St. Patrick's Day Brunch Pizza with Cham #69

     It was a little early for St. Patrick's Day, but this was the next pizza in line, and if I moved it to March 14th, I would actually have to pick a new pizza for this week, and I didn't want to have to do that.  Besides, this recipe sounded quite delicious, and I was really excited about making it.  I had been worried about what my non-egg eating potential guests might think of it, but no guests were able to make it this week.
     I had sent Jeff to the grocery store this week to get my ingredients.  He was unable to find a chunk of pre-cooked corn beef for me to shred for this recipe, so he had the deli slice some deli corned beef really thin.  They had gotten it so thin that it was almost completely in bits.  It was very tasty all by itself, and I was glad that he had purchased more than what I needed for the pizza, because Jeff and I had some really tasty sandwiches earlier in the week.
     I started on Wednesday, cooking my potatoes.  The original recipe didn't say how the potatoes should be cooked, just that they should be.  I really like little cubes of roasted potatoes - I like the crunchiness of them, and I like the toasty taste of the brown edges.  I decided I was going to try that, even at the risk of losing the crunchiness in baking the pizza.
     I cubed the potatoes, tossed them with a bit of olive oil, and sprinkled them with Harley's seasoning salt.  I nuked them for about 6 minutes, to get most of the cooking out of the way before I put them in the oven.  If I were to just put them directly in the oven, it would take an hour or more to get the crunchiness I like.  After microwaving them until they were soft, I put them in the oven at 450º F for a few minutes just to crisp up the outside edges.  They smelled so wonderful when I took them out of the oven, that I couldn't help but try a couple of cubes.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY BRUNCH PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

Crust:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3½ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup + 1½ teaspoons olive oil

Mustard Cream Sauce:

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons fresh tarragon

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1-1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

3-1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese

Potatoes:

1lb raw potatoes, cubed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoons seasoning salt

Pizza:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons corn meal

4 ounces chopped onions

7 ounces shredded corned beef

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

2 ounces of shredded Parmesan cheese

8 poached eggs

Make the crust: Combine the yeast and water in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the flour and salt together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and the ¼ cup of olive oil and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook.  Continue mixing a little longer  until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.  Brush the dough ball all over with the 1½ teaspoons of olive oil.  Let rest for an hour in a bowl in a warm, dry place.

Make the mustard cream sauce:  In a small sauce pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter.  Add the garlic and tarragon and cook for about a minute.  Slowly whisk in the mustard and cream until well blended.  Cook until steam starts rolling off of the cream, but before it boils.  Stir in the Parmesan a little at a time while continuously stirring.  Continue stirring until the cheese is blended in, and the sauce is smooth.  remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Make the potatoes:  Preheat the oven to 450º F.  Toss the potatoes in a microwave safe bowl with the olive oil and seasoning salt.  Microwave on high for about 6 minutes or until the potatoes are slightly soft.  Dump potatoes out onto a baking sheet in a single layer.  Roast in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Assemble the pizza:  Preheat the oven to 400º F.  Roll or stretch the dough out on a flour or cornmeal dusted board into a 10 x 15 inch rectangle.  Brush the two tablespoons of olive oil over the bottom and sides of a 10x15 bar pan.  Sprinkle the cornmeal over the olive oil and tilt the pan to get even coverage of the cornmeal.  Place the dough rectangle in the pan, stretching it a little to get a lip around the edges of the pan.  Spread the mustard cream sauce evenly over the dough.  Sprinkle the onions over the sauce and top the onions with the shreds of corned beef.  Cover the beef with the potatoes.  Top with the cheddar and mozzarella.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbly.  Remove from the oven and carefully arrange the poached eggs over the top of the pizza in two rows of four.  Sprinkle the eggs with the Parmesan cheese.

     I had made the mustard cream sauce Wednesday night, too, and put it in a container in the refrigerator.  On Thursday, I took the container back out of the fridge as soon as I had gotten home, but it was still really firm when I was ready to spread it over my dough.   I had to plop scoopsful of the sauce in various areas of the dough and smash them down with the back of my spoon - much like Gracie did last week with the jerk paste.

