Pizza for grown ups

I love pizza - and as a kid there was nothing I enjoyed more than a pizza party with my friends.  And when I say kid, I mean well into my adulthood...

However at one point or another you might find yourself in a situation where it's not appropriate to have boxes from the local delivery joint piled up in the kitchen (it'll likely be just about the time when you realized you need to pour that beer into a GLASS on this particular occasion...)

So I came up with a grown up version of my favorite treat that's easy to pull together for any occasion.

Oven to 405 degrees.

Stuff you'll need (in no particular quantity or order):
1 container of pre-made pizza dough - I used Pillsbury - one can of dough makes two pizzas for me as I cut the dough in half the long way to make two long skinny slabs
Everything else is optional and entirely up to your taste here are a couple recommendations

BLT pizza;

• Double smoked bacon - I buy slabs to keep around for just such an occasion - diced and browned
• cherry tomatoes halved
• Fresh arugula (I add mine after baking for color and taste)
• Shredded mozzarella cheese

Fig and Goat Cheese

• Fresh black figs if you can - dried figs soaked in wine if you can't
• Goat cheese (or Gorgonzola)
• Pine nuts

Caramelized onion and mushroom with Gorgonzola

• Caramelized onions (check the link on how to do this)
• Mushrooms - sauteed with dried herbs
• Gorgonzola crumbles (or goat cheese, Brie, Parmesan etc.)

Ham and Cheese

• Diced ham
• Grated Cheddar 
• Grated Jack (or pepper jack) cheese
• Red onion (raw) rings
• (add pineapple for Hawaiian pizza!)

Sausage and mushroom

• Chicken apple sausage
• Diced sauteed mushrooms
• Caramelized onion
• Mozzarella cheese

Open the pizza dough, and turn it out onto a floured surface.  Stretch the dough out to make an even sized rectangle pinching any holes in the dough together while you go.  Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough in half the long way.

Top with whatever mix of toppings you like -one of the suggestions above perhaps? Or pepperoni and cheese?  It's up to you!  I recommend pre-cooked toppings as this will make this dish so much easier on you...

Place the pizza on a baking sheet (I use a silpat under mine to prevent sticking, parchment is another option) and place in the oven for about 12 min or until the cheese melts and the crust begins to brown.

Slice into finger food portions and serve warm - presto! Instant appetizers!

Enjoy!

Marshmallows!

They look pink in the photo but they really aren't...

I'm not sure when or why I got it in my head to make marshmallows.  I've wondered from time to time what they're made of, but I'm not even entirely sure I like them, and I would usually rather have a bag of sunflower seeds rather than something sweet, but this seemed like it would be fun so - here here we go!

Being winter I'm def. thinking more 'top-some-hot-cocoa' rather than 'make-a-S'more,' so I'm starting with this batch in mint (they didn't have peppermint extract at the market, just mint so I've got a spearmint/peppermint mix in this batch) although you could easily substitute other flavors - vanilla, orange - whatever flavor extract you'd like.  (Based mostly on Martha Stewart's recipe)

Stuff you'll need:

• Non-stick cooking spray (like Pam)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 4 packages (1/4 ounce each) unflavored gelatin
• 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (or any other flavor really, I think I'm going to make vanilla next)
• 2 large egg whites
• Couple of drops of red food coloring (for marbling if you feel compelled)
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• Powdered sugar for dusting

You'll need several bowls for this, including one very large one - if you have a big one, and you think it's big enough, find a larger one.  The marshmallow fluff reaches pretty impressive volume - even the largest bowl I have could have had higher sides for less collateral splatter.  Also, Martha's version requires a stand mixer which I don't have so I used an electric hand mixer for the mixing which I think impacted my whipping time. 

You'll also need a pan for molding the marshmallows.  I used a glass 8x8 pan for this, found it made for easy clean up.  If you're creative you could probably use different shapes, or no pan at all for marshmallow 'chunks'!

Spray your pan with the cooking spray, then line the bottom with parchment - I used a strip of parchment that covered the bottom and folded out over the edges of the pan.  With the parchment in the dish, spray again - this stuff sticks like fluffy glue.  The spraying part - crucial although you could skip the parchment (makes it a hell of a lot easier to get it out of the pan)

To start, pour 3/4 of a cup of water into a heat proof bowl (or double boiler with a handle -you'll thank me later).  sprinkle gelatin over the water and set aside for a couple min. to soften.  meanwhile boil a bit of water on the stove for your double boiler.

