Grilled Grape, Blue Cheese, and Pecan Salad with Overstuffed Carnivore Pizza

     Meat, meat, and more meat.  Oh, and there were vegetables and cheese, too!  This really was an overstuffed pizza.  Of course we needed to balance out all that heaviness with a "light" salad.  Grapes and nuts were the perfect foil for all of the richness of the main event.

OVERSTUFFED CARNIVORE PIZZA

Adapted from The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani

Dough:

2½ teaspoons active dry yeast

5 ounces warm water

4½ cups bread flour

¼ cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons distatic malt

2 tablespoons lard

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 ounces cold water

2 tablespoons fine sea salt

Sauteed Vegetables:

6 tablespoons olive oil, divided

7 ounces thinly sliced red onion

1½ teaspoons fine sea salt, divided

8 ounces baby portabella mushrooms

1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips

Stuffing:

2 tablespoons of butter

9 ounces thinly sliced fresh mozzarella cheese

8 ounces Italian style meatballs (about 16 medium-sized balls)

2 ounces sliced pepperoni

9 ounces (uncooked) alabrese sausage (or other spicy bulk sausage)

5 ounces (uncooked) sweet fennel sausage (or other mild or sweet bulk sausage)

2 tablespoons grated Pecorino cheese

4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

4 ounces shredded colby jack cheese

Sauce:

3 ounces tomato paste

5 ounces canned whole plum tomatoes

½ teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon olive oil

Finishing Touches:

1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil

1 tablespoon of grated Pecorino cheese

1 teaspoon dried oregano

4 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese

Make the dough:  Put the yeast in a small bowl and add the warm water.  Whisk vigorously until well-combined.  Combine the flour, cornmeal and malt in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.  With the mixer running on low, add the lard and butter.  Pour in the cold water and the yeast mixture.  Continue mixing at medium speed until the dough comes together and clings to the hook.  Remove the dough and knead by hand for about three minutes or until smooth.  Using a dough cutter, cut one-third of the dough off of the ball.  Form this into a ball and place on a baking sheet, seam side down.  Form the remaining dough into a ball and place on the baking sheet, leaving at least an inch between the two balls.  Wrap plastic wrap around the pan and over the dough balls.  Refrigerate for at least 24 hours.  Bring the dough balls up to room temperature before shaping.

Sautee the vegetables:  Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet.  Swirl the oil around the pan to coat.  Heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Add the sliced onions and ½ teaspoon of sea salt.  Stir to coat the onions with oil.  Once the onions start to sizzle, lower the heat to medium and cook, stirring often for about 15 minutes until the onions are soft and starting to brown.  Remove from the pan.  Rinse or wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth to clean.  Quarter the mushrooms.  Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the same skillet used for the onions.  Add the mushrooms and ½ teaspoon of salt and stir to combine and coat the mushrooms with oil.  Spread the mushrooms into a single layer on the bottom of the pan.  Cook mushrooms until browned on all sides.  Remove them from the pan and set aside.  Heat 2 more tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan.  Add the pepper strips and the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt, stirring to combine and coat with oil.  Cook peppers until they are tender and starting to brown.

Assemble the pizza:  Preheat the oven to 500º F.  Roll or stretch the larger dough ball to about a seventeen inch circle.  Spread two tablespoons of butter on the bottom and inside sides of a 15" deep dish pizza pan.  Carefully place the 17 inch circle in the pan, draping the extra dough over the edges of the pan.  Arrange the mozzarella slices over the bottom and a little up the sides of the dough.  Break up the meatballs and scatter over the mozzarella.  Arrange the pepperoni slices over the meatballs.  Pinch nickel sized pieces of each of the types of sausage and arrange over the pepperoni.  Scatter the onions, mushrooms, and peppers evenly over the sausage.  Sprinkle the Pecorino and garlic over the vegetables.  Cover with the mozzarella and colby jack.  Roll the smaller dough ball out to a fifteen inch circle.  Carefully place the circle over the toppings on the pizza.  Roll the overhanging dough from the bottom of the pizza to meet the top circle of dough, pinching the two doughs together all around the pan.  Using a sharp knife, cut two or three slits in the top dough for venting.  Transfer pizza to the oven and bake for 12 minutes.  Rotate the pan 180º and bake for another 12 minutes (you may want to put a pie ring or tinfoil around the edges of the crust if it is browning too quickly).