     The next instruction in the recipe was to mix the corned beef, onions, and potatoes together in a bowl and then top the sauce with them.  I didn't want to do that, for fear my potatoes would loose their crispiness.  I did mix the corned beef and the onions together, but I don't really see any advantage in this.  It seems to me that all it did was mess up another bowl.  I think sprinkling them one ingredient at a time would work just fine.

     When I had started working on the potatoes, I was thinking I had entirely too many for a pizza.  However, when I put them on over the beef, it didn't look like very many.  Now, it was true that I did sample a good number of them before adding them to the pizza, but I don't think it was a significant amount.  Maybe it was, who knows?

     The next step was to add the cheese.  The original recipe had called for two cups of cheddar cheese.  On Thursday, I found myself with only one cup of cheddar.  I improvised and added the same amount of mozzarella.  I know that isn't the same flavor profile, but my cheddar was extra sharp, and it packs a really strong flavor, so I knew it could withstand the test of a low-profile mozzarella in its midst.

     My dilemma here was when to poach the eggs.  I have watched a cooking show with Julia Childs, where she poached the eggs in advance and heated them up just before serving, but I couldn't remember the specifics of how she did it, and I was a little scared to try.  Since it was just the two of us, I decided to cook two eggs after I pulled the pizza out of the oven.
    So, while I was waiting, I had time to make my drink of the week.

CHAM 69

2 measures vodka

3/4 measure raspberry di amore

3/4 shot amaretto

juice of 1/4 lime

Fresca

Shake the first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Strain into a tall glass half filled with ice.  Top with Fresca.  Garnish with blackberries.

    This was a wonderful little cocktail.  It had a wonderful fruitiness and a lovely sparkle.  It tickled my tongue with the bubbles and zinged it with fruit, but it wasn't the overly sticky sweet I imagined it was going to be.  The amaretto gave it a nutty, earthy undertone, and the Fresca lightened up the heavy raspberry liqueur.  It was delicious and refreshing.  I would definitely make this again.
    I filled a 3½ quart sauce pan half-way full with water and added two tablespoons of plain, white vinegar.  The addition of vinegar to the boiling water, increases the acidity of the water, which lowers the temperature at which eggs will set.  If the eggs set quickly, they have less time to "feather out" or lose some of their whites to the water gods.  Swirling the water, making a whirlpool in the center of your pan by circling the spatula through the water while pouring the egg into the center of the whirlpool is supposed to help "wrap-up" the whites around the yolk.  I haven't found that to be the case yet, but I am a novice when it comes to poaching eggs.  I find it hard to swirl the water while pouring the egg at the same time.  It is a little like patting your belly and rubbing your head at the same time.

      The pizza came out of the oven a gorgeous, bubbly brown, cheesy thing of beauty.

   I had my vinegary egg water already heating before I removed the pizza from the oven, and my two little eggs were ready in moments following that.  Instead of putting them directly on the pizza, I cut each of us a slice, put the slices in bowls, and gently placed an egg on top of each one.  I have to admit, they were pretty good-looking.

   The yolks were just the right consistency, slightly thick, but still a bit runny, and when we cut into the egg, it made a nice sauce over all of the brown cheese. It made everything moist and rich and luscious. Once we cut into the pizza itself, the yolk co-mingled with the sauce, creating a sort of dreamy rich, cheesy, blanket over everything. I could taste the woodsy flavor of the tarragon underneath it all, punctuated by the sweet and zingy pow of garlic. The beef and the onions kept everything lively, and the potatoes even kept a little of their crispness. It was rich and filling and quite yummy.  I would definitely make this again.  This make a wonderful part of any brunch!  Adding a fruity little cocktail enhanced the breakfast experience.  All it needed was a side of bacon.

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Caribbean Jerk Pizza with Tropical Salsa; Mardi Gras Calzones; Celery Martini

     This Thursday turned out to be a quasi-girls night.  Jennifer and Roger were out of town, and Jonah was at civil air patrol.  Pam and Gracie and I were the chefs on staff for the night, and we had a great time doing it.  Jeff was there, but he came later (just for the food portion), then holed himself up in front of the television.

