Macaroni and Cheese is one of Jeff's go-to comfort foods. He likes to put it on everything. He will even make a sandwich with it, so I thought he would really enjoy this week's recipe. I originally thought, just by looking at the title, that it was going to be a regular pizza crust, with macaroni and cheese spread over the top of it. It intrigued me that the noodle dish was actually going to form the crust of the pizza. I had never heard of, nor thought of, doing something like that. This sounded to me like a heart attack special: macaroni and cheese, made stickier by adding cheese, spreading tomato sauce over it, and covering it in more cheese, topped with Canadian bacon. It was a good thing the other pizza was a salad (more or less).
I started my preparations for the salad pizza by making the dough. I thought about using one that I had on hand in the freezer, but my herbs have gotten so out of hand that they were choking themselves out in their pots. I figured I should use them while it is still summer, and they are still available. The recipe called for an herb crust or a whole wheat crust, and I decided to combine the two options.
WHOLE WHEAT HERB DOUGH
Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
2¼ cup bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped sage leaves
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon leaves
2 tablespoons chopped oregano leaves
Combine the yeast, sugar, and water in a small bowl. Set aside for at least five minutes. Stir the two types of flour and the salt together in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the olive oil and the yeast mixture and stir until well combined. Add the herbs and continue to mix on a low speed until dough becomes smooth and elastic and all of the herbs are incorporated (you may have to knead a little bit by hand to get all of the herbs to combine with the dough). Place dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a towel, and place in a warm place for at least an hour or until dough doubles in size. Punch down and roll out as directed in the pizza recipe.
I concentrated on the oregano for the herb crust this time. Most of what I had was flowering, and it seemed to be the most prolific herb out on my deck. I snipped a bunch of that, a bunch of rosemary, and a little sage. While the dough was coming together, I was chopping my herbs. By the time I had gotten them into the bowl, the dough was almost done. It took a little effort and a little hand-kneading on my part to incorporate all of the herbs into the dough.
Once I had gotten all of the herbs into the dough, I started on the balsamic vinaigrette for the salad that was going to go on my herb crust. The recipe called for a "fruity" olive oil, and I had just the thing. When I visited my parents in Palm Springs over the winter, I bought some citrus olive oil. I kept forgetting that I had it, and a salad dressing seemed like the perfect use for it. I combined the olive oil and other ingredients for the dressing and set it aside. It didn't seem like a lot of dressing for four cups of salad.
I looked over the macaroni and cheese recipe. I had thought that I might be able to make a batch of macaroni and cheese and eat some of it for lunch, but the recipe called for 4 cups of macaroni and cheese, and my Members Mark brand box of macaroni and cheese only made three cups, according to the package. I thought about making two boxes of it, so I would have enough for the pizza and enough for lunch, but I thought better of it. I didn't want to spoil my appetite for the classic kid-food before I even started assembling the pizza.
I followed the directions on the box, which I normally don't do when making boxed macaroni and cheese. I usually just guess at the measurements, and I use whatever milk products I may have on hand, and sometimes I just increase the butter to compensate for the fact that I don't have any milk products. I actually measured the milk out this time, though. I used the same measuring cup that I measured the olive oil in. Unfortunately, I realized my error as soon as I finished combining all of the ingredients. Actually, it was shortly thereafter, during the sampling part of the the project. I dipped a spoon in the neon orange concoction and had a little taste of it. The citrus from the olive oil was extremely prevalent. It was almost as if I had squeezed a lemon over the noodles. I thought about starting over with a new batch, but I didn't. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I bet on the odds that once there was American cheese mixed in, tomato sauce on top of it, more cheese on top of that, and a sprinkling of Canadian bacon, the only one that would be able to pick out the underlying citrus was me, because I knew it was there.
I quickly mixed in my two pieces of American cheese. I learned a little something when we were shopping for this. I thought that there was American cheese and that was it. However, it turns out that there are subcategories of American cheese. There is Regular American Cheese, Sharp Cheddar American Cheese, and Hot Pepper American Cheese. This may be something that Kraft has just made up - highly likely, since apparently Kraft invented what we now call American Cheese. I opted for the "Sharp Cheddar" variety.
After my dough had risen for a couple of hours, I rolled it out into two small circles. I was a little frustrated with the recipe, because it didn't indicate how large these circles should be. I made an executive decision, based on the fact that it suggested each half of the pizza was one serving. I decided that they were going to be about ten inches.
The recipe had called for one cup of grated Parmesan and indicated that it should be about 4 ounces. I measured out my Parmesan, and one cup came to 2 ounces of cheese. My cup was packed pretty well, too. I didn't cram the cheese in there or anything, but I did apply a little pressure to get more into the cup. I had grated the cheese using a Microplane grater with small holes. Maybe because my shreds were so fine and fluffy they took up more space. I don't know. Whatever the reason was, I decided that two ounces was plenty (especially with 12 ounces of mozzarella) and went with it.
