Olive Tapenade Panini and Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Pizza

Olive Tapenade Panini

Adapted from Patio Pizzeria by Jareb Adler & Judith Fertig

1 8oz loaf French bread

4T rosemary olive oil, divided

4T olive tapenade

1 medium tomato, thinly sliced

6 slices provolone cheese

Preheat a grill pan over medium high heat.  Cut the loaf in half  the long way.  Brush each inside with a tablespoon of olive oil.  Place the halves oiled side down on the preheated grill pan.  Place a panini press (or large heavy object wrapped in aluminum foil) on top of the bread.  Let toast for about 5 minutes or until grill marks appear.  Spread each half with 2 tablespoons of the olive tapenade.  On the bottom half, arrange three slices of cheese over the tapenade.  Arrange the tomatoes over the cheese.  Arrange the remaining 3 slices of cheese over the tomatoes and top with the other half of the bread.  Heat the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil in the grill pan.  Place the assembled sandwich in the pan and smash it with the press.  Cook sandwich for 5-10 minutes per side or until grill marks form on the outside of the bread and the cheese has melted.

     We cut the sandwich into 6 pieces, so we each got a small piece.  It far exceeded my expectations for a vegetarian dish.  The sharp tang of the tapenade was tamed by the provolone (I used mild, because that is all I could find at Cub).  The tomatoes provided a little bit of juiciness and added a little sweetness to the whole thing.  This was a very simple, but completely delicious sandwich!

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Pizza
Adapted from The Haeger NaturalStone Pizza Cookbook

Dough:

3-1/3 + 1/2 cups bread flour

2-1/2t active dry yeast

1T brown sugar

1T fine sea salt

10oz warm water

2T olive oil

1/2 cup sundried tomatoes in oil

1/2 cup baby arugula

1/2 cup baby spinach

4 ounces fresh mozzarella

4 ounces smoked fresh mozzarella

2 ounces Pecarino

2 ounces pancetta

Dough:  Place the flour in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.  Combine the yeast, brown sugar, and salt with the flour.  With the mixer running, add the water and olive oil. Beat at a medium speed until the dough begins to cling to the hook.  Remove the dough and knead until it becomes smooth and elastic (you may need to add a little flour to keep it from sticking to your hand or the counter).  Spray the mixer bowl with cooking spray and place the dough ball back into it.  Lightly oil the top of the dough ball and cover it with plastic wrap.  Let it rise in a warm place for 1-1/2 hours or until doubled in size.  Punch the dough down and divide it into two equal sized balls.  Wrap one up and freeze for later or use for another recipe.  Allow the remaining ball to rest for about ten minutes.  On a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board, roll the dough out to a 15 inch circle.  

The rest of the story:  

     Place a pizza stone on the center rack of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 500 degrees Ferenheit for about a half hour.  Poke the dough all over with a fork.  Slide the dough onto the preheated stone.  Bake for about 5 minutes or until the dough becomes a little golden and starts to puff a little bit.  Remove the dough from the oven and set it aside until ready to assemble the pizza.

     Meanwhile, place the sun-dried tomatoes into the bowl of food processor.  Run the processor on high until the tomatoes form a smooth paste, adding some of the oil as needed to facilitate this process.

     Spread the sun-dried tomatoes over the par-baked crust.  Scatter half of each the arugula and spinach over the tomatoes.  Add the panetta. Break the two mozzarellas into small pieces and scatter over the arugala and spinach.  Season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle the Pecarino over the top.  Slide the pizza back onto the stone and bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the edges of the crust start to brown.  Remove it from the oven and allow it to  stand for a minute or so.  Scatter the remaining arugula and spinach over the top.  Slice and serve.

       I didn't have high hopes for the "pesto" on this pizza - I mean, it's really just tomatoes and oil, right?  But it was a little sweet and a little zippy (must have been from the seasoning that was already in the tomato oil).  The slight bitterness of the arugula and spinach were a great contrast.  The earthy, smokiness, of the cheese rounded out the flavors, and the pancetta added a nice, fatty saltiness to the slice.  

Raspberry Blueberry Salad Pizza

It was just Jeff and I this week.  No need for two recipes for the two of us.  Next one on the list was a raspberry salad pizza. Since Jeff is allergic to raspberries, I had him pick up blueberries, too, and opted for the half and half pizza.  We are well into grilling season, and so far all of my Thursdays have been rainy.  Today was an extreme exception, and I was glad for it.  This pizza recipe had all of the great things that summer has to offer: grilling, fruit, fresh greens.  I couldn't wait to try it.

Salad Pizza

Adapted from The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani

Dough:

1-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water

3-3/4 cups bread flour

1 cup ice water

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Toppings:

4-1/2 tablespoons fresh orange juice (about 3/4 of a medium orange)

2-1/2 tablespoons lavender honey

1-1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

6 ounces mozzarella

4-1/2 ounces arugala and kale mixture (or spring greens)

4 ounces goat cheese

10 raspberries

20 blueberries

10 Marcona almonds, roughly chopped

Make the dough:

    In a small bowl, mix the yeast and the warm water.  Stir to combine.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  In a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, place the flour.  Add the yeast mixture while the mixer is running at a low speed.  Use a spatula to get any of the mixture still clinging to the bowl.  With the mixer still running, add the ice water.  After a couple minutes of mixing, add the salt.  Continue to mix until the dough starts to cling to the hook.  Remove the dough from the bowl and knead on a clean dry surface for about three minutes or until dough becomes smooth.  Place the dough back in the mixer bowl and cover with a clean, lint-free, damp towel.  Allow to rest for an hour.  Remove the dough from the bowl and divide into three equal pieces.  Reserve two of the balls for a future use (these can be frozen in a freezer bag for a couple of weeks).  Place the third ball on a quarter sheet pan and wrap dough and pan loosely in seran wrap.  Place it in the refrigerator overnight.  Remove the dough from the refrigerator at least 5 hours before you plan on using it. 

