Top Your Own Pizza Party

This past Sunday, L., M., P., and our respective +1s came over for the latest round of Cook Club. We had all semi-tacitly agreed that it would be a more casual affair this time, and for whatever reason, I settled on making pizza. I made a bunch of antipasti/salads, prepped the toppings, made the dough, went a little crazy at Murrays’, and let everyone do their own thing. 

The pre-pizza spread: kidney beans with shallots and parsley; pan-seared shishito peppers; Treviso potato salad (with radicchio, from Lynne Rossetto Kasper); Sweet and Sour Grilled Pumpkin (which I’ve made before); Shredded Collard Greens with Walnuts and Pickled Apples; and sweet-tart salad of basil, sorrel, and apple (also from Rossetto Kasper–this was the star of the show, I think).

Really, though, the point is the pizza. Because of the limited amount of space in my oven, and also in my kitchen, we made our pizzas in pairs. But pizza only takes 10 minutes to cook (which I know to be a fact, from my summer working at Panzone’s) and cheese retains heat better than just about anything, so we all still ate at roughly the same time. I’d made pesto, and tomato sauce (from the many pounds of tomatoes A. and I picked up at Stoneledge), roasted peppers, made “oven-candied” tomatoes, cooked up some sausage, caramelize some onions, and bough pepperoni and mushrooms.

Enough with the preamble. Here are our beautiful creations:

For dessert, we had cookies and ice cream. There had been a request for a repeat of the pink peppercorn ice cream I made back in May, and who am I to deny someone ice cream? It’s a pretty basic vanilla custard base, with the addition of a tablespoon of ground pink peppercorns (separate post to come on that, probably). And then when you make ice cream, you wind up with a lot of unused egg whites–so I was pleased to find a recipe for something called Chocolate Puddle Cookies on 101 Cookbooks that requires a lot of them.

More photos of everything here.

It was, as always, a lovely evening in wonderful company. I am so, so glad that we started Cook Club. I think we could probably be eating take out and drinking box wine (not to knock box wine–there are some really good ones out there) and have just as good a time together, but thankfully, we have the option to have homemade meals with good friends, and who could ask for more than that?

On Grilling

So I brought what was left with me to the shore this weekend–a lot of lettuce, plus some baby summer squash, part of a head of radicchio, and part of a fennel bulb.

Q: What do these vegetables have in common?

A: Along with bell pepper and onion, they are wonderful on the grill, with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Here we see the finished product, along with my mom’s dog Libby and a beautiful LBI sunset:

(three of my favorite things in the world, all in one photo)

The rest of dinner consisted of cheeseburgers and fresh Jersey corn. Summer on a plate.

Catching Up and Falling Behind

I have not been very good about taking pictures of anything lately. I think it’s becoming clear that food photography is not something at which I excel, nor is it something about which I get especially excited. Then there’s the fact that sometimes I just forget to pull out my camera.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking this week. Last night, M. and I went over to R.’s apartment, and I brought Mowgli, too, and we made a lovely dinner with some greenmarket and Whole Foods supplements.

First there was this salad, though we subbed in escarole for arugula. Important to note is that, prior to making this salad, I had never prepared fennel before. And it turns out that I do not really know how to cut it properly. But I’ll be prepared for next time.

Then we did a pasta dish with summer squash, chicken, goat cheese, and fresh herbs that was partly inspired by a Tyler Florence recipe. Yeah, no pictures of that, either. I promise, though, it was delicious.

At the end of the evening, I lucked out and M. sent me home not only with some leftover pasta, but also a huge bunch of extra basil. So tonight I made some pesto (the official Cuisinart recipe), and tossed it together with some quinoa, lettuce, ricotta salata, and sauteed escarole and radicchio, and was pleasantly surprised at how cohesive that mix was.

Also, on Tastespotting today I saw a recipe for Ice Cold Cucumber Juice. I made a few tweaks, and drank the whole batch myself.

It doesn’t really look like anything special, but I promise, when it’s 85F and 85% humidity, this is what you want to drink.

Penne with Chicken, Summer Squash, and Goat Cheese
(note: amounts are completely from memory and therefore probably wrong)

1 lb. summer squash, cut into large bites
1 1/2 lbs. chicken breasts
3/4 lb. penne
1 oz. goat cheese
juice of half a lemon
handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped
half a handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped
butter
olive oil
salt and pepper

Cook pasta according to package instructions.

Pound out the chicken a bit and season with salt and pepper. Cook in olive oil in a large skillet, then remove to a plate and set aside. Add a tablespoon or so of butter and the squash, and some salt and pepper, and cook over medium-low heat until cooked to your liking, 5-10 minutes probably. Turn off the heat and add the goat cheese to the pan to soften into a thick sauce, almost.

Cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces, then toss that with the pasta, the squash & goat cheese, the lemon juice, and the fresh herbs. Season with salt & pepper and serve.