Make the sauce:  While the pizza is baking, start the sauce.  place all of the ingredients in a blender and puree.

Finishing Touches:  Take the pizza out of the oven and let it rest for ten minutes.  Run a butter knife or thin spatula around the edges of the pan to loosen the pizza from the pan.  With a large spatula (or two to be safe), lift the pizza out of the pan and place on a cutting board (you may want to put it on a carving board, because juices may run out when you slice it).  Brush the edges of the crust with the garlic oil.  Spoon the sauce over the top of the pizza.  Dust with another tablespoon of Pecorino.  Sprinkle with a teaspoon of oregano.  Dollop the ricotta cheese over the sauce and cheese.  Slice carefully and serve!

     This pizza was more involved than I expected.  Had I read the directions all of the way through (and had I known for sure that anyone was coming over to enjoy it), I would have done more preparing on Wednesday.  As it was, I made the dough on Tuesday, took my sausages and pepperoni out of the freezer to thaw on Wednesday, and that was about it.

     I was scrambling around when Jennifer and Roger got here on Thursday night.  I had no sauce, my vegetables weren't even cut, much less sauteed, and I hadn't even chosen a drink to accompany the meal yet.  I set both of them to work, helping me right away.  OK, I let Roger get a beer first.  Then, I sent him out to the grill with the grapes for the salad.  I set Jennifer up with a cutting board and a bucket of mushrooms.

     Again, had I read the directions all of the way through, I think I would have sauteed the onions and peppers together.  The mushrooms would have had to be done separately to achieve a nice golden brown to them and to keep all of their liquids from gooing up the onions and peppers.

I had already stretched out the dough balls, buttered the pan, and loaded the bottom dough into the pan.  I had also started sauteeing the onions.  While she worked on the mushrooms, I assembled the salad.

GRILLED GRAPE, GORGONZOLA, AND PECAN SALAD

Adapted from Patio Pizzeria by Karen Adler & Judith Fertig

2 bunches of red seedless grapes, rinsed, patted dry, and left in the bunch

2½ ounces crumbled gorgonzola cheese

3½ ounces pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

Grill the grapes, still in their bunches, over a medium-high flame, using a screen or vegetable grilling tray, until they blister and blacken in spots, about four minutes.  Remove the grapes from the grill and allow to cool.  Remove the grapes from the step and place in a large bowl.  Add the cheese and toasted pecans.  Toss and serve.

I forced Jennifer to multi-task and start assembling the big pizza.  Layer after layer of stuff went into this thing!

     The toppings (stuffings?) had already reached the top of the pan, and we hadn't even added the vegetables and cheese yet.  We were still going, though.

     By the time we got the cheese on, it was mounded over the edge.  It was a good thing this was going to get sealed up, or we would have cheese and vegetables running all over the bottom of my oven!

     We sealed it up as well as we could, stabbed the top dough a few times with a sharp knife for venting and carefully placed it into the oven.  At the halfway mark, we opened the oven to rotate the pizza, and both Jennifer and I burst out laughing.  The dough had risen so much that it was rising right out of the pan, and it looked like a big chef's hat.

     At that point, we should have covered the outer edge with tin foil or with a pie ring, because the edges were getting brown, but we wanted to make sure that the sausage inside was cooked and all the cheese was melted.  We ended up overbrowning the edges of the pizza.

     The extra dough around the edges was helpful for the post-oven directions.  It had created a nice lip to keep in the sauce we had made while the pizza was baking and the additional cheese.

     This was really a hearty pizza.  Jennifer opted to tear the extra lip of crust off, so she could eat more of the interior of the pizza.  I used the extra crust to mellow out the richness of the meat and cheese.  Strangely enough, none of us had seconds. 

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Quiche Crust Pizza; Tuna & Roasted Red Pepper Pizza

    A crustless quiche pizza was appealing to me.  Especially since our whole gluten-free experiences in July.  Reading through the instructions, it sounded to me like a giant omelet with all of the ingredients on top of the egg, instead of rolled up inside.