With everything measured out, and Pam and Jeff on their way here, I was ready to start assembling and baking.
SALAD PIZZA
Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza
Whole wheat herbed pizza dough (see above)
7 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons minced garlic
12 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
2 ounces Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 ounces mixed salad greens
2 ounces thinly sliced shallots
Preheat oven to 500º F. Cut dough in half and roll out into two 10 inch circles on cornmeal dusted boards or pizza peels. Brush 1½ teaspoons of olive oil over each of the two circles. Sprinkle one tablespoon of garlic over each of the two circles. Cover each with half of the mozzarella and half of the Parmesan. Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over each pizza. Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for about 10 minutes. While the crusts are baking, make the vinaigrette. Combine the vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, and ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) of olive oil in a small bowl. Whisk well to blend. Toss well with the salad greens. Remove the pizzas from the oven and mound half of the dressed salad greens over each one.
There really was a lot of cheese on the salad pizza base. I had a hard time piling it all on there. I just kept piling it and piling it until it was all gone. There must have been about an inch of cheese on top of that crust. I suspected that this should have been called cheese pizza with salad. Once Pam had arrived, I slid the two rounds into my preheated oven.
I quickly assembled the macaroni and cheese pizza, too. With the back of a spoon, I spread the tomato sauce over the layer of noodles. I sprinkled the mozzarella on top and studded the top with squares pieces of Canadian Bacon.
MAC-AND-CHEESE PIZZA
Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
2 slices of American Cheese (I used the sharp cheddar version)
3 cups just prepared macaroni and cheese (still hot)
1 cup pizza sauce (I used leftover "no cook" sauce from last week that I had frozen)
8 ounces mozzarella cheese
3 ounces Canadian Bacon
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Rip up the American Cheese and stir the pieces into the hot macaroni and cheese, allowing it to melt. Pour into a lightly buttered deep dish pie pan. Spread along the bottom of the pan and up the sides, creating a "crust". Spread pizza sauce over the macaroni and cheese. Top with mozzarella and sprinkle the Canadian Bacon over all. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cheese is just starting to brown. Place under a hot broiler for a minute or two, if need be, to get the top to brown. Let stand a few minutes before serving.
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With all three items in their prospective ovens, we started in on the drink of the week. I had just picked the next drink in the book that I had all of the ingredients for, since I didn't really want to spend any money. The first one I had everything for was the Bajito, which was perfect. I had an overabundance of mint and basil, so a drink that used both of those things was awesome. I already had a large supply of rum, and there were a few bottles of soda hanging around my basement.
BAJITO
Adapted from Diffordsguide Cocktails #6
6 fresh basil leaves
6 fresh mint leaves
½ teaspoon sugar in the raw
2 measures of light rum
1 measure freshly squeezed lime juice
¼ measure simple syrup
Soda
Muddle the mint and basil with the sugar in a tall glass. Add rum, lime juice, and syrup and stir vigorously to combine. Fill glass halfway with crushed ice. Add soda to fill glass. Stir. Enjoy.
I handed Pam her glass. She took a sip, and her eyes lit up. "This is really good!" she exclaimed. I took a sip. It was good. It was even better than a mojito. The basil seemed to even out the sharpness of the mint and it added a little savoriness to the drink.
When I told her what was in it and what it was called, she laughed out loud. I think she thought I made it up.
Despite the fact that the cheese pizzas were put in at the same time, into the same oven (which was set on convect bake), for the same amount of time, one of them got considerably more done than the other.
The author of the recipe had instructed that the pizzas should be covered with the salad, cut in half (for one serving), and the eater should fold the half in half on itself and eat it like a sandwich (sounds more like a taco to me). Pam and I decided that was entirely too much food to start off with, so we opted for the traditional triangular slices and a fork.
The citrus flavor from the olive oil was quite powerful. I second guessed using it in the vinaigrette. Pam thought it was lovely and cut nicely through all of the cheese. Jeff simply said it was great. I think if I were to do it again, I would use an olive oil that wasn't quite so fruity. Pam said she wouldn't change a thing.
The M&C pizza took a lot longer to bake than the recipe said. I had it in the 350º oven for almost twenty minutes before I switched it to broil and put it in for one more minute. The center still didn't brown, but I was worried that the noodles around the outside edge were getting too crunchy under all of that heat.
I neglected to follow the instruction to wait a couple minutes before serving, and there was no cohesion whatsoever to my slices. I may as well have been serving casserole instead of pizza. Wait! Wasn't I? It was very cheesy, and I couldn't taste one bit of citrus in it. The extra cheese and the tomato sauce had done a good job of masking that little snafu. It was rich and cheesy and salty. It was comforting and strange all at the same time. And, Jeff got his mac-n-cheese fix for the week.
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