Posted by Joshua Bousel, July 3, 2009 at 8:00 PM
On Fridays, Joshua Bousel drops by with a recipe for you to grill over the weekend. Fire it up, Joshua!
Before you run out and grab all those burgers and hot dogs for tomorrow's great Fourth of July cookout, let me tempt you with another great American tradition that's great for the grill and revelers alike: pizza Although the high heat of the grill produces a truly excellent pizza, it's a challenge to get a perfectly cooked crisp crust at the same time the toppings are ready, but after years of trial and error, I've developed a fairly foolproof way to get perfect pizzas every time.
This requires a two-zone fire, with all the coals piled on one side of the charcoal grate, and a process of cooking the crust in stages.
First you stretch the dough out to a personal-size pizza and place it directly over the coals, cooking it until it browns and crisps nicely. Then remove the crust to a plate, arrange the toppings on the cooked side, place it over the cool side of the grill, and cover. When the cheese is melted and the toppings are done to your liking, check the bottom of the crust; if it needs to cook a little longer, just move it over to the hot side again until it's perfect.
What comes off the grill is a real beauty of a pie. A wonderfully cooked crust, with that balance of crisp and chewiness that makes a great pizza—something to truly celebrate alongside our independence.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, June 4, 2009 at 5:45 PM
My mother was born in Marseille only by accident.
Mémé was traveling from Paris to visit my great-grandparents who were then spending a few years living in the new country of Israel. Mémé had gotten as far as the port of Marseille, and though the boat was in sight, my mother decided that it was here she was to be born. Here, here, here. Now, now, now. And she is impetuous, and slightly petulant, to this day. An hour later, she was breathing the salty fresh breeze of France’s first city. She could miss the boat to Israel. But missing the boat on being born a French citizen—that would never do.
I tell you this story because I believe there is an inveterate relationship between where we are from, and the food that we love. I, for example, was not born in New York by accident. My parents lived there for years before, and lived there years afterward. When I was in school, every Tuesday night, my dad would pick me up and we would go to our favorite pizza place just a few blocks away. It was called Steve’s, and it hadn’t changed one bit since the year my mother took her first gulps of sea air across the Atlantic in Marseille. The walls were painted sunshine yellow, with posters of the King in his white suit and pinups of Ann-Margret smiling from the walls. The son of the original owner still slicked back his hair, and he had found some radio station that played nothing but the swaggering vocals of Elvis Presley over the stereo system.
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Posted by Tara Mataraza Desmond, May 12, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Editor's note: Philadelphia food writers Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond drop by each week with Meat Lite, which celebrates meat in moderation. Meat Lite was inspired by their book, Almost Meatless.
This is a cross between crispy flatbread and chewy pizza with extra flavor from the char of the grill. If you don’t have access to a grill, bake the dough in the oven as you would any other pizza. The topping is packed with flavor from just four ounces of turkey sausage and mushrooms spiked with a splash of malt vinegar for a bright, buttery lift.
Spring onions caramelize with the mushrooms underneath the sausage, and chives perk up the deep, earthy topping along with tangy goat cheese. The mushrooms and sausage can be roasted up to three days ahead and warmed through before adding to the grilled dough.
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Posted by Tara Mataraza Desmond, January 14, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Editor's note: Philadelphia food writers Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond drop by each week with Meat Lite, which celebrates meat in moderation. Meat Lite was inspired by the book coauthored by the two, Almost Meatless, due out in spring 2009.
In Italian cuisine, antipasto is essentially the appetizer course. The word translates to “before the meal," and it’s a wonder that anyone’s appetite ever makes it to the main course given the delicious array offered on a typical antipasto platter.
Mixed greens, marinated vegetables, roasted garlic, an assortment of cheeses and wispy slices of smoked and cured meats, like salami, prosciutto, and soppressata, all add up to a perfectly satisfying meal.
This pizza makes antipasto the main course (though you could certainly serve it as an appetizer instead) and is a tasty reminder of how far just a bit of good quality, flavorful meat will go. Soppressata ranks among my personal favorites in the dry-cured salami category for its rich flavor, salty edge and subtle chewiness. I opt for sweet slicing soppressata in this recipe, but feel free to request the hot variety (do specify “slicing soppressata” when ordering, which will ensure you end up with wide, thin slices that blanket the dough, as opposed to small, thick chunks). If you prefer different types of vegetables, feel free to swap them for the suggestions here. Don’t skip the chopped greens, lightly dressed with simple vinaigrette—often the bed of an antipasto plate—as the final topping.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, December 19, 2008 at 4:00 PM
White Pizza. Photograph by The Pizza Review
Everyone has a food that they love so much or crave so often that they will eat it even after just having finished Thanksgiving dinner. For me, that food is white pizza. If I am presented with a slice, or see it in a window or among the pizza pies at the pizzeria, I will eat it. If you feel the same way, then this quintessential white pizza recipe can turn your oven into your favorite New York corner pizza place.