In a separate sauce pot, combine 3/4 cup of water, with the sugar, and corn syrup.  Over medium heat, simmer until the sugar is melted into a simple syrup.  Turn the heat up a bit and using a candy thermometer, simmer until the syrup reaches 260 degrees.

Put your gelatin mix in the bowl over a bit of hot water, and whisk until the gelatin is fully dissolved, add your flavors here - my most recent batch had orange blossom water in it - then set it aside.   

 In your biggest bowl, whisk your egg whites using your electric hand mixer (or standing mixer if you have one) until you have stiff (but not dry) peaks. Set it aside for a moment.

Slowly whisk the gelatin and sugar mixture together (pour gelatin over sugar while whisking).  The hot sugar is going to react rather violently bubbling up and trying to spill over the edge of the pot, so go slowly especially for the first couple of drops.  (Sort of like tempering an egg mixture)


With the mixer on, pour the gelatin and sugar mix into the eggs.  Now this is the part that's going to take some work - you need to whisk the combined mix on high speed until it thickens significantly.  It took me just under 10 minutes with my electric hand mixer - but most instructions I found online specify somewhere from 12 to 15.   Honestly at 10 min the mixture got so thick it started bending the tines on my whisk so I had to stop.  Essentially you want to stop when the mixture starts to get kind of stiff - when the bubbles hold for a while or don't pop at all.  If you keep whipping, you'll find the mixture difficult to work with which is fine, it makes neat shapes, but if you're going to add marbling or want to shoot for somewhat evenly shaped final marshmallows, stop while there's still some fluidity :)

Scrape the mixture into your prepared pan, on top of the parchment and spread it out evenly (or try to).  You could probably use a second piece of greased parchment to help flatten it out - I didn't bother, I kind of like that remedial home made look.   If you want to this is where you want to drip a bit of red food coloring onto the surface, then using a chopstick or toothpick, swirl it around a bit to make designs.  Mine looked a little more Halloween Massacre than wish-you-a-merry-Christmas at this stage, but don't worry when you cut the marshmallows they look very festive!

Let the whole pan set for a minimum of three hours at room temp, uncovered (or lightly covered overnight) to set and dry.  Cut (scissors work well for here rather than a knife) and dust with powdered sugar to serve or store.

Here they are in 'Red Velvet' flavor.  Substitute chocolate extract for mint, and add red food coloring (a ton of it!) I would recommend using gel food color to minimize impact of the color on the consistency of the marshmallows. 

I dusted these with white powdered sugar (to represent the cream cheese frosting) and they'll be going on a stick with a chunk of chocolate fudge for hot cocoa on a stick! 

Enjoy!!

Borscht!

I've had it in my head for a while now that I was going to take a shot at this - although I'm not that big a fan of beets, I'm utterly enthralled by the color of this hearty soup so I had to give it a shot.

Though it's going to be a while before I manage to match the borscht at Veselka here in NY's East Village (that's what set me off on this mission in the first place), this version I cobbled together is still pretty damn good.

It seems to be that the key here is to sort out a hearty, flavorful, savory broth base on which to build.  Ready?  OK!

Stuff you'll need

• Beef broth (I used a whole 32oz container)
• 4 or 5 medium sized beets, whole - don't peel them yet. (you could use canned beets{3 cans}, but at the moment they're in season so why would you?)
• Cooking liquid from the beets (or liquid from the canned beets)
• 3-4 stalks of celery chopped
• two medium sized carrots chopped (or not - personally I forgot the carrots and it was still good)
• Small to medium sized head of cabbage, shredded
• 2-3 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• couple sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon(+) of 5 spice powder (most recipes I saw called for a teaspoon of allspice berries, but I didn't have any so I substituted 5 spice powder)
• 2 medium sized potatoes diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1-2 lbs pork shoulder
• 3 - 4 good sized soup bones (I like the ones with a healthy chunk of marrow - good snacking!)
• Salt (kosher works better) to taste
• Pepper to taste

You're going to need a couple of huge pots for this.  Start with the beets - boil them with the skin on until tender.  Save the cooking water (which should be an eye watering shade of pink now) and peel and dice the beets. Set aside both the beets and the liquid.