Cuisinart Pesto

2 c. basil leaves, pretty tightly packed
3 oz. parmesan (chunks, not shredded)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 c. pine nuts
1/2 tsp. salt (this is my only variation, honestly–their recipe is shockingly salty even to my palate)
1/2 c. olive oil

Put all the ingredients except the oil in the cuisinart. Pulse several times, and then drizzle in the oil with the machine running. Try not to just eat it all with a spoon.

Cucumber Smoothie

1 large cucumber, or alternately 1 medium slicing cucumber and 1 small heirloom, peeled and chopped roughly
juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp mint leaves, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp honey
1 c. ice water (meaning put ice cubes in the measuring cup and then fill to the 1-cup line with water)

Put all ingredients in the blender. Serve over ice.

Leftover Night

Inevitably, when I come home on Monday evening with my arms loaded up with fresh produce, there are still a few stragglers from the previous week’s shipment, things where I hadn’t gotten around to finding just the right recipe yet. This week, I had a bunch of red sorrel, about a half a head of radicchio (from two weeks ago, actually), and some ragged beet greens. Also lying around were a couple of eggs, and a potato. The answer: a spanish omelet with sorrel sauce, and sauteed radicchio with whatever I could salvage from the beet greens. (Apparently, sorrel is almost always served with eggs or potatoes. I did not know this. I had it once in a cooking class with grilled squid, which was delicious.)

First the sorrel sauce, again courtesy of Deborah Madison. Melt some butter in a saute pan, throw in the sorrel leaves (you’re supposed to chop them up first–luckily I was using cast iron so it didn’t matter that I forgot) with a little water, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the leaves are all broken down and cooked. Put in a little salt and there you go. (This was red sorrel, so the final product was kind of brownish and not overly pleasing to the eye, but it was very good still.)

Then for the omelet, which I had forgotten how much I like. All you need is a little potato, a little onion, some cheese (my sevillana host-mom’s secret ingredient), and some eggs.

The fun part is flipping it. Rather than a fritatta, where you stick it under the broiler for the last few minutes, with a tortilla española, you cook it partway through, cover the pan with a plate, flip it over, and slide it back into the pan.

Meanwhile, the greens were cooked in a mix of ghee and olive oil, because it seemed like a good idea.

End result was quite satisfying, if not the quickest of Monday night dinners.

Tortilla Española
serves 1 very hungry person
(technically this recipe does not include anything from the CSA)

1 yukon gold potato, 3-4 oz, diced
1/4 c diced onion
2 eggs
1-2 Tbsp milk or cream
1-2 Tbsp grated cheese (gruyere works well)
salt and pepper
butter and/or olive oil

Saute the potato and onion in the butter/olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat, until the potato is just cooked through and lightly browned. Scramble up the eggs with the grated cheese and milk, and pour it over the potatoes and onions. Let cook most of the way through. Put an inverted plate over the pan and flip the pan upside down, then slide the omelet back into the pan to cook the rest of the way.

In Which I Begin to Repeat Myself

It was bound to happen eventually. The whole purpose of writing this blog was to keep track of recipes I’d found and liked–it’s not called CookSomethingNewEveryDay.blogspot.com (although now I find myself wondering if that url is taken…). Last Thursday, J. and her friend M. came over for dinner, and we had a radicchio salad and stuffed pattypan squash. Specifically, we had this radicchio salad and these stuffed squash.

I can comfort the neophile in me by explaining that it was Travisio radicchio, and comte rather than parmesan in the salad (which M. and J. had quite a time buying–it turns out that even though the wonderful bakery around the corner sells Artisanal cheese, one should not therefore assume that the counter staff knows the first thing about cheese, or that the cheeses listed on a sign on the counter are, in fact, the ones in stock).

Also, I had both Starship and Sunburst squash this time, and the stuffing was with bulgur wheat, and we added some pine nuts and sultanas.

In any case, you can’t eat novelty. And there is a reason people keep recipe books–because when you like to eat something, you probably want to eat it again.

The Importance of a Sinkful of Cold Water

So the thing about getting your veggies from an organic farm–instead of, say, your average supermarket–is that they tend to be very dirty. Therefore, a sinkful of water is your best friend. Though I admit that I was surprised at how much dirt there was inside this relatively tightly packed head of radicchio.

The recipe for tonight’s dinner was courtesy of the veggie “tip sheet” distributed by the CSA. Start off with some garlic and rosemary (yay windowbox!)

Cook in some oil over low heat

add some beans & vinegar

and toss together with the radicchio, some red onion, and shaved parmesan

Serve with some good bread, and in this case, a few rat tail radishes cuz they’re just so cool looking.

Incidentally, do you know what does not photograph well? The process of baking zucchini bread. Doesn’t matter, though, because it still tastes good (thanks, Williams-Sonoma!).

Also difficult to photograph? Anything stir-fried. Like Sweet and Sour Cabbage with Tofu and Grains. (not pictured, but very good, especially with a little Chili Garlic Sauce.)