My only edits would be that if you're really craving a white pie, buy the dough at the best local pizzeria near you, as this dough takes a day to be ready. Also, most pies I've seen have mozzarella on top, as well as ricotta, so you could always adapt and add a bit of that as well.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, December 5, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Pizza can be more versatile than we tend to think, and this one has neither sauce nor cheese. But pizza dough is a creative base for this season's iconic Concord grapes. Mario's basic dough recipe follows, but if you do buy your dough from the local pizzeria, this grilled bread is a sweet and salty cinch.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, November 13, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Photograph courtesy of Michele Humes
This dish was developed by Karol Lu, as part of the second-annual Ramen-Off competition at the Brooklyn Kitchen, where she won the judges' award for most creative ramen dish. You can read more about it on Slice. The recipe, after the jump.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, October 26, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Jamie Oliver may sound English, but deep down he's really Italian—take, for example, his new chain of Jamie's Italian restaurants slowly spreading their way through England, from Oxford to Bath and beyond. In his book Jamie's Italy, he offers these crisp, petite pizzas as the Italian street food answer to papadum (very popular in the UK)—fried as the "first-ever pizzas were."
Embellished only with buffalo mozzarella, plum tomato sauce, and torn strips of basil, anointed in the fryer and thereafter with a drizzle of golden oil, it's perhaps their simple old-fashionedness that renders them so fresh and modern.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, October 17, 2008 at 3:15 PM
According to the California Pizza Kitchen Family Cookbook, this recipe is "pumpkin pie on a pizza crust." This little jack-o-lantern gives a new life to the phrase "pizza pie," and from one pizza and pie lover to another, why not? Cute for kids, playful for adults. It’s time for some face on your pie, instead of a pie in your face. And now you have the recipe to the famous CPK honey-wheat crust.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, October 3, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Kenny Shopsin, author of this week's Cook the Book selection, Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin has no idea how he came up with Egg Pizza, which is "just like pizza except that a normal crust is replaced by a very thin sheet of well-cooked egg." He warns that slices are difficult to pick up, and recommends that you eat it in "the 1940s way...take the wedge, fold it up into a V, and then fold the tip of the V back towards the wide part of the crust."
Serve Egg Pizza with toast for breakfast or salad for lunch. True to Shopsin's form, Kenny offers a dizzying array of toppings including crumbled meatballs, fried onions, and ratatouille: "use whatever turns you on."
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 29, 2008 at 2:45 PM
After getting an email about this recipe from Mark H. (aka Famdoc in the comments), I took the liberty of translating it from the French. If you're fluent in française, do click to the original, as my translation may be a bit shaky. ;)
In place of the oregano, Mark recommends using a handful of various fresh herbs from the garden (or market): basil, thyme, oregano and rosemary.
For the dough:
30 g yeast
300 g flour
15 cl milk
10 cl olive oil
A pinch of salt
For the toppings:
1 kg cherry tomatoes
10 g dried oregano
5 cl olive oil
Basil, to taste
100 g Niçoise olives
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1. Dissolve yeast in a little warmed milk. In a large bowl, mix the yeast with the flour, 15 cl milk, the olive oil, and the salt. When the dough becomes flexible, spread it out it in an oiled pan about 30 centimeters (12 inches) in diameter.
2. Let rise 2 hours at room temperature. Preheat oven to 210°C (410°F). Wash, équeutez???, wipe, and cut tomatoes in half.
3. Lay out tomatoes in a rosette on the dough. Salt and pepper the tomatoes, and sprinkle the oregano over. Then give it a nice pour of olive oil. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool a bit, and serve after adding the olives and basil.
Posted by Lucy Baker, June 24, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Pizza may have originated in Italy but by now it's also an American classic, from Chicago's deep dish pies to New York's thin-and-foldable slices. What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than with a backyard grilled pizza party?
Grilling pizza is incredibly easy, and yields outstanding results. The crust becomes crisp, bubbly, and charred; the vegetables caramelize; and the cheese melts and retains a bit of smoky flavor. While making your own dough is certainly an option, store-bought fresh or frozen dough works just fine, and when it comes to toppings the only limit is your imagination.
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Grill Every Day by Diane Morgan, is for Grilled Sweet Onion, Thyme, and White Farmhouse Cheddar Pizza. Pair it with a tomato salad and blueberry pie to round out the holiday colors!
Win 'Grill Every Day'
In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week, we're giving away five copies of Grill Every Day. Enter to win here.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, June 3, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Last week came the moment I’ve been anxiously anticipating for a while now: my obstetrician told me I’ve started gaining weight a little too quickly. My long walks and yoga are no match for the amount of dessert I’ve been eating and bread I’ve been baking, and I had to sit there feeling foolishly self-indulgent while she advised me to cut back on carbs and focus on lean protein and vegetables. Which I have been—I’ve just been following the fish and broccoli up with ice cream, cookies, or thick slabs of bread and butter.
At least it’s an exciting time of year to start ramping up vegetable consumption. I remembered Patricia Wells’s whole-wheat pizza crust and resolved to bring it back into the rotation, topped with whatever I bring home from the Greenmarket and can’t figure out how to use. This is a thin, delicate crust: it doesn’t do well with pools of tomato sauce and gobs of cheese but is a nice match for sautéed vegetables with just a sprinkling of cheese, or herbs, or tomato rounds, when those come along. Since my usual crust uses 3 or 4 cups of flour to make the same amount of pizza, I don't feel so bad about the cup and a half of flour called for here.
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