Now the broth - cook the pork shoulder, in beef broth, with bay leaf, 5 spice powder/allspice berries, beef soup bones and salt and pepper to taste - be careful with the salt, it's possible the broth is already well salted. If you're able to find a boneless pork shoulder, cut the meat into chunks to facilitate cooking.  The first time I did it, I cooked it for about 30 min stove top, cut it up and added it to the broth to finish, the second time I cooked the pork in the beef broth in a slow cooker for about 2 hours.  Personally I liked the slow cooked results better, the broth was heartier and richer, the marrows dissolved almost completely into the broth (denying me of my snack but wow was it worth it).  I'd recommend slow cooking if you have the time (plan ahead it's worth it!)

In another large pot, pour a generous splash of oil - I used olive, but vegetable oil would be good here too - something flavor neutral.  Add garlic and onions, and sweat them till they start to become translucent.

Turn down the heat and add the potatoes, cooking them till they start to soften, add carrots, celery, and cabbage, and sweat the whole mix, letting the vegetables cook through without browning.  A tip for the order to add veggies - add the hardest ones first, like the carrots -  let them cook a bit then add the softer ones it'll help even out the texture and assists with timing.

Once the meat is cooked through, pour the entire pot of meat broth off into this pot with the veggies - this is going to create the base of the borscht. Add a splash of white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar if you prefer) - add vinegar sparingly, you can always add more but you can't fish it out..

If you've already diced up the meat, add that now, otherwise dice up the pork shoulder to spoon friendly pieces.  Let this simmer for a couple minutes to blend the flavors (like +/-10min).  You're looking for an intensely savory soup with a slight vinegar flavor. If it seems a little bit sour or salty, it's OK the beet liquid is sweet and it'll temper the salt and vinegar.

Now the fun part - add the cooking liquid from the beets, along with the diced beets to the  mix - adding it last ensures the color remains vibrant - over cooking at this point will change the color from vivid magenta to tomato red.  Warm the entire pot through and simmer it for a couple or 5 minutes and you're done!

I'm imagining this with a thick slice of toasted sour dough....

Enjoy!!

Coconut Macaroons by the Gentile

Masha needs her macaroons NOW and I don't know if you've ever tried to get between her and her macaroons but it's just unwise so here it is.  Yep. I said it.

Stuff you'll need;

• One package shredded coconut (about 3 cups) (I suggest the unsweetened if you can get it otherwise they get too sugary)
• One can sweetened condensed milk
• Two egg whites - beaten stiff
• 1 tsp cream of tartar (to beat the egg whites)
• 1tsp almond extract (or vanilla - that's good too)

Oven to 350

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.  In a separate bowl, combine coconut, condensed milk and extract, forming a thick putty or paste.   Fold the egg white mix into the coconut mix gently (don't want to destroy the egg whites.)

Drop heaping spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet (or use a silpat - my favorite tool) with enough space in between for a little bit of spread, bake for 8 to 12 min until the edges become golden brown.

If you really want to be schmancy, you can melt down some chocolate and carefully dip the macaroons into them for a little twist!

The gentile girl brings dessert....Enjoy!!

Butternut, bacon and white bean ravioli

It's Autumn, which makes me feel like it's time for some kind of comfort food.  Plus I've seen butternut squash all over the place and it's as though it's calling to me so that's the impetus for this dish.  There are tons of options on what to put in the middle - blanched spinach with sausage and ricotta comes to mine - or a veggie mix perhaps?  If you're using fresh pasta (below) you'll want to make sure that your filling is pre-cooked, as the actual boiling time of the ravioli is not long enough to cook fillings through.

Stuff you'll need:

• 2 - 3 cups of butternut squash,  roasted (instructions below) and smashed
• 5 Spice powder
• Olive oil
• One clove of garlic - diced up
• sweet onion diced into small bits (optional)
• 3 tablespoons of heavy cream (give or take)
• 3 tablespoons of water (give or take)
• 1/2 cup of bacon - diced (up to a cup if you, like me, are a bacon lover...)
• 1/2 cup of white beans
• 4 cups semolina flour + enough to dust surfaces and coat finished ravioli
• 2 cup of water
• 1 (or 2 - let's be honest butter is awesome...) stick of butter or 4oz of home made butter
• Handful of fresh sage (chopped)

There are a lot of steps to this but the pay off is sooo worth it and none of the steps is difficult - ready?