CARIBBEAN JERK PIZZA WITH TROPICAL SALSA

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

Crust:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

3¼ cup bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

Salsa:

1 cup finely diced ripe mango

1 cup finely diced ripe pineapple

1/2 cup minced green onion (about 4 whole green onions)

2 tablespoons minced fresh red jalapeño

1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar

Jerk Paste: 

2 ounces yellow onion

4 green onions (½ cup roughly chopped)

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1-1/2 ounce minced jalapeño (I used green here)

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon roasted Saigan cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I used a mild habenero sauce)

The rest of the story:

1 tablespoon of olive oil
6 ounces of shredded mozzarella

8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar

Make the crust: Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the flour and salt together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook.  Continue mixing a little longer  until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.  Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.

Make the salsa:  In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients, including salt to taste.  Cover and chill for at least an hour, then drain well and return to room temperature before using. 

Make the paste:  Combine the jerk paste ingredients in the bowl of a blender or food processor.  Process until smooth.

Assemble the pizza:  Preheat the oven to 450º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll and stretch the dough into a fifteen inch circle.  Brush the dough all over with olive oil.  Spread the jerk paste over the crust, leaving a small border around the edge.  Top with the cheeses.  Transfer to the preheated pizza stone, if using, or place on a pizza screen or ventilated pizza pan and place in the preheated oven.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.  Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the tropical salsa before serving.

     I made the salsa for the Caribbean pizza the day before.  I started with fresh pineapple.  I was able to use my cool new pineapple corer/slicer that Jeff had gotten me for my birthday last year.  It's really a slick little device.  It doesn't look like much - just a metal tube with a handle - but it actually has a piece of metal around the bottom edge of it with a blade and a half inch slot.  As you press down and turn the handle, that blade slices through the meat of the pineapple in a spiral pattern.  Once the metal tube gets to the bottom of the pineapple, the hard, bark portion of the fruit falls off, and you are left with a tower of pineapple that could possibly be used as a slinky and a metal tube full of pineapple core.

     Mangoes are one of those fruits that I am sort of ambivalent about.  The texture bothers me.  They either seem a bit slimy or a bit fibrous.  I am not sure if that is because I am not sure how to find a ripe mango or a good mango, or if it is just the way that they are.  I don't mind them in recipes, like salsa, chutney, smoothies, but I have given up on trying to eat them by themselves.

     These are two mangoes I bought a week apart.  I had read that color makes no difference when buying mangoes.  I bought the one on the right a week prior, and it was almost half red and half yellow.  After a week on my counter, it was almost completely yellow.  I wasn't sure if it was going to last until Thursday, so I bought the one on the left on Monday.  They have the same give point, but are two different colors.  Now that I have both of them, I watched a U-Tube video that says the green ones are inedible and need to ripen yet.  I decided that the yellow one was still fine and used that and will hold onto the green one for a bit longer and see what transpires.
     The salsa was fun to make.  There were so many different colors in it that it was downright beautiful - reds, greens, oranges, and yellows.  It was a work of art, really.

     I had Gracie roll the dough out for me when she came over on Thursday.  She had a little trouble with it at first, because it was still a little chilly from our 60º house.  It kept springing back to a smaller shape after she had rolled it out a bit, but she worked it out and made an almost perfect circle with a nice lip on it.
     I had thrown together the paste while she was doing that.  I actually used nutmeg.  Nutmeg is another item I generally try to avoid.  I never use the preground stuff any more.  To me, it smells and to some degree tastes like Vick's vapo-rub.  I think the preground stuff is over-used and mostly repulsive.  A small grating of the actual nut itself can make a dish interesting and intriguing, but there is a fine line between interesting and bringing up horrible memories of stuffy noses and congested lungs.

     Once I had whirred up the volatile concoction, I scooped it into a bowl and handed it to my sous chef, Miss Grace, to apply to the pizza dough.  She struggled with this, too.  The paste was extremely thick and spreading it wasn't easy to do without bunching up the dough she had just worked so hard on.  Pam demonstrated for her, that she could plop blobs of paste in various areas and smash them down with the back of a spoon to get the blobs to meet together in the middle.
     Then, she put on the cheese and it was ready for the oven, and we were ready to work on the Mardi Gras Turnovers.

