Old Dog, New Tricks

After almost 100 posts (this is 99), I am really proud to say that I am officially competent in the kitchen.  Most of the past posts were about what “we” cooked, but honestly, JustAwesome was taking the lead and I was running backup/sous chef/dishwasher.

Last night I made some really great pizzas—the dough, the sauce,  the toppings, etc.—all by myself. Generally, I feel shy about cooking for guests, but last night I was rockin’ and rollin,’ baby!! The pizzas were delicious. I also made a caesar-like salad (from the Frankies’ book) with homemade croutons.

I felt a little anxious during the first pizza but once I saw how well it was going, I was able to relax... I should also say that I was beta-testing a pizza app put out by our friends at Pizza A Casa and it was like having Mark Bello in the apartment with me, coaching me along. Greatest App Ever. Fucking awesome.

Pasta A Casa!

The quality of our lives changed dramatically in the fall of 2008, when JustAwesome took a pizza-making class with pizza guru, Mark Bello from PizzaACasa. Well, yesterday we took his pasta class. It was soooooo much fun. I can only imagine what our lives’ll be like now...

Here are some of the things we made:

Plucking the pasta chitarra (guitar)

Cacio e pepe ala chitarra

Ravioli

Pumpkin Pappardelle

with brown butter and crispy sage leaves

Mini Pizzas with Mini Me(s)

I don’t see what the big deal is about kids. They’re so easy! Honestly, I've never watched my niece and nephew (age 5) before, not even for a half hour, so I was a little nervous. And they were so excited—asking my sister about when they were coming—everyday. For weeks. My feeling? They were going to disappointed. Very disappointed. Too much build up. It was their first sleepover, would there be tears in the night?

Plans:

Ride subway to Jacque Torres for hot chocolates (we spoke to a police officer on the platform)

Play with Scout the dog

Play wii

Make pizza*

Do arts/crafts

Read Beezus and Ramona

Go to sleep

Make Batter Blasters pancakes (letters and shapes are hard!)

Walk dog

Play in Playground (awesome one on Hester St)

Eat dumplings

Go home

Play wii again

Say goodbye

Take nap

*I gave them 3 choices for dinner: liver and onions, anchovy soup, or pizza

A New Addition

It is with great joy that JustAwesome and I welcome a new addition to the Feral Cook pizza repertoire. Stolen from Roberta’s, the best (hands down) pizza place in New York City, I present:

Salad Nicoise Pizza

Potato pizza with a tuna/egg mixture tossed with arugula, green beans and a sicilian green sauce. So bright and tasty. She makes us smile.

September 18, 2010

7:17 p.m

13 inches

Salad Nicoise Pizza

Sicilian Green Sauce

Tuna-Egg Mixture

Also on the menu tonight:

• margherita

• smoked ricotta, basil, parmesan and mozzarella (2x)

Smoked Ricotta

Serve salad with Karen Skurka’s Lazy Girl Dressing (in the comment).

Drink beer in frosty glasses and homemade blueberry soda.

Young Pizza Lover with Tiny Pineapple

Ramp it up! And, Dressing 2.

For the food snobs out there, I know, enough with the ramps. For everyone else though, they are a new and exciting, seasonal vegetable. Who doesn’t like some variety? As you can see from the link, ramps are wild leeks. They’re really flavorful.

The scene is pizza night, our house. Night number two of the dressing challenge for JustAwesome. We wanted to try a ramp pizza. But what cheese to use? Fortunately we are blessed with an amazing cheesemonger, Saxelby Cheese, a few blocks away at the Essex Street Market. We were steered towards a super stinky cheese called Fromage de Cow. Funky and AMAZING!! (Thank you, Anne!).

The salad was beautiful, though I can’t remember what kind of mix we got (from the Union Square Farmers’ Market). It had flowers and spicy arugula sprouts and whoknowswhatelse; there were at least 8 different types of leaves in it. Delicious. For the dressing, we went with a simple French dressing, posted as a comment by cousin Cath in Thoiry, France, which is about a half hour from Geneva. Cath is able to whip up amazing dressings without a thought. She has a real gift.

This is her recipe. (Thank you, Cath!)

French Dressing

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp salt

lots of black pepper

Shake or whisk well.

Add honey or sugar to sweeten.

Pizza night!

One batch of dough makes 4 pizzas, which is the perfect amount of pizza for 4 people. (Unless you invite my stepmother, then you can invite a fifth). I joke that pizza night is really easy and relaxing. It kind of is for me, JustAwesome does all the work. I usually get the ingredients. The trick is great ingredients. Thankyouverymuch.

Margherita ala JA

The History of Pizza (in our house)
JA took a class with pizza legend Mark Bello, pie pro and founder of Pizza A Casa, which was held at our local Whole Foods. Usually he hosts classes in his apartment but starting on April 15, he’ll be opening a school on our block. He’ll teach you how to make great dough, in a regular house oven, as opposed to a pro oven that goes up to a bazillion degrees. You’ll never order in again. Take this class, it is a tasty and fun way to spend an afternoon and it’ll change your life.

Pizza in Thoiry, homemade peel

The Competition
JA’s whole family is really into making pizza. From Edinburgh to Thoiry, France to San Francisco, great pizza is being made. JA made a batch in France last Easter, for which Cousin Dan made a peel in his private wood shop (in about 15 minutes!). These people mean business.

YUM!

On the Menu
We always serve a Margherita — fresh mozzarella, a simple, uncooked red sauce, pecorino and finished with basil. One of the pies is often a smoked mozzarella with sun-dried tomato and a spritz of balsamic. Usually, we have one or two “experimental pies.” My favorite is a white pie of sauteed potato and leek with pecorino, rosemary and finished with truffle oil. Last night JA went all Mario Batali and threw an egg on top (and fresh oregano). It was rich and yummy tasting. We’ll be doing this again. Our fourth had fresh ricotta with basil and the “good” olive oil. The ricotta hails from Salvatore Brooklyn. You MUST try. And try their smoked version. Anne sells it.

I like to throw arugula on my slices.

Finish

Wash down with wine or beer. Chase with gelato from the Lab. (The caramel was made 10 minutes before I bought it!)

Any ideas for future experimental pies?