Gumbo Pizza

This is an admittedly complicated pizza recipe, but well worth the time and effort to make. A couple of times a year, we make a huge pot of gumbo, stirring and simmering for hours until all of the flavors have mingled and melded. Here, we've broken down our favorite Louisianan recipe into a pizza-ready version.

The first ingredient in any gumbo is the roux: browned flour and oil that serves as the foundation for the rich stock of okra, seafood and andouille sausage.

PREP:
Heat 1/4 cup canola oil and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly for 15-20 minutes until it browns to a nice nutty color. Then stir in 1/4 cup chopped onion, another 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper and 1 clove of chopped garlic and continue cooking until the onion is soft.

While that's going on, measure 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes, 1/2 cup chopped okra (frozen is fine, but thaw it first), 1 tablespoon chopped scallions, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 crumbled bay leaf, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and a dash each of ground allspice, mace and cloves. Stir all of those ingredients into the pan with the onions and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring regularly.

Since we're not dedicating hours to cooking down the stock, we then used an immersion blender to make a nice smooth sauce.

TOPPINGS (layered in this order):

1. Very Best Pizza Crust Ever, par-baked
2. A generous spread of the onion-okra sauce
3. Thinly sliced andouille sausage (Do yourself a favor and don't substitute any other kinds of smoked sausages; the andouille adds such a distinctive flavor.)
4. More chopped okra
5. Grated mozzarella cheese
6. Raw shrimp, butterflied and/or sliced in half down the middle
7. Cooked chicken, chopped

Bake at 450 degrees F for about 11 minutes until the shrimp are pink. Serve topped with a splash of Louisiana-style hot sauce, such as Crystal.

Guatemalan Black Bean Pizza

I spent a semester in college studying Spanish in Guatemala. Black beans and hand-pressed tortillas are THE two staple foods, eaten for three meals a day by many people across the country. My favorite preparation of black beans is called "licuados" — a thick paste perfect with eggs or sauteed veggies or ... really anything. We happened to have some leftover chicken around, which made for the perfect Guatemalan-themed pizza.

PREP:
Chop a small onion and saute until soft and translucent, but not browned. In a blender, process the sauteed onions, 2 cups cooked black beans and 1 garlic clove. Add water or some reserved bean liquid to make a smooth, thick, saucy consistency.

TOPPINGS (layered in this order):

1. Corn Masa Crust, par-baked
2. A generous spread of the liquified beans
3. Queso fresco, grated or chopped into tiny chunks (queso fresco is a white farm cheese available at Hispanic markets and many mainstream grocery stores) 
4. Grated mozzarella
5. Cooked, chopped chicken breast
6. Sprinkle of chopped cilantro

Bake at 450 degrees F for about 8 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust begins to brown. ¡Buen provecho!

Baked Potato Pizza

As if pizza weren't comfort food enough...

Baked Potato Pizza is the perfect rainy Saturday afternoon pizza, when you're ready for a lazy, heavy meal, a cold beer and quality time with your sofa cushions. You can bake the potatoes solely for the pizza, or use leftovers from another meal. Either way, don't plan to move anywhere for a few hours after dinner.

PREP:

• Wash 2-3 large russet potatoes (skin on!), wrap in tin foil and bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. OR, shortcut version, puncture the potatoes a few times with a fork and microwave them (without tin foil!) on high for about 10 minutes or until soft inside. Either way, allow the potatoes to cool a bit, then chop them into small cubes and toss them with a mixture of Italian herbs (we like Mrs. Dash's salt-free version).
• (Optional) Pre-cook 2 slices of bacon in a heavy skillet until they just start to get crispy.

TOPPINGS (layered in this order):

1. Very Best Pizza Crust Ever, par-baked
2. A few dollops of sour cream, spread very thinly over the crust
3. The cooked potato cubes, tossed with Italian seasoning
4. A handful or two of chopped chives
5. (Optional) The bacon, chopped into small bits
6. A healthy dose of grated mozzarella cheese (for gooeyness) mixed with a sharp cheddar cheese (for flavor)

Bake on a pizza stone at 450 degrees F for about 8 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust begins to brown. Sit back and put your feet up.

Reuben Pizza

A belated St. Paddy's Day to ya. Don't bother putting on your green T-shirt or testing your Irish brogue, but you might want to dig out that leftover corned beef from the back of your fridge. And turn the boiled cabbage into sauerkraut...

It appears there are conflicting accounts about the history of the Reuben sandwich. It was either created by a Lithuanian man living in Nebraska or by a German man living in New York, both, naturally, with Reuben as part of their name.

