Weekend Cooking

What did you cook this weekend?  My list includes, deep dish pizza (inspired by my trip to Chicago of course, I have been talking about it so much, Brian insisted we make some, so...we did), homemade mayo, mahi mahi tacos, and remoulade sauce for the tacos. I should first start out by saying that I was only going to be fully dedicated to making all of these items if Brian was planning to assist, and he was totally on board. Saturday morning we got up and went to breakfast at a wonderful new restaurant by our house, Zinsky's. It's off Preston and Royal, so if you are in the area, check it out. Wonderful breakfast, lunch, and dinner options made fresh. So then we wandered over to Molto Formaggio to get the perfect cheeses for our pizza. We had several samples of exceptional cheese and decided to go with Buffalo Mozzarella (next time for deep dish we will use shredded mozzarella), Pecorino Locatelli, and Trugole. I did not list these cheeses in the recipe below, but they were great alternatives to the basic cheeses normally used on pizza. Next stops, the Farmer's Market and then Central Market. (I had to knock it all out in one swoop or I would loose Brian). When we got home, we had to start making the dough. I was using a new recipe for pizza dough, and as we were combining everything I could tell something was off. The dough was way too sticky. We added some flour, but I just wasn't confident with it. I set it aside in a bowl just in case it decided to rise and we started over. The dough is such a huge part of a pizza that we could not afford for it to be off. Round 2, we began with a trusted recipe which I have listed below. This dough is not near as flaky as the one I had in Chicago, but it is a great dough for a basic homemade pizza, very soft center but gets crispy around the edges. Next, I began the sauce. I bought 2 lbs of fresh tomatoes from the Farmer's Market because Brian and I wanted to try a really fresh sauce. I have always just bought canned tomatoes (San Marzano whenever I can find them) for my homemade tomato sauces, but the fresh were absolutely wonderful!  I was slightly concerned that we should have purchased Roma Tomatoes, but I had tasted these regular round tomatoes from one of the vendors and thought how perfect they would be in the sauce. I started boiling some water and got an ice bath ready for the tomatoes. I scored each one so they would peel a little bit easier and plopped them into the boiling water. Each one only needs about 30 seconds in the boiling water, then out they come and directly into the ice bath they go. Once they are cool enough to touch, peel the skin off and cut each tomato in half and remove all the seeds. The rest of the sauce recipe is below and feel free to substitute the fresh tomatoes with a 28 oz can. Brian spent the last part of the afternoon chopping all the veggies for our toppings. Once our dough had proofed, we were ready for roll out and begin the assembly. We were planning on making one pizza in our cast iron skillet, but we ended up with some extra dough, so I created another pizza in an 8 inch round cake pan. We still had leftover scraps so you could probably get about 2 10-12 inch pizzas out of it. We made the main pizza with Italian Sausage, mushrooms, fresh tomato, green pepper, onion, black olives, and basil. On the second one we added spinach, but didn't have any sausage because we had used it all on the other. Pizza toppings are endless and you can make the most unique and wonderful combinations. We didn't reach too far out of the box with ours, but next time, I might. We finally got the pizzas in the oven and counted down all 40 minutes waiting to sink our teeth through the warm veggies, through the gooey cheese and through the crispy crust of our homemade pizza. The wine helped pass the time. When the pizzas came out of the oven, the aroma spilled into the the entire house and we both started drooling. They looked amazing. They tasted even more amazing. I was even able to recover the first dough...so I wrapped it loosely several times in seran wrap and put in in a freezer ziplock bag and stuck in in the freezer so that we can have another Deep Dish Pizza Party soon. 

Pizza Dough

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 package of active dry yeast

1 tbls honey

3 1/2 cups bread flour

2 tbls olive oil

2 tsp kosher salt

corn meal

Directions
In a bowl, mix together the warm water, yeast and honey. Whisk slightly. Let sit for about 5 - 10 minutes until yeast has dissolved. 

Next attach the mixing paddle to your mixer (Kitchen Aid if you have one). Pour in flour, olive oil and salt. Add the yeast mixture and mix on low for about one minute. Remove the paddle and attach the dough hook. With the dough hook attached, put the mixer on low to medium for about 10 minutes. It might not take this long, but the dough should be very smooth and elastic. 

Place the ball of dough in a bowl that you have lightly coated with olive oil. Turn the dough in the oil so that it is fully coated. Place plastic wrap around top of dough in the bowl. Place the dough in a warm place about 1 to 2 hours. The dough should double in size.

When you are ready to assemble your pizza, divide your dough into 2 even sections. With a rolling pin, roll out each ball of dough slightly bigger than each of your pans. Sprinkle corn meal on one side of the rolled out dough and place on top of one of the pans. Gently lift one of the sides to allow the dough to reach the bottom of the pan while also pressing the dough into the sides of the pan. There should not be any air bubbles in the dough or any space between the pan and the dough. The dough should come up about 2 inches to the sides of the pan.

Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

2 tbls olive oil

1/2 onion, finely chopped (I used yellow)

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 stalk of celery, finely chopped

1 tbls chopped fresh parsley

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbls chopped fresh basil

1 tbls chopped fresh oregano

2 bay leaves

2 lbs fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 tsp tomato paste

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet and add onion, carrot, celery, and parsley. Stir to coat. Turn heat to low and cover skillet. Let cook for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are extremely soft and tender. 

Remove the lid and turn up heat to medium. Add the minced garlic and let cook until slightly fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, oregano, bay leaves, and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low, and let simmer for about 15 minutes until the sauce has thickened. 

When sauce has finished cooking, place the mixture in a blender or food processor and process until everything is combined. There should be no large chunks of carrot or celery, but do not over process. 

Pizza 

(dough and sauce are enough for about 2 pizzas, the other toppings are estimated per pizza)

Ingredients

Dough assembled in pans, see above

2 1/2 cups pizza sauce, divided, see above

2 cups shredded mozzarella 

(we used buffalo mozzarella instead, but will use shredded next time)

1/2 cup Romano

1/2 cup Parmesan

2 - 3 links Italian sausage

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

Handful black olives, chopped

1/2 cup white button mushrooms, sliced and cooked down to release juices

1/2 cup spinach, chopped

tomato, sliced thin

2 tbls basil

Preheat oven to 425 Degrees F.

Begin by placing a layer of mozzarella cheese on the bottom of the crust. Add the tomato sauce and toppings of your choice. Add remaining cheeses and place in the oven for about 30 - 40 minutes until golden and crispy. 

Serve immediately.