QUICHE-CRUST PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

8 large eggs

4 egg whites

1 cup evaporated milk

1 green onion

¼ cup chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

4 ounces kielbasa sausage

½ teaspoon dried oregano

8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350º F.  Blend the eggs, whites, evaporated milk, green onion, parsley, salt, and pepper together until the frothy.  Spray a deep dish pizza pan or large cake pan with cooking spray.  Pour the egg mixture into prepared pan.  Sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top of the egg mixture.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove quiche from the oven and top with the kielbasa, tomatoes, oregano, and mozzarella.  Return to the oven and bake until the cheese has melted, about 10 minutes.

     It was a little disconcerting that the egg mixture was so green.  I guess I should have expected it, but it was still a strange color to me.  The pictures don't really do it justice, but the mixture was definitely green.

   

The "batter" for the quiche was really runny.  I was worried that it wasn't going to set up.  But, I kept going with the directions in the recipe and poured it into the prepared pan.  It barely fit, and my pan is an inch and a half deep!

Once the eggs were in the pan, I sprinkled over the cheese.  I thought it might sink, but it stayed floating on top (at least before I put it in the oven).

The eggs became even more green after baking, and the cheese disappeared into the meat of the quiche.

While it was baking, I prepared the toppings.  I started with the tomatoes.  I learned a great trick for speeding up halving grape tomatoes.  I can't remember if it was from Martha Stuart or Rachel Ray, but some t.v. personality suggested putting the tomatoes in a Tupperware lid and place another lid over the top of them.  Put slight pressure on the top lid with one hand, and cut horizontally between the two lids, and you have perfect halves.

The recipe originally called for ham, but in an effort to de-clutter my refrigerator, I decided to use some leftover kielbasa that I already had.

I was a little worried about the tuna pizza, but I was trying to keep an open mind.  I have never been a fan of canned tuna.  It specifically called for tuna from a can, but I couldn't bring myself to buy that.  I bought the tuna that comes in a foil pack.  Somehow, that seems a little more "fresh" and less fishy to me than it's tin counterpart.

Although she didn't voice it, Pam had reservations, too.  I could tell by the look on her face when I asked her to assemble the pizza.  It was there for a moment, and then it was gone - replaced by the forced smile she gets when she doesn't agree with a process but is not going to rock the boat.

TUNA AND ROASTED RED PEPPER PIZZA

Adapted from All the Best Pizza 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:

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 ounces canned or bagged Albacore Tuna

4 ounces roasted red sweet pepper, chopped

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 ounces kalamata olives

4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

2 ounces freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

Make the crust:  Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a medium bowl.  Set aside for about five minutes to allow the yeast to form a thin layer of foam on the top of the water.  Meanwhile, combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the olive oil and yeast mixture and run at medium speed until the dough comes together and begins to cling to the hook.  Remove from the mixer and form into a ball.  Place the ball in a medium-sized, greased bowl.  Cover loosely with a towel or a piece of waxed paper and set aside to rise. It should double in size in about an hour.  Divide dough in half.  Reserve half for another use.

Assemble:  Preheat oven to 450º F with pizza stone inside if using.  Roll or stretch dough out to a 15-16 inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Brush the dough all over with the tablespoon of olive oil.  Sprinkle the tuna evenly over the dough.  Scatter the peppers over the tuna.  Salt and pepper the pizza.  Arrange the kalamatas over the peppers.  Cover everything with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted, starting to brown, and somewhat bubbly.  Slice and serve.

I had prepped all of the ingredients Wednesday night, so it was easy to pass off all of the pieces to Pam and have her assemble.  I had actually roasted sweet peppers instead of using the jarred ones, because I had some, and they were thinking about become inedible.  In other words, they were no longer at the peak freshness.  Roasting was easy.  I just cut them in half, discard the seeds, and laid them on a baking sheet with the insides down.  I put them in a preheated oven set to broil on high for a couple of minutes, until the skins started to char somewhat.  I took them out of the oven and placed them in a plastic zipper bag and seal the bag.  After they were cool, I was able to remove them from the bag and slip most of the charred skins off of the peppers.  

   

I really watched the timing on this pizza.  I was concerned that if the tuna were to cook too long, it may become fishy, and I certainly didn't want that.  We pulled it out of the oven as soon as it started to brown around the edges.

We were pleasantly surprised by this pizza.  The tuna was not fishy at all.  It was tender and a slightly sweet.  The roasted peppers complimented the flavor of the tuna, and the olives were a nice contrast to its richness.  Even Pam thought it was delicious (of course, what is she going to say - I made it!).

Gluten Free Sausage Mushroom Pizza that Jennifer made

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