Heat the oven to 400.

Starting with the squash - peel and cut into 1 to 2 inch chunks, put it in a bowl and toss with a splash of olive oil and 5 spice powder to coat.  Lay the chunks of seasoned squash in a roasting pan with high sides, spread the squash out to an even layer (I used my silpat which doesn't actually fit in the pan, but makes for super easy clean up, parchment would help as an alternative - the squash is high in sugar and will stick like crazy to your cookwear when it starts to caramelize in the oven)

Put the diced squash into the oven and roast for about 40 to 50 min till tender.  Pull the squash out, and let it cool for a couple min. then using a fork make a nice mash of the squash.  Set it aside.

Find a pan that is large enough for the squash, beans and bacon combined - I used a saute pan.  Drop the diced bacon and stir while cooking - you're going for softened and caramelized, but not crunchy -  you don't want crunchy, crunchy bits inside of ravioli can be unsettling...

Add the garlic (and onions if you're using them), and continue to stir as they cook, letting them caramelize and become translucent. Turn off the heat, and set aside to let the temp come down a bit.  We'll get back to this in a little bit when it's cooled off.

We're going to take a second to attend to the pasta here.  In a large mixing bowl, add one cup of water to two cups of semolina flour - stir well to incorporate, it should result in a firm if slightly sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a well floured counter and knead till you have a smooth ball.  Cover with plastic wrap, making sure the wrap touches the surface of the dough and place in the refrigerator for 30 min.  The glutens have to have time to do their thing in order to ensure that you have pasta that cooks to a nice al dente rather than dissolve when they hit the water.

Now, back to the filling.  Add canned white beans to the bacon/onion mix, and stir, then fold in the butternut (folding will keep the beans intact) and add the cream bit by bit - you want to get a paste like consistency without annihilating the beans.

Transfer the filling mix to a covered container and place in the refrigerator for the time being, and back to the noodles.

Retrieve your pasta dough, and turn out onto a well floured surface.  My kitchen space is limited so I had to break my pasta dough into 3 portions.  Roll the pasta out to thin sheets, but not so thin that you can see through or that light comes through, add more flour to the rolling usrface as you need it to prevent the pasta from sticking.

You have a couple of method options here, you can put dollops of filling on one side, fold in half, seal and cut or you can roll a second sheet, put dollops of filling on one side, seal and cover and cut random shapes, or you can do what I did - make square (ish) ravioli.  I'll explain what I did, but have fun with this - there are no rules!  the imperfections are what make the ravioli a rustic home made look.

I cut the pasta into two fat strips and put spoonfuls of filling evenly spaced on one of the two.  Then brush the edges and in between the filling portions with an egg wash (one egg beaten with water added)  like this;

Try to push out as much air as possible around the filling as you seal the ravioli, and be careful not to tear the pasta. Press the edges to seal the filling in - you could actually use cookie cutters to seal the pasta and make fun shapes as well, or the tines of a fork to make fancy crimps around the edge.  You should wind up with your variation of something like this;

You'll want to set the ravioli aside to dry for about an hour before cooking, which will help give it a nice final texture.

To serve the ravioli;

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil -you want to make sure you have enough space in the pot for the raviolis to move about so they don't stick together.  Add the ravioli carefully - no splashing - and allow them to cook for about 5 minutes.  

In a separate pan, melt down a stick or two of butter - add the sage and let it brew over medium heat while the pasta cooks - the butter should start to brown just a bit, and you'll smell the sage in the butter.  When the ravioli is just about done, remove them one at a time from the pot and slide them into the melted butter - be careful, it'll sizzle up a bit.  Slide the ravioli around a bit to coat them, then plate and serve em up!

I was so hungry I neglected to take a proper photo of the final dish but here's a poorly lit camera phone snapshot so you can get an idea of what you're going to get;

Sprinkle a little bit of Parmesan and a touch of sea salt on top for a nice contrast to the sweet filling, and voila you have  your home made ravioli!!

Enjoy!