Reuben pizza also appears to be a well-established recipe, so we make no claims of ownership, other than that we did throw it together off the top of our heads and we have some ideas for how we'd improve it next time. On the "throw it together" side, it ended up being an unusually processed meal for us:

To "improve it next time" we would come up with a decent quick sauerkraut recipe and make our own Russian dressing. We also thought our pizza could have used more of almost all of the toppings. So be generous, while also keeping in mind that over-loaded pizzas are hard to maneuver and prone to sogginess.

Nonetheless it was tasty. Here's how it went:

TOPPINGS (layered in this order):

1. Very Best Pizza Crust Ever - Before the par-baking step, stretch out the dough as usual and sprinkle a healthy dose of caraway seeds over the surface. We gently pressed them in with a rolling pin to keep them from running away. Then continue with the par-baking.

2. Generous spread of Russian dressing
3. Grated Swiss cheese of a nice sharp variety
4. A handful of grated mozzarella for meltedness
5. Dollops of sauerkraut
6. Slices of corned beef

Bake at 450 degrees F for 7-8 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust edges start to brown.

Mini Pizzas

Oooh, take a look at this!

Look here:

And here:

Those are mini Lively Pizzas, made by yours truly for ML's birthday party the other week. Super fun! And fairly painless!

Just divide your dough into about 30 balls instead of 3. ML made the dough the day before the party, divided it into mini balls and stored them in the refrigerator, layered in a pizza box with parchment paper in between. Party-day morning, he rolled them out and par-baked them. Then just before the party I threw some toppings on, popped them in the oven 8 or 9 at a time (using a cookie sheet instead of the pizza stone for convenience) and ended up with super fun party food. Took a little bit longer than making ordinary-sized pizzas, but they were easier to munch on while playing pin-the-flag-on-the-treasure-map. (Pirate-dinosaur theme, you know...)

Brussels Sprout Pizza

Reasons why 2 and 1/2 months have passed since our last pizza post:

1. We got married in November
2. I started a new job in November
3. There was the usual sequence of holidays and holiday-related chaos
4. We had a lot of leftovers to wade through after said holidays
5. ML had a very significant birthday (starts with 4, ends with 0), accompanied by a significant party in January
6. We're sort of intimidated by our own Bacon Jam Pizza recipe

I know, I know ... what kinds of silly reasons are those? What sorts of pizza enthusiasts let such mundane excuses get in the way of pizza-making?!

Sigh.

We're ashamed.

Fortunately, we re-commenced our pizza-making endeavors with great success. We may even have overcome our fears from #6. Because in addition to these...

...you also get all of these:

(Shout out to Alton Brown for the flavor combo idea.)

In defense of our pizza-making neglect, we made this one twice. The beta version needed some tweaking to get the right balance of flavors, so here's the final product. Be generous with the Brussels and apples and a little stingy with the blue cheese. Trust me, it evens out in the end.

PREP:

1. If making your own dough or using store-bought raw dough, roll it out and par-bake it for about 3 minutes. (Curious why? Read our explanation here.)
2. Cook the bacon in a heavy skillet until it's almost-crispy-but-not-quite. Drain it on paper towels.

TOPPINGS (layered in this order):

1. Very Best Pizza Crust Ever, par-baked
2. Thin spread of Dijon mustard - enough that the surface is slathered but not goopy
3. Tiny crumbles of blue cheese (something generic is fine) - just a small amount, it doesn't take much to get the flavor across
4. Grated mozzarella
5. Thinly sliced onions
6. Sliced Granny Smith or other tart apple
7. A generous amount of thinly sliced Brussels sprouts - they shrink a lot in the oven, so put on more than what looks reasonable
8. Chopped bits of bacon (optional; veggers, if you omit the bacon, add an extra sprinkle of salt)
9. Sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes

Bake that guy at 450 degrees F for about 10 minutes, or until the edges of the Brussels sprout leaves start to blacken. Drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil and overcome any residual childhood vegetable trauma.

Before:

After:

While eating:

(Skeptical about the sprouts? Let the Produce Geek himself tell you how great they are.)

Bacon Jam Pizza

Of the 20-some pizza recipes we have posted so far, I am by far the most proud of this one. It feels like a milestone, a turning point in our pizza-making from which we can grow to new great pizza heights.

Either that or this is the absolute best pizza we're ever going to make and it's all downhill from here.

Many of our pizzas begin with already established flavor combinations, which we then finagle onto a crust. The creativity lies more in figuring out how to make it work on a pizza, rather than in coming up with brand new topping pairings. This recipe, however, began with the mysterious and tantalizing words "bacon jam," followed by "what the heck goes with bacon jam?" And the most delicious discoveries emerged.

The bacon jam recipe is courtesy of my friend Tasty April. At her Labor Day party this year, she brought out a small jar of chunky brown paste, assuring us it we would want to put this condiment on everything. She was right.

