I am not a great decision-maker, and I like to try new things. One manifestation of this is that I make the next recipe in the pizza book - whatever it is. This gets the decision-making out of the way, and we try things we wouldn't necessarily normally - just because it is the next recipe.
At one point in the history of pizza night, I found that if I were making two pizzas in one evening out of the same cookbook, I might frequently end up with two very similar pizzas. Apparently, cookbook authors like to group similar recipes together. I guess that makes sense, but I saw two similar pizza recipes from the same cookbook as some kind of parallel universe sibling rivalry. Who is going to want to eat the plain blue cheese pizza, when there is also a garlic, blue cheese, and walnut pizza on the table? Once, we ended up with two dessert pizzas (we, of course, ate them anyway and were happy about it).
Since I seemed to have a plethora of pizza-themed cookbooks (not to mention several other cookbooks that happen to have pizzas in them also), I decided (yes, a decision!) to have two books at my disposal and make one out of each every week. At some point in the last year, I decided to throw a third book in the rotation, alternating the two new books every other week. On a couple of occasions, two of the recipes from the separate books had turned out to be very similar - in which case, I would go on to a different recipe or use the book that wasn't "scheduled" for that week.
Anyway, using my convoluted recipe scheduling formula, I still ended up this week with two olive tapenade pizzas. I was marveling about this out loud while Jeff was in the vicinity and muttered something about having to decide which one to make and which recipe was going to be the non-tapenade pizza. Jeff piped in and said I should make both and see which one we like better. I shuttered at the thought of one pizza being left out in the cold while its other, more attractive brother was gobbled up and raved over. However, I acquiesced, since I did not want to pick a new recipe to shuffle in or go off the "schedule" plan.
After reading further into the recipes, I noticed that there were some obvious differences in them. One recipe was for "tarts" or mini appetizer-sized pizzas, and the other one was a whole pie. One was a mixed olive tapenade and the other was all kalamata olives. The tarts had ricotta and Gorgonzola, where the whole pie had mozzarella.
The original recipe for the tarts called for a whole wheat crust, but I was gun-shy about making another attempt at whole wheat crust after the "rave" reviews I had from the last one. I decided I was going to double the recipe for the crust for the whole pie and use half of the resulting dough for the tarts. The other advantage to this was a more level playing field. I didn't want either recipe to be ousted based on the crust. If they were the same crust, there should be no problem there.
Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
3/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1-3/4 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
7-1/2 ounces whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 cup mixed olive tapenade
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside for at least five minutes. Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Stir together on a low speed until well combined. Add the yeast mixture and stir at medium speed until the dough comes together, clings to the hook, and looks smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel or drape loosely with a piece of plastic wrap. Set the bowl in a warm, dry place for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 500º F. Divide the dough into eight equal pieces. On a cornmeal or flour dusted board, roll or stretch each piece out to a four inch circle. Press each portion into a lightly greased tart pans, spreading the dough evenly up the sides of the pans (alternatively, if you do not have tart pans, pinch the edges of the dough up to form a rim and place on a greased baking sheet). Divide the ricotta up evenly among the tarts, spreading them across the center of the tart. Top this with two tablespoons of tapenade for each tart, followed by 1/2 an ounce of Gorgonzola cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until dough is browned and cheese has started to melt and brown. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
I started out, thinking I was going to cook the tarts directly on a cookie sheet when I remembered that I actually have tart pans. There was a previous recipe that had called for tart pans, and I didn't have them, so I did the cookie sheet method and had told my sisters about the inadequacy of my kitchen equipment. Shortly thereafter, they bought me two sets of tart pans (for a total of 12 pans) for my birthday. Have I mentioned that I love my sisters?
Even though I couldn't quite get the dough to fit in the pans just right, these were infinitely cuter than the flat disks they were before. I hoped that their cuteness didn't give them an unfair advantage in the judging phase of the evening.
Looking at the amounts of ricotta and tapenade, I didn't think that it would fill the tart very well, but it did. I had to use the back of a spoon to sort of mush the ricotta to cover the bottom of the tart without ripping the dough. I used the same method to spread the tapenade over the ricotta, so they didn't combine. I wanted the layered effect.
Next came the Gorgonzola (which I don't think is actually a true Gorgonzola, since it was made in Wisconsin). I thought this, too, was a little skimpy, but I was going to trust the measurements.
TAPENADE PIZZA
Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner
3/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1-3/4 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Kalamata olives
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
1/4 cup olive oil
8 ounces mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside for at least five minutes. Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Stir together on a low speed until well combined. Add the yeast mixture and stir at medium speed until the dough comes together, clings to the hook, and looks smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel or drape loosely with a piece of plastic wrap. Set the bowl in a warm, dry place for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch the dough out into a 14 inch circle. Combine olives, anchovy paste, and olive oil in the bowl of blender. Puree until mixture becomes a rough paste. Spread paste over the prepared dough, leaving a small bare border around the outside edge of the pizza. Cover the tapenade with the mozzarella. Sprinkle the orange zest over the cheese. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until cheese starts to brown.
While the tarts were cute (as I have already mentioned), the large pizza had a certain elegance to it, with the contrasting colors of the mozzerella and the orange zest. At least before it was cooked. And, while it was cooking, we got our tinis going...
GINGERTINI
2 measures gin (I used Hendrick's - I love the refreshing cucumber-y finish)
½ measure ginger liqueur (I used Domaine de Canton)
¼ measure dry vermouth
¼ measure sugar syrup
lemon twist
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour all ingredients (except twist) over ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.
These were wondeful! I thought that they were a little too sweet with the simple syrup AND the Canton, which is sweet in its own right. Once I cut back (and eventually eliminated) the syrup, I thought it was perfect. The zing of the ginger came at the first sip, and then I got a wave of refreshing cucumber flavor. This is definitely a drink that will have to come back.
Both pizzas were beautiful right out of the oven. There ended up being no clear decision or ruling on the winner. The tartlets were convenient - no cutting involved (unless you didn't want a whole one, but that certainly didn't happen). One complete package - no worries about some of your toppings getting whisked away with errant cheese from someone else's piece. The creamy, tanginess of the blue cheese went well with the tapenade, making it a rich little bundle. The whole pizza was delicious, too. The tapenade was almost indiscernible from the store-bought version. It, of course, was better just because I made it, but I might be biased on that subject. The mozzarella and orange zest combo cut the richness a little and kept everything together. The reduced richness was nice against the smaller ratio of tapenade to bread.
So, from a scientific standpoint, our experiment failed. From a social standpoint, we had two great pizzas that had different merits and a lovely evening with our family.
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