MARDI GRAS PIZZA TURNOVERS

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
Makes 2 Large Calzones

Filling:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon minced parsley

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 green onion, minced

2 ounces onion, minced

2½ ounces green pepper, diced

½ cup tomato sauce

2 ounces water

dash Tabasco

1 cup cooked white rice

4½ ounces andouille sausage
6½ ounces peeled, deveined, and cooked shrimp

Crust:

½ cup warm water

½ teaspoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup bread flour

½ cup cornmeal

½ tablespoon olive oil

Wash:
½ teaspoon cornstarch
½ cup water

Make the filling:  In a heavy saucepan over high heat, melt the butter.  Add the parsley, garlic, green onions, onion, and bell pepper.  Sautè for about three minutes. Add tomato sauce and water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cook, stirring often, for ten minutes.  Add Tabasco, rice, andouille, and shrimp.  Mix well.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Make the crust:  Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the flour, cornmeal, and ½ teaspoon salt together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and olive oil and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook.  Continue mixing a little longer  until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.  Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.

Assemble and cook:  Preheat the oven to 425º F.  Separate dough into 2 pieces.  On a floured or cornmeal dusted pizza peal or board, roll or stretch each half of the dough to about 13 inches.  Spread half of the shrimp mixture over half of each of the circles.  Moisten the edges of each circle with a little bit of water.  Fold each circle in half over the filling and pinch the edges together to seal.  With a sharp knife, make two or three diagonal cuts across the tops of each calzone.  Mix the cornstarch and ½ cup of water together in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave until the mixture appears glossy (about 30 seconds).  Brush the tops of each calzone with mixture.  Reserve any extra cornstarch wash in the refrigerator for another use (it will keep up to two weeks).  Transfer calzones to a greased baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes or until crust turns a golden brown.  All to stand for a few minutes before serving.

     I had started cooking rice the minute I got home from work on Thursday afternoon.  I knew it was going to take a while to make, so I loaded my saucepan up with the cup of rice and the almost three cups of water and set it up to boil.  It had been done and cooling on the stove when I had finished unearthing my dining room table, before Pam and Grace had arrived.  I had mixed in the vegetables and other ingredients right away and let them cook together for a little bit.  I added the shrimp at the last possible moment, because I didn't want it to get overcooked.  I was using precooked shrimp (yes, I was too cheap and lazy to buy new, uncooked shrimp, when I had perfectly good cooked shrimp in my freezer).  It turned a lovely pink color.  Once the jerk pizza was fully assembled, I showed Grace how to fill one calzone, then gave her the mixture to divide up among the rest of them.
     I sealed the first one while she was finishing filling the other two.  I thought I did a decent job, but when Grace sealed up one of the remaining calzones, she did it with flourish.  She somehow twisted the sealing edges together, giving the finished edge a bit of a ropey look to it.  I told her she ought to redo mine, so they all matched, but she refused.

     I grabbed a knife and slashed through the tops of the calzones.  Grace exclaimed that I was killing them and the shrimp inside!  She was kidding, but I explained to her that we needed to make slashes in the tops of the calzones in order to let the steam out.  Otherwise, her beautiful edges would burst open from the pressure of the steam, and all of the ingredients would leaks out onto the cookie sheet.  Unfortunately, this is something I have learned from experience.

     If you have read some of my previous entries about calzones, you would know that I struggle with what the finished product looks like.  If I don't put anything on the outside of the calzone (the exterior of the dough), it comes out cooked, but not very pretty.  It is crispy-ish. but it doesn't brown, and it has sort of a dull, listless look about it.  I have tried different "washes" to try to bring out the shine, make it a little glossy, but I haven't found the right formula yet.  I have tried milk and egg white, milk and egg yolk, egg whites and water, egg whites and milk, olive oil, butter and egg products, etc.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and I am still not sure what the right answer is (you would think that I would keep better notes on the subject or at least know where to find them when I need them).  