Unfortunately, my first effort at making bacon jam failed miserably, as the combination of my gas stove with no legitimate "low" setting and my over-zealous cast iron skillet completely scorched it. So I made a few minor modifications, including the use of a slow cooker, and attempt #2 was a rousing success. As April suggests, the uses of this miraculous substance are endless, so if you come up with any other exciting applications, we'd love to know.

BACON JAM:

1. Chop 1 pound of thick-cut smoked bacon into 1-inch pieces and cook in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove the bacon from the skillet with a slotted spoon and set aside.
2. Allow the bacon fat to cool for a few minutes. Then add 1 large onion, sliced thin, and 5 minced garlic cloves and saute over medium-low heat until the onion is translucent.
3. Meanwhile, get out your slow cooker and put in the crisped bacon, 3/4 cup coffee, 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup maple syrup, 1 teaspoon allspice, 1 teaspoon chili powder, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne. When the onions and garlic are done, add them as well, along with all of that bacon fat.
4. Simmer everything in the slow cooker on high, with the lid on, for 1 hour. Then turn it down to low and simmer for another 30 minutes. The bacon should be very soft and soggy, and there will be a lot of liquid left.
5. Turn off the slow cooker and allow the mixture to cool for 20-30 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the chunky parts to the food processor and discard the excess liquids. 
6. Pulse the mixture in the food processor until finely chopped, about 5 pulses, or until it's a consistency you like.
7. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months.

TOPPINGS:
The pizza magic happens when you add just the right toppings to the bacon jam base. Layer the toppings in this order:

1. Whole wheat crust, par-baked
2. Thin spread of bacon jam. You don't need much to have a very rich flavor. (Or to have super high cholesterol...)
3. Grated mozzarella, just enough to help the toppings stick
4. Crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
5. Thinly sliced pears
6. Sliced shallots

Bake at 450 degrees F for 7 minutes. Eat and eat and eat some more.

We ended up making this pizza twice in one weekend because we couldn't believe how delicious it was!

Pesto Pizza the Third

As fall gradually creeps in, it looks like the basil season is, sadly, winding down. My plants appear a little scraggly, less prolific. *sniff* But all sadness about the end of summer aside, now is prime time to mix up more pesto and make the most out of every last leaf. So if you're ready for pesto batch #2, here's a fresh and tasty combination of toppings to try out.

TOPPINGS (layered in this order):

1. The very best pizza crust ever, par-baked.
2. Generous spread of homemade pesto
3. Grated mozzarella
4. Chopped leeks
5. Slivers of bacon, par-cooked just enough to be not-raw, but not enough to be crispy (optional)
6. Halved cherry tomatoes and/or sliced tomatoes
7. Sliced bell peppers

Bake at 450 degrees F for 7 minutes and top with just a teensy sprinkle of extra Parmesan.

Shaved Asparagus Pizza

ML: "If you had told my 14-year-old self that I would be wanting second helpings of asparagus pizza..."

Well, 14-year-old selves might need to take a back seat, because this is one tasty grown-up pizza. The idea started when our friend KB, who knows about our pizza obsession and was one of the tasters of the breakfast pizza, told us that a coworker of hers regularly makes a pizza with shredded asparagus. We happened to be on our way to a u-pick farm and market, which happened to have enormous bunches of beautiful asparagus. Coincidence? Fate??

To get an idea of where to start, I looked up asparagus pizza recipes and found one on smitten kitchen's blog, which is among my very favorite food blogs. We liked her idea to isolate the asparagus, which certainly deserves a bit of a spotlight, but realized our own pizza ideal involves a more deliberate mingling of flavors and textures. AKA we thought it needed garlic and bacon.

First, we chopped fresh garlic, tossed it lightly with extra virgin olive oil and put it in a little tin foil packet on the pizza stone while the oven preheated.

Then we par-cooked a couple strips of bacon (can be done either in the microwave or on the stove), just enough to make it edible, but not enough to be crispy. (Yet.)  For vegetarians, the pizza would still be delicious without the bacon.

Next there was the matter of preparing the asparagus. I followed smitten kitchen's recommendation to use a vegetable peeler to shave the asparagus into long strips. The result was attractive, but the process was tedious and my vegetable peeler seemed inadequate for the task, so in a pinch I think the right food processor attachment could speed up the job. If you do it by hand, you'll want to hold the asparagus by the tough end of the stalk (the part you would usually cut off), lay it flat on a cutting board, and shave from the base of the stalk to the tip.

We also opted to feature more Parmesan saltiness and less mozzarella gooeyness on this one. The rest of the pizza came together easily and tastily, the perfect springtime pizza. I confess, I might have had third helpings...

