instant salivation: the buttermilk that lends a slight tang and fluffy texture, the savory golden brown onion bits, and the penultimate "pull-apart" that conjures images of gently prying apart a roll that’s just out of the oven, trying not to burn your fingertips because it’s almost too hot, until the mini clouds of steam are released. Lay on a fat pad of butter and say goodbye to the tubed stuff for good.
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Posted by Ed Levine, December 22, 2007 at 5:35 PM
Edna Lewis' food to me was the essence of soul and comfort, and this simple Sunday supper of Baked Tomatoes with Crusty Bread reflects her elegant, simple aesthetic perfectly. I guarantee when you serve this dish to friends and loved ones there will be nary a crust left. Though Edna envisioned it as a side dish, it can also feed four hungry folks as a main course accompanied by a substantial salad. Or serve it as a side dish with roast pork.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, November 27, 2007 at 1:20 PM
The following recipe is based on Susan Spicer's mom's spoon bread but "jazzed up" a bit with the addition of onion, garlic, and a cup of grated white cheddar cheese that gets mixed into the batter as well as sprinkled on top just prior to baking.
The book that it comes from, Spicer's Crescent City Cooking, is our Cook the Book book of the week, and we'll be featuring recipes from it daily.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, November 15, 2007 at 3:00 PM
As a child, every year a few days before Thanksgiving we had a Simple Meal. The meal was meant to replicate the humble nature of the first Thanksgiving, and—in a world where there is so much hunger—remind us of all we have to be grateful for. It consisted of bowls of homemade chicken soup with rice, carrots, and celery; cups of fresh New England apple cider; and my favorite: crumbly squares of warm cornbread with fat pats of butter melting on their tops.
To this day, cornbread is one of the things I look forward to most at Thanksgiving.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 14, 2007 at 8:00 AM
When we talked to Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked her what her favorite Thanksgiving recipes from the issue were. These muffins, published here courtesy of Fairchild and Bon Appétit, were among them.
This recipe is fun, Fairchild says, "because everyone gets their own little cornbread muffins. I bet it would even work with a cornbread mix, though we never tested the recipe using a mix."
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 12, 2007 at 11:43 AM
Although Ed Levine is a self-proclaimed semi-homemadeoholic when it comes to preparing Thanksgiving dinner, he does have a few tried-and-true recipes that he can count on to make the meal less "semi-homemade" and just plain "homemade." He admittedly uses Pepperidge Farm cubed cornbread stuffing instead of the homemade bread that the recipe recommends, but says, "This stuffing turns out so good I can't imagine actually making the Silver Palate stuffing recipe comes out any better."
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 9, 2007 at 8:00 AM
The following recipe is from Cook's Illustrated's November 2007 issue. The magazine's publisher, Chris Kimball, didn't mention it when he talked to us about the magazine's Thanksgiving coverage, but we love these biscuits so much we asked Kimball for permission to run it here on Serious Eats. You'll find it after the jump.
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Posted by Jenn Smith, October 30, 2007 at 3:15 PM
Jean Anderson's A Love Affair With Southern Cooking is equal parts recipe collection, autobiography, and anecdotal history of the people and places that have influenced the food of the South. Taken as a whole it is the lovely, chatty product of her lifetime of curiosity about America's most distinct regional cuisine and includes a number of dishes that would fit well into a classic Thanksgiving dinner.
Stuffing or dressing: What do you do? According to Anderson, baking on the side is safer than stuffing the bird. I made her corn bread dressing this weekend (I'll admit to cheating and using corn bread mix), and it was surprisingly light and very tasty. This Southern classic may become my new turkey standard.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 11, 2007 at 1:55 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe for petits pains au lait, "Little Milk Breads," is one that author Anissa Helou says is made all over France. Unlike the also-ubiquitous baguette, however, Helou says these treats can be just as good as those from a baker, provided you use very good flour, butter, and milk.
The recipe comes from Helou's Savory Baking From the Mediterranean
.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 10, 2007 at 2:30 PM
When you think "flatbread," it's likely that one of the first flatbreads that comes to mind is pita bread. Anissa Helou, who wrote this week's Cook the Book selection, offers this recipe for home baking in Savory Baking From the Mediterranean. Because of the automated process and high-temperature commercial ovens found in most Lebanese bakeries, she says, these might not have the most even, thin layers—and they might not separate equally when they puff up in the oven—but that shouldn't stop you from experiencing the pleasure of homemade pita.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 9, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe is for a type of Turkish flatbread that's typically called a börek (or burek) in the West. They're more a filled savory pastry than what you may think of as a typical flatbread, but they're no less delicious.