     Pam, Jennifer, and I had attended a bread baking class through community education earlier this week.  One of the things the instructor told us was that you can mix corn starch and water together, microwave it for a little bit, and brush it on your bread dough before baking.  She said that gives the bread a shine.  Any amount of the cornstarch mixture that you don't use can go in your refrigerator and it can keep for a couple of months.  I thought I would try it here.

     I wasn't completely impressed with the results.  It definitely browned the dough nicely, but it still didn't have that glossy look I was going for.  It was twice as appetizing as the wash-free calzones I have made in the past, so I am not totally ruling it out for future recipes.

     With both recipes in the oven, it was time to relax a little and fix ourselves a cocktail. I had chosen a celery martini for this week's festivities.  Not only was it the next drink in line that I had ingredients for, it also brought with it the distinction that it was definitely something I had never had before, and I was pretty sure Pam hadn't either.  It's second appealing trait was that it just sounded so weird, I couldn't wait to try it.

CELERY MARTINI

1 measure freshly extracted celery juice

2 measures vodka

¼ measure honey

Place all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice.  Shake vigorously.  Strain into a chilled martini glass.  Garnish with a celery stalk.

     This was a first for me.  I had never heard of celery juice.  Nor did I know where you could buy it or how to make it.  I improvised.  I had a bunch of celery, so I had room for error.  I threw a couple of stalks in the Vita Mix and cranked it up to high.  Optimistically, I placed a strainer over a bowl and poured the contents of my blending bowl into it.  About a third of an ounce ended up in the bowl.  The strainer was full of fibrous pulp.  I pressed on it, thinking I might get the remaining two-thirds of an ounce I needed for one little drink.  A little more juice came out, but not much.  Unable to think of any other options to "extract" juice from celery, I repeated the procedure with four celery stalks.  After stalk #6, I decided I had enough celery juice for one drink for Pam and I to split.  She was already turning her nose up at it, anyway.

     It was an interesting color.  Had I not known what was in the drink (and was vacated of my olfactory senses), I would have thought that it was some kind of melon drink.  It was light green in color, but it had an overwhelming celery aroma.

      I took a sip.  I didn't immediately love it, and I could tell that Pam wasn't even the least bit fond of it.  She winced as she sipped.  I think she probably had her mind made up before she tried it, and I think she actually winced before she got any of it in her mouth.  I found the drink intriguing.  It reminded me of bloody marys.  I thought it would go very nicely with the Mardi Gras Turnovers.  Pam was determined to drink it, even though she found it unappealing.  I offered her some olive juice, which she accepted, but still couldn't drink it without grimacing.  I saved her the agony and dumped the drink for her and made her something else.

     Meanwhile, our pizza and turnovers were ready to come out of the oven.  The jerk pizza was gorgeous with bubbling brown cheese oozing everywhere.

     It was almost a shame to cover it with the salsa, but the salsa was pretty good looking in its own right.

    

  Both recipes were fantastic!  The shrimp turnovers were spectacular.  The shrimp was tender and juicy.  The combination of the vegetables, sauce, and sausage was bold and juicy all at once.  The shrimp cooled things down a little, and the rice melded all of those flavors together.

   The jerk pizza had some really hot spots, spice-wise, but they were tempered by the massive amounts of cheese, and the cool fruit on top.  That was a little deceiving, too, though, because there were little bits of hot pepper mixed into that refreshing topping.  It was sweet and earthy and fiery all at once.  This was absolutely a winner!

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Fennel Pizza and Cassini

 
     Jeff had been gone for over a week now.  Jen was out of town again.  Pam had something she needed to do (other than drink and eat with me).  I was looking at another pizza night by myself.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Like I mentioned last week, there's a lot less preparation.  I don't have to worry if my toilets are clean, if there is a giant dust bunny waiting to attack my guests, if there is still cheese left on the ceiling from a freak nacho accident.  It was just me.
     I thought I was going to make the Fennel Pizza last Thursday before I realized it would just be one for dinner and two pizzas were not necessary.  The ingredients are pretty hardy, so they were still good by the time this Thursday rolled around, and I didn't have to shop for anything.  I had a cornmeal crust in the freezer that I took out Thursday morning, so that part was taken care of.

