Pantry Cooking and some News.

This won't be news to everyone, but Boyfriend and I are finally making the big step and moving in together.  Yeah, I know, this isn't really the shock-and-awe statement I'm sure you were expecting, but the only man I've ever lived with was my father and I had originally hoped it would stay that way until I was married.  This topic used to be a pretty huge deal to me.  So what changed?  Hmm... I'm older, theoretically wiser, and living in a fairly expensive city.  Oh.  And I love Boyfriend.  Can't forget about that little fact! We spend nearly every night together as it is, and I've finally decided that it would make a whole lot more sense for both of us for me to discard my silly inhibitions on living together so that we could start saving a little money.  We're not in our 20's anymore and having a savings account sure would be a nice change of pace.

So that was the news.  Do with it as you please.

And what does that have to with this post?  Well, in my super-nerdom, I've made a spreadsheet inventorying the contents of my pantry, fridge, and freezer.  My goal is to eat up as much of it as possible, as deliciously as possible, prior to the big move.  I've already got enough junk to haul up to our lovely 4th floor walk up, and boxes of pasta, 4 jars of Dijon mustard (what? I don't have a problem....not at all) needn't be part of it.

Best pantry meal of all time?  Pizza.  You can put ANYTHING on a pizza.  Hell, Todd English got famous off what was probably a late-night drunk/high concoction, now famously known at Olives as the Fig & Proscuitto Pizza. I can see it now:

TE: duuuude, I'm hammered, let's get pizza....
TE friend:  yeah, man... wait, you're a chef, why don't you make one, Mr. Chef-y Pants?
TE: Can't, all I've got is some fig jam... 
TE friend: and bacon....
TE and Friend: ...>mischievous smiles<.....

A legend was born! That's how it goes in my head anyway....

Sooo, yeah.  That's the long, mostly made-up story about how I decided to use what I had in my pantry to make a pizza for dinner.  Way more interesting than had I just started this post with, "So I made a pizza", right?

Dough: See here.

Sauce: In a saucepan, heat 1 small can of tomato paste, 1/4 C water, 2 chopped roma tomatoes, 1 tbsp sugar, a splash of red wine, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper... and cook until nice and thickened.

Toppings: Whatever you have.  I used chopped mushrooms, kalamata olives, onions, and some cooked Italian sausage (from my CSA meat share).

Cheese: Ricotta (see how to make your own, here) and a sprinkle of grated Parmesan. 

Bake on a pizza stone or cookie tray for 10-15min in a 425F or until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is nice and golden brown.

To plate: A sprinkle of red pepper flakes and basil makes it perfect.  A salad lets you pretend its good for you.

Not the most interesting of dinners, I'll admit.  But damn tasty nonetheless!  Continue checking the blog over the next couple of weeks as my pantry gets thinner and the meals are forced to become more... uhm, how you say... creative?

3 Cheese and Kale Pizza

So, funny story.  Back when I was younger (aka the majority of my 20's) I was convinced that I didn't like pizza.  I know!  Crazy!  Who in their right mind doesn't like pizza?!?!?  I always found it super-filling, yet strangely un-satisfying.  I don't know about you, but when I feel like my stomach going to explode, I want to be completely satiated, not just full.

I blame this on Pizza Hut (high-school years) and Papa John's (late-night drunk college years).

Anyway, my best friend and roommate in graduate school worked very hard to change all of that.  She grew up in Chicago and ate pizza at least 5 times a week.  I wish I was exaggerating.  She thought I was crazy when I'd order a salad at our local pizza joint.  I now realize how correct she actually was... I was completely batshit.

This is the "Greens" time of the year for the CSA crowd so I'll do my best to make it fun and exciting.  Today, I decided to make it a star ingredient in a vegetarian pizza. I got a monster-bunch of kale this week, so I cleaned it, chopped it up, and threw it in a skillet with some olive oil, and let it cook down for about 10min.

After that was done, I caramelized some onions in the same pan, wiping out the kale juice and adding 1 tbsp butter and some more olive oil.  Caramelizing onions is a bitch but they are just so damn tasty.  Low heat, don't stir too often, be patient.  I, unfortunately, wasn't patient enough and mine were soft but still yellow-ish instead of dark brown.  Oh well. 

 

In the meantime, it's dough-time!  This is the first pizza dough I've ever made.  I used Mario Batali's recipe, which you can find here. It turned out really good, but I might try some variations on this just to experiment.

*dough rising.... rising..... RISING....RISING!  There was a lot of yeast in Mario's recipe so I'm not surprised....

I preheated my *new* pizza stone in the oven set at 500F while I assembled my pizza.  I rolled out the dough on a cornmeal-coated parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Topped it with a drizzle of olive oil, some fontina cheese, some of my homemade ricotta, the caramelized onions, and the cooked kale.  I finished it off with a sprinkle of fresh grated Parmesan cheese and threw it in the oven.

 

 *before*

I let it cook for about 15minutes or until the crust looked golden brown and the cheese was gooey and bubbling.  Here it is fresh out of the oven:

I literally went running into the living room where Boyfriend was doing work, jumped around like a little girl, and shrieked about how perfect this pizza turned out.  I believe I may have called it my "masterpiece".  I told (shrieked at) him to get excited because this pizza was going to "blow his mind".  He stared at me like I had just blown a gasket and the Laura-train was now officially headed straight to Batshit-Crazy Town.

What?  So I get excited about cooking... that's why I have a blog, remember? :)

Before slicing and devouring, I drizzled some truffle oil over the top, just to really go overboard with it.

So cheesy, so flavorful, so SATISFYING! :) I win.