Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner
Dough:
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3¼ cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
Toppings;
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 or 2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped (about 2 cups)
12 large garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
12 ounces medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cooked until just barely pink
4 ounces seeded and diced ripe tomato
½ teaspoon dried basil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 ounces freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
Make the dough: In a small bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar. Set aside for at least five minutes. In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the flour and salt. Add the yeast mixture and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together and clings to the dough hook. Remove the dough and form it into a ball. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp, lint-free towel. Set in a warm place for about an hour or until dough doubles in size. Cut dough in half, reshape each half into a ball. Reserve one half for another use (at this point, I place it in a freezer bag, label it, and put it in the freezer for a later date).
Prepare the toppings and assemble the pizza: Preheat the oven to 450º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. Roll or stretch the dough out to a fifteen inch circle on a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel or board. Brush the edges of the dough with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the leeks and whole garlic and reduce the heat to low. Cook for about twenty minutes or until the garlic is soft, but not brown. Distribute the leeks and garlic evenly over the prepared dough. Arrange the shrimp and tomatoes over the leek mixture. Sprinkle with basil, salt, and pepper. Slide pizza onto the preheated stone, if using, or onto a greased pizza pan and into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is golden. Remove the pizza and sprinkle with the Parmesan.
When I was chopping up the leeks, I thought that two cups was quite a bit, but after they were cooked for a while with the garlic, they shrunk down a little, and then I wondered if there were enough. Even though I doubled the garlic from the original recipe, it didn't seem like enough either, and there could hardly be even distribution with just twelve cloves, so I broke some of the larger ones in half. I wanted to make sure that each piece had a little bit of garlic in it.
It may seem weird to put whole cloves of garlic on a pizza, but when it has been cooked for a long time, it becomes soft, the flavor is a milder, and there is a creamy nuttiness to it. In fact, I think that roasted or simmered cloves have quite a different flavor than straight up garlic added to a sauce or a dish.
When I was chopping up the leeks, I thought that two cups was quite a bit, but after they were cooked for a while with the garlic, they shrunk down a little, and then I wondered if there were enough. Even though I doubled the garlic from the original recipe, it didn't seem like enough either, and there could hardly be even distribution with just twelve cloves, so I broke some of the larger ones in half. I wanted to make sure that each piece had a little bit of garlic in it.
It may seem weird to put whole cloves of garlic on a pizza, but when it has been cooked for a long time, it becomes soft, the flavor is a milder, and there is a creamy nuttiness to it. In fact, I think that roasted or simmered cloves have quite a different flavor than straight up garlic added to a sauce or a dish.
I used precooked shrimp that we had gotten on sale at Cub (shocking, I know). I usually don't buy precooked shrimp, because it is frequently overcooked, and I feel like you miss an opportunity to ramp up the flavors by cooking it with your own seasonings. However, the raw, peeled, deveined shrimp is rarely on sale, and I do not enjoy the deveining process, so sometimes we end up with pre-cooked shrimp. We have been pretty lucky lately with the ones we have gotten. They have been just the regular generic at Cub, and they were cooked perfectly. I was a little worried about cooking them again on the pizza, but given the fact that they were barely thawed when I put them on there, and their stint in the oven was only a few minutes, it turned out just fine.
The shrimp were fabulous! They weren't the slightest bit chewy - they were soft and tender and salty. The leeks added a slight tang of oniony flavor, and when you bit into a piece with a chunk of garlic on it, the flavor just burst into your mouth - nutty, warm, and slightly zingy. The tomatoes brightened up all of the flavors and added a little moistness to the slice.
Jeff had brought home a new Ciroc flavor - pineapple! How appropriate, since we were going to have pineapple pizza for dessert. I like it when a theme emerges.
PINEAPPLE MARTINI
1½ ounces pineapple Ciroc (or other pineapple flavored vodka)
1½ ounces regular vodka
Juice from ¼ of a medium lime (about 1 tablespoon of juice)
Combine ingredients in an ice-filled shaker. Shake and pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Sip slowly.
I do not enjoy an extremely sweet drink (or even an ordinary sweet drink), and the Ciroc was sweet on its own. I added equal parts of regular vodka, so we could still taste the pineapple flavor, but weren't overwhelmed by sweetness.
Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza
Dough:
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
¼ cup granulated sugar
3¼ cups bread flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
Toppings:
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sweetened dried coconut shreds
2 teaspoons rum extract
4 tablespoons melted butter, divided
8 canned pineapple rings, very well drained
Make the dough: Combine the water and yeast in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes. In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Add the yeast mixture and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together and starts to cling to the hook. Remove the dough and shape into a ball. Place the ball in a greased bowl, cover with a damp, lint-free towel, and set aside in a warm place for an hour or until dough has almost doubled in size. Cut the dough in half and reshape each half into a ball. Reserve one ball for another use.
Assemble the pizza: Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. Roll or stretch the dough to a fifteen inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board. In a food processor or blender, combine the cream cheese, coconut, and rum extract and puree until smooth. Prick the dough all over with a fork. Brush the dough with 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Slide the dough onto the preheated stone or place on a greased pizza pan and put into the preheated oven. Bake until the crust starts to brown- about 5-7 minutes. Remove from oven with a pizza peel or transfer the pizza pan onto a hot pad. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the baked crust. Arrange the pineapple rings over the cream cheese. Brush the pineapple with the remaining butter. Transfer back to the oven and bake about four five more minutes. Serve immediately.
The dessert pizza was delicious! The creamy, coconutty cheese underneath the sweet, tangy pineapple was really like a hot pina colada that had chew. The crust was soft and slightly sweet, while the pineapple cut through the richness with its hot juicy goodness. I only wished that there were more pineapple. I think I would give up the presentation to add more pineapple in the spaces the rings didn't cover. Or, it could be made into 8 individual pieces and maybe then there would be more coverage. Or, maybe if I could have found the edible flours and put those in the holes and spaces in-between, it maybe have looked better - but I think more pineapple would have been better.
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