Breakfast Pizza; Proscuitto, Herb, and Cheese Calzone; Bacardi Cocktail

     I sometimes wonder if always striving for something better, something greater in food has tarnished my view of things.  We have made, eaten, sampled so many fabulous things that few things seem to impress me any more.  I think back to a few years ago when I was leaving work to go to dinner with my husband for my birthday.  My dear friend, Paul Dahlen, said to me before I left, "Don't be disappointed."
     I thought it was a strange thing to say, and I asked him what he meant.  He explained to me that I frequently build up my expectations so high (especially for an upcoming meal at a new restaurant) that the actual meal itself can never meet them.  He went on to say that whenever he asks me about a particular event I had talked up, I always answer, "It was okay, but...."
     This week's pizzas were okay, but... They didn't wow me.  The breakfast pizza - bacon, eggs, and cheese on a pizza biscuit - was good, but it was a little futsy for the flavor outcome.  I like the idea of having breakfast for dinner, and we occasionally do, but if it isn't going to be breakfast, there should be something extra special about it.  At the very least, it should be over the top cheesy, maybe a little garlicky (of course I added garlic, even though the recipe didn't call for it), and maybe even it should have had some pepperoni fried up like bacon instead of bacon itself.  Although, I think that would be a tough call, too.  I do love my bacon.  Maybe what it needed was an infusion of fresh herbs or fresh peppers.  I wish I had thought of that before completing the dish.
     I had been really looking forward to the calzone.  It had been a long time since I had eaten prosciutto.  I couldn't help but sample a piece of that silky, salty meat as soon as I opened the package.  It was soft and practically melted on my tongue.  Who knew that leaving a chunk of pork out to dry for nine months to two years could produce such a wonderful result?  God bless the Italians for coming up with the idea.
     I used a crust that I had in the freezer (Classic Crust), which may have contributed or been the cause of the problem I had with the calzone.  It was probably more crust than there should have been.  The ingredients just got a little lost in there.  Oh, we could taste them, and they tasted good, but they were muted.  They weren't "dynamic."
     I had an hour and a half before I had to attend a mandatory "reemployment" session at the Minnesota Workforce Center, so I started in.  I took the classic crust dough out of the freezer.  I cut some oregano and basil from the plants on my deck for the sauce.  I love this "no cook" sauce.  It is just so easy.  I just threw everything in my Vitamix 5200 Total Nutrition Center, turned it on, and it was done.

NO COOK SAUCE

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

4 tablespoons tomato paste

½ teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced

2 tablespoons fresh basil, minced

Place all of the ingredients into the Vitamix (or blender or food processor).  Start out on the variable speed setting and gradually increase the speed to 10 and switch to high (this should take about two minutes).  If using a blender, blend on the puree setting until smooth.  Add the herbs, stir, and use as directed in the recipe.

     When my sauce was done, I measured out what I would need for each of the two pizzas.  The breakfast pizza called for premade, thick, pasta sauce, and I figured this would fit the bill nicely.  Once I had my two quantities measured out, I put the rest in some Tupperware, dated and labeled it and threw it in the freezer for another time.

     I also fried up the bacon before I left.  It was dual purpose.  It was one less step I had to perform when I got home from my class, and I had a little snack before leaving the house!

     I had to stop at the store on the way back from the Workforce Center.  Jeff and I had gone grocery shopping for all of the ingredients earlier in the week, but when we were there, I picked up a bag of shredded mozzarella, and he made a face.  He was objecting to the price.  We normally buy several packages when it goes on sale, so we never have to pay full price for it.  However, I was pretty sure that we were out, and I needed it.  He was convinced that I just didn't look hard enough in the freezer for it.  Before I left the house today, I ripped the freezer apart.  I found one back of Monterrey Jack and three bags of Swiss.  No mozzarella.

     When I got home, my dough was still really cold and unworkable.  I started by grating and measuring all of the cheeses that were on the menu and chopping the prosciutto, which isn't an easy task.  The stuff I had purchased was sliced really thin and, because the meat was so soft, my blade wasn't going through it.  I ended up just tearing it into little pieces.

     Once my dough had gotten to room temperature, I rolled it out.  It was going to be much larger than the 10 inch dough the original recipe requested, but I forged ahead anyway.  I spread the scant quarter cup of sauce over the one side and started covering it with cheese.

     It seemed like a copious amount of ingredients while I was building it.  I had doubled the basil, and the prosciutto was about double the original quarter cup listed in the ingredients.  I thought more would be better, especially with the larger crust.  Also, I didn't want to have to package up the remaining prosciutto.

CALZONE WITH PROSCIUTTO, HERBS, AND THREE CHEESES

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

¼ recipe Classic Crust (see July 19, 2012)

¼ cup No-Cook Tomato Sauce (see above)

1½ ounces grated Fontina cheese

1½ ounces shredded mozzarella

1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese

3 ounces prosciutto, torn into pieces

3 cloves garlic, pressed

2 tablespoons minced fresh basil

Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 500º F with pizza stone inside.  Roll or stretch out dough into a 15 inch circle.  Spread tomato sauce over one half of the circle, leaving a little bit of a border for sealing.  Top with cheeses, prosciutto, garlic, and basil.  Fold the untopped side over the other and press the edges together to seal into a half moon shape.  Brush the top with olive oil and cut three slits in the top for venting.  Bake for fifteen minutes or until crust is brown.