FENNEL PIZZA

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

1-1/2 teaspoons sugar

1-1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon salt (divided)

5 tablespoons olive oil (divided)

1 medium fennel bulb (about 6 ounces), thinly sliced

1 medium onion (about 6 ounces), thinly sliced

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 ounces Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons fennel fronds

few grindings of pepper

Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the flour, cornmeal, and ½ teaspoon salt together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook.  Continue mixing a little longer  until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.  Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.

Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  On a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch dough out to a 15 inch circle.  Brush the dough all over with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  In a medium skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add the fennel, onion, and garlic and cook for 30 minutes on low heat until soft but not brown.  Spread the vegetable mixture over the dough circle.  Sprinkle the fennel fronds over the vegetables.  Dust with 1/8 teaspoon of salt (or to taste) and a few grindings of pepper.  Bake for 5-10 minutes or until crust is golden.  Remove the pizza from the oven and top it with the Parmesan cheese.

     After I rolled out my dough, I took the fennel bulb out of my fridge.  Fennel is a strange vegetable.  It looks like a cross between onion, celery stalk, and dill weed.  I have tried to grow it in the past and have been unsuccessful so far.  I cut the stalks and fronds off of the bulb, cut a little of the root end off and sliced it as thin as paper with my mandolin slicer.  The onion went through it next, and I tossed those two veggies together to get them mixed up with each other.

     It didn't take quite 30 minutes for the onion and fennel to get soft in my frying pan.  I think it was because they were so thin.  If I had hand sliced them or sliced them a little thicker, I am sure it would have taken the full 30 minutes, if not more.

     The cornmeal dough I had set out to thaw was wonderful.  It was soft and pliable.  It smelled slightly sweet and had a slightly gritty texture to it.  It rolled out nicely, and I was able to get a pretty good (almost round) circle out of it.  I brushed it liberally with oil - I was looking for that great sheen that it is supposed to provide under my fennel and onions.

     The onions and fennel had shrunk up so much, I was worried that they wouldn't cover my dough adequately, but there was more to them than it appeared in the pan.

     After a few quick snips of the fronds from the fennel stalks, I was ready to put my pizza in the oven.

While it baked, I shredded the cheese that I needed to sprinkle over the pizza once it was out of the oven.
It was quite a bit of cheese, and my mouth was starting to water at the site and smell of it.  Salty, rich, tangy Parmesan....

     After about ten minutes, I opened the oven to take a peek.  Either I had rolled out the dough unevenly on one side, or my oven is hotter on one side than the other, because the right side of the pizza was very brown and crispy.

     I quickly sprinkled it with the Parmesan, covering up its flaws.  Cheese makes everything better, right?  And, it did this.

     I let the cheese melt a little from the heat of the pizza while I made my cocktail.

CASSINI

2 measures vodka

2 measures cranberry juice

¼ measure créme de cassis

Pour ingredients into an ice-filled shaker.  Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with three blackberries.

     I thought it was going to be like a Cosmopolitan, since it had the cranberry juice in it.  However, I was wrong.  It was a little wicked.  It was juicy and rich with a slight bitter finish - was that from the cassis or the cranberry?  Or from the blackberries at the bottom of the glass?  I wasn't sure, but it was lovely and dangerous.

     The pizza was good, too.  I would consider it more of an appetizer pizza than an actual meal.  It was light and crispy.  It had a nice saltiness to it from the Parmesan.  The licorice flavor of the fennel was muted a bit by the caramelizing, both on the stove and in the oven.  The fronds accentuated that muted flavor.  The slightly sweet cornmeal crust was a great vehicle for the fennel and onions.  Even though it was crisp, its flavor melted into the sweetness of the onions and fennel.  

     My only objection to this pizza was that there was no cohesion.  One bite and Parmesan and onions and fennel were all over my front, the table, the plate.  I like a pizza that sticks together, and this wasn't it.

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