The recipe, of course, comes from Anissa Helou's Savory Baking From the Mediterranean.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 8, 2007 at 2:00 PM
And, as promised, here's the first recipe from Anissa Helou's Savory Baking From the Mediterranean. Since I mentioned focaccia first, that's what we'll lead off with today. According to Helou, "This focaccia is a specialty of Puglia, the 'heel' of Italy. The mashed potato makes for a rather moist bread, which I use to make sandwiches filled with mortadella or with pecorino cheese." The recipe follows after the jump.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, September 13, 2007 at 11:30 AM
I know this looks like a good old American quickbread, but, even though it's shot through with straight-from-Vermont cheddar cheese, it's got a French soul—at least I think it has, since I was inspired to make it after having had so many in so many places across France. There, the savory cake (just about anything baked in a loaf pan is called a cake in France) is often served with aperitifs, especially wine or Champagne, but I think it's got the goods to be right at other times—it's perfect for brunch, really good with salads and so satisfying lightly toasted and buttered at snack time, whenever that might be.
The cake salé, as it's known (salé means salty or savory), is about as simple a recipe as you can find in the baker's repertory. In many ways, it's like a muffin and it's prepared in much the same way: You whisk all the dry ingredients together in one bowl, all the wet in another, and then you gently combine the two. It takes less than 10 minutes to put together, requires no special equipment and really takes no special skill.
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Posted by Alaina Browne, July 27, 2007 at 1:30 PM
Is there anything better than a tearing apart a steaming hot biscuit, adding a pat of butter, and chomping down? Mmmm. Pure heaven. I love all kinds of biscuits, but some of my favorite come hot out of the oven at The Flying Biscuit Cafe in Atlanta, GA. Served with their apple butter, nothing could be finer.
I've been researching various biscuit recipes in order to develop my own, and I like the sound of the Lee Bros.'s Bird-Head Buttermilk Biscuits. They fold the dough over several times to create a nice and airy layered flakiness.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 19, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Muffins compose one of my most favorite categories of baked goods. They're cake-like and sweet, but not so indulgent that I would feel guilty about stuffing my face with a chocolate muffin or carrot muffin first thing in the morning. It's like cake...for breakfast! (Admittedly, I wouldn't feel guilty about eating dessert cake for breakfast either, but this practice is probably frowned upon by most people who don't want a sucrose-fueled morning.)
I also love muffins because they're ridiculously easy to bake, resulting in a high effort-to-deliciousness ratio. The next muffin I bake will be Dorie Greenspan's Corniest Corn Muffins from Baking: From My Home to Yours. They're cornier than your average corn muffin due to the inclusion of corn niblets. Lots of niblets. Mm, niblets.
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Posted by SaraBir, September 14, 2006 at 12:40 PM
This easy, sandwich-like appetizer is not particularly refined—it’s messy and buttery—but since it combines cheese and bacon, no one will mind too much. Just be sure to set out lots of napkins so everyone does not muck up their glasses of white wine with greasy fingerprints.
It was only recently I discovered this was not a main course. My overworked mother used to make it for dinner when my father was traveling out of town on business. It’s not very healthful, which is probably why we kids loved it. My brother called it “loaf.” So you could enjoy this before dinner or for dinner, but in any case I wouldn’t recommend calling it “loaf” unless you are serving someone under 10.
Ingredients
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh chives
1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 1-pound load unsliced Italian bread
about 12 ounces sliced Swiss cheese
1/2 pound bacon, cooked, drained, and cumbled
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Make the lemon-pepper butter: In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in chives, lemon zest, pepper, and poppy seeds. Mix the mustard and lemon juice together and slowly beat in until combined. Season to taste with salt and set aside.
2. Being careful to keep the bottom crust intact, cut incisions in the bread crosswise, making slices about 3/4 inch thick and leaving bottom 3/4 inch of the bread uncut (you’ll wind up with an accordionesque loaf). Place loaf on a sheet of aluminum foil. Reserve 3 tablespoons lemon-pepper butter, then spread remaining butter on all cut surfaces of the bread. Insert one slice cheese in each incision, then sprinkle bacon into each incision. Spread reserved 3 tablespoons lemon butter on top and sides of loaf.
3. Wrap loosely in foil, and bake for about 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Unwrap the top and bake an additional 5 minutes. Serves 6 to 12 as an appetizer.
*Note: If you want to be classy, use gruyere cheese. If you can’t find it sliced, grate it instead.