     Preparing for the Breakfast pizza presented a challenge.  These were going to be 6 individual pizzas, baked in 6" tart pans.  The crust was made out of biscuits from a can.  First of all, I couldn't find a can of biscuits that only contained six biscuits.  I briefly thought about making 8 individual pizzas, since there were 8 biscuits.  However, I didn't own even one 6" tart pan, let alone eight.  I decided to use some six inch au gratin dishes, because that was the closest thing I had to that size and shape - and I only had six of those.

     Because the au gratin dishes were oval, I had to force the biscuit dough to be an oval instead of a circle.  That was fine, I would have had to roll them out in any event to get them to six inches.  This way, I just had to pull a little harder in one direction than the other.  I couldn't quite get them to fill the bottom of the dish.  Every time I stretched the edge of the biscuit out to the edge of the dish, it sprung back.  I left them that way.  I figured they would puff up in baking (which they did), so I didn't need to be exact about it.
     After the sauce and cheese went over the top of them, they baked while I worked on the eggs.

     Pam had arrived as I was putting the biscuits in the oven.  She was a little disappointed that we were having egg pizza.  Eggs are not her favorite thing.  I am not sure why that is.  I think she doesn't like the whites.  Something about them weirds her out.  I assured her she would see no whites.

    It was just a basic scramble.  The original recipe had called for milk, but I didn't have any, so I used half-and-half.  I was hoping it would raise the bar a little bit - make them creamier, make them richer.  A dozen eggs is a lot of volume, especially with the jumbo eggs that Jeff always buys.  I wasn't thinking about that when I heated up my 10 inch skillet and poured them in.  It definitely filled the pan.  I was worried that the eggs wouldn't cook evenly or all the way through, so I kept diligently stirring.  Apparently that worked, because they were starting to curd up.  With a little moisture still hanging around the pan, I turned off the burner, moved the pan to a cool spot on the stove and covered the eggs.  The biscuits were taking longer than expected, and I wanted the eggs to stay hot.

BREAKFAST PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook  by Belinda Hulin

6 ounces uncooked thick-cut bacon

6 uncooked biscuit rounds from a can

1 cup of No-Cook Tomato Sauce (see above)

5 ounces shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

3 ounces shredded sharp cheddar

12 eggs

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1/3 cup half-and-half

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Fry the bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until they just start to brown.  Remove from pan (they will continue to crisp up even after you take them out of the pan) and set aside.  Discard most of the grease from the pan, leaving a scant tablespoon in the pan for later.  When bacon has cooled, chop or crumble it into small pieces.

Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Stretch the biscuit rounds into six 6" tart pans or stretch them into ovals and line the bottoms of greased au gratin dishes (6").  Divide the tomato sauce evenly over the six biscuits.  Mix the cheeses together.  Distribute ½ of the cheese over the six biscuits.  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the biscuits are starting to brown and the cheese has melted.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, garlic, and half-and-half together in a large bowl.  Mix in salt and pepper.  Heat reserved skillet with the bacon grease over medium-high heat.  Once hot, pour eggs in.  Stir continuously with a rubber spatula until almost all of the liquid has set.  Leave them slightly more than moist, as they will continue to cook off of the burner.  Remove from heat and cover until biscuits are done.

Divide the eggs evenly over the six dishes.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over them and top with the crumbled bacon.



     Pam worked on drinks for us.  I had chosen a drink called Bacardi cocktail.  It was a really boring name, and I think I should try to work on a fancier one for it, except that apparently Bacardi sued a bar in New York over this drink.  Apparently, the bar was calling the cocktail they were serving "Bacardi Cocktail" but they weren't using Bacardi brand rum.  The courts sided with Bacardi and require that the drink be made with Bacardi.  OK, maybe the name should stay... 

BACARDI COCKTAIL

2½ measures Bacardi light rum

1 measure freshly squeezed lime juice

½ measure grenadine
1 maraschino cherry

Pour all ingredients into an ice-filled shaker.  Shake and strain into a martini glass.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

     The drink was a beautiful pink color.  To me, there is just something innately fun about a pink drink.  It's celebratory, it's whimsical, it's feminine.  I like it.  This drink had a great balance of sweet and sour.  The grenadine was just enough to mellow the tang of the lime.  The unfortunate problem with this scenario, was that balance made them very easy to drink and two for each of us disappeared before dinner was on the table.

     Pam thought that the egg dish was wonderful.  At least, that is what she said, but she did end up adding hot sauce to it, as I did.  It was good, but it was lacking pizazz, oomph, flair.  It would be a nice comfort food first thing in the morning when waking up is not the immediate goal on the agenda.  However, the extra effort in the assembly might deter that option as well.  Jeff said that he liked it, and I was being too picky.

     The calzone was good, too.  Don't get me wrong, I liked it.  I just think I spent too much time anticipating it, and the end result didn't live up to the glory of its separate parts. 

     Our lifelong friend, Becky Swanson showed up just after dinner for a drink.  She was our neighbor when we were growing up (did we ever?), and we consider her part of the family, so it was great to see her again.  We got into some lively discussions about politics and religion (at which point, Jeff quickly vacated the area), and I tried to keep up with the mixing of the cocktails, and I forgot all about the fact the the meal didn't live up to my expectations.