Prepare the crust:

     Preheat a gas or charcoal grill to medium high (if using charcoal, build the charcoal only on one side).  Roll the dough out on a cornmeal dusted paddle.  Stretch and roll it into a 15 inch circle (it will be very thing).  Prick the dough all over with a fork.  Check to make sure that the dough still slides around easily on the paddle.  

Make the dressing:

     Whisk the orange juice, honey, mustard, and olive oil together in a small bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Finish the pizza:

     Slide the dough onto the grill grates of the preheated grill (place over the hot side of the grill, if using charcoal).  Allow the dough to cook for a few minutes until grill marks start to appear on the bottom.  Rotate the dough 90 degrees to achieve a criss-cross grill mark pattern on the bottom.  Grill for another minute or so until the new marks appear.  Slide the dough back onto the paddle.  Flip the dough over, so the grill marks are facing up.  

     Scatter the mozzarella over the crust.  Slide the crust back onto the grill (depending on the heat of your grill, you may want to move it to the cooler side to prevent burning).  Grill until grill marks start to appear on the bottom of the crust.  Rotate 90 degrees to get the same criss-cross pattern on this side. Grill until the cheese is melted and the bottom is starting to brown.  Remove the pizza from the grill.

     Toss the greens with the dressing (you may need to whisk again prior to tossing), until the leaves are slightly coated (you may end up with some dressing in the bottom of the bowl).  Scatter the dressed leaves over the mozzarella.  Reserve the dressing from the bottom of the greens bowl to serve on the side with the pizza.  Dollop pea sized pieces of goat cheese over the greens.  Scatter the raspberries over half of the pizza and the blueberries over the other half.  Sprinkle the chopped almonds over the greens.  Cut and serve.

     This was so simple and delicious, it maybe become my new staple.  It is basically a delicious, fruity, green salad served on its own, edible plate!

     I was a little sceptical about the dough.  It seemed awfully thin, but it held its own.  It was almost see-through before I put it on the grill.  I rolled it out first, while the grill was heating and let it rest while I made the dressing and prepared the other ingredients for assembly.

      

     I actually measured the orange juice out.  I had a medium sized orange.  It was about as big as my fist with a not-too-thick peel.  After squeezing three-quarters of it into my measuring cup, I pretty much had the amount I needed.  I used a metal hand-held juicer to extract the juice.  I think if I had just squeezed it with my hands, I may not have gotten that much juice out of it and would have had to use the whole orange.  As it was, I was able to save a little bit for our drinks.

     The grilling went quick.  I had to turn the grill down a bit, as it was over 500º F when I originally went outside to load up my dough onto the grates.  It slipped easily from my paddle onto the rack.  I left the grill cover open to help facilitate the cool-down (it brought it to roughly 375º F), and it only took about 3 minutes to get my first set of marks on the bottom.  I rotated it a quarter turn to get a nice pattern on the bottom.

     It came off of the grill as easily as it went on.  I just picked up the edge gingerly with my fingers and slid it onto the paddle.  A quick flip revealed my artistic browning.

     The recipe only called for 3 ounces of mozzarella, but when I put that amount on over my crust, it seemed rather pathetic (and really not worth-while), so of course I doubled it.

      Now, that was worth while.  It now covered the whole dough and made a nice, gooey base for the salad.

     The recipe had instructed me to only use some of the dressing to "lightly coat" the leaves.  I tried only using half of the dressing, but it didn't seem to get all of them, so I used all of it.  I used tongs to get the now-dressed leaves out of the bowl and onto the mozzarella.  After the leaves were out of the bowl, there was a considerable amount of dressing in the bottom of the bowl (okay, so maybe I could have gotten away with half of the dressing, but I wanted to be thorough).  I placed the leftover dressing in a bowl on the table in case we wanted to add as we ate, but we didn't feel the need.

     The Marcona almonds were a bit hard to find.  I sent Jeff out for them (of course), and he couldn't find them at Cub or Fresh Thyme.  I neglected to tell him, though, that I have only seen them in the deli section of grocery stores, and he may not have been looking in the right place.  They were horribly expensive - ($21.99/lb at Lund's).  While they are good, I am wondering if regular almonds, toasted in a pan would have been just as good (and a whole lot cheaper), especially since it only calls for 10 nuts (although, I think in the future, I will have to up the nut count).

     The finished product was delicious (at least the raspberry side).  It was fresh and bright with the underlying orange flavor to it.  The goat cheese lent it a nice creamy tang that mellowed out the acidity of the raspberries, and the almonds added a nice, buttery crunch.  My only objection to the dish was that it was a bit messy.  I found myself mashing the raspberries into the goat cheese a little bit just to keep them on the slice, but it was a small price to pay for something so delicious.

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