TOPPINGS (layered in this order):

1. par-baked simple crust
2. drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
3. generous spread of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4. light dusting of shredded mozzarella cheese
5. pile of shaved asparagus, tossed with extra virgin olive oil and a dash of lemon juice, and seasoned to taste with salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes
6. chopped scallions
7. roasted garlic
8. chopped, par-cooked bacon (optional; if you omit the bacon, add an extra dash of salt)

Bake at 450° F for about 9 minutes, until the bacon starts getting crispy and the crust edges have browned. Top with an extra sprinkle of Parmesan.

Lively Pizza

The original, official name for this one is Pizza Capricciosa. Pizza that is "lively and free." I like it.

And I LOVED this pizza. I might go out on a limb and say this is my favorite pizza we've made so far.  SO GOOD IT DESERVES ALL CAPS. (Whoa!)

Everything holds together in exactly the right way: texture, color, flavor. In fact, it has this perfect balance of fresh and salty flavors, where each delicious ingredient blends with the rest to make an even better overall flavor.

Lively and free, indeed.

Here's how you make it:

1. Par-baked crust. We used whole wheat for this one, and I thought it was perfect.
2. Spread of crushed tomatoes, aka salsa semplice (again, I recommend Pomi brand)
3. Grated mozzarella
4. Sliced crimini/baby bella mushrooms
5. Thin strips of prosciutto or other Italian cured ham
6. Sliced canned artichoke hearts

Bake all of that together at 450 degrees F for 5 minutes, then add:

1. Chopped fresh spinach

Bake for another 2 minutes, pull out of the oven, and top with a drizzle of olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan. Buon appetito!

Chorizo & Jalapeño Pizza

Felicidades! Happy belated Cinco de Mayo...? Or something like that...?

Last week we picked up some Mexican chorizo at a Latin American market with the intention of making tacos. Didn't take long before we decided pizza deserved a spicy sausage treatment as well.

For those of you not familiar with it, Mexican chorizo is a pork sausage that's made with chile peppers and a variety of seasonings. Very tasty. Moderately spicy. A very dominant flavor that takes over everything around it.

Cue the jalapeños, onions and cilantro:

They also have dominant flavors that happen to go very nicely with said chorizo, which makes this one flavor-filled pizza.

While you're par-baking your crust, be sure to brown the chorizo and pour off the excess grease.

Layer the toppings like this:

1. Par-baked crust
2. Thin spread of salsa verde (green salsa made from tomatillos)
3. Good ole mozzarella, grated
4. White or red onions, thinly sliced in rings
5. Jalapeño slices
6. Browned chorizo
7. Chopped cliantro

Bake at 450 degrees F for about 7 minutes. Don't bother with the customary drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of Parmesan, but you could consider a few spritzes of fresh lime juice or a shredded radish garnish.

Breakfast Pizza

Everyone knows that cold, leftover pizza is the breakfast of choice for many 20-year-old college students, but what adult in their right minds would actually MAKE pizza for breakfast? Really, it's absurd.

Oh, right... WE have made pizza for breakfast... and possibly crossed whatever line separates merely liking pizza from being thoroughly obsessed.

It was so good there weren't even leftovers for lunch.

1. Par-baked whole wheat crust (it's important to have fiber at breakfast, you know...)
2. Drizzle of olive oil
3. Yukon gold potatoes, sliced paper-thin, spread in a single layer over the crust
4. Generous dusting of old bay seasoning, garlic powder and onion powder, along with a pinch of celery seed and black pepper
5. Grated mozarella and a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan
6. Breakfast meat of choice, sliced and browned in a skillet ahead of time - we used chicken sausage, but pork sausage or ham or bacon would also be deeeelicious

Assemble all of those items and slide the pizza onto the stone in the preheated oven. Once it's in place, crack raw eggs (approximately one per slice) on the top of the pizza. Bake at 450 F for at least 11 minutes. The crust will get a little darker than usual, but the potatoes and eggs need the extra time.

If it doesn't seem like the egg whites are cooking enough, try gently covering the pizza with aluminum foil to trap some steam and help the top cook. The whites should be gelatinous, not runny, and the yolks will be a lovely over-easy. It's everything you've ever wanted for breakfast in one dish.

Sausage and Mushroom Pizza

You may have noticed that we don't give very specific quantities of toppings in our pizza recipes. That's because we have found that the measurements listed in many pizza recipes aren't actually helpful. We can understand a pound of sausage or four ounces of cheese, but what does one bell pepper mean anyway? Or three leeks?! Vegetables grow in so many shapes and sizes it seems silly to try to quantify how many you might need. Plus, to a large extent, the proportion of toppings is determined by each person's taste buds, and should therefore be adapted as you like.

We DO recommend not overloading on toppings, however, because if the crust gets too full it is much harder to move around and much more likely to get soggy. We also advocate a low-cheese, high-veggie, meat-as-flavor-accessory approach to pizza-making, which produces a much healthier pizza.

All of that to introduce this standard but always delicious pizza that has just a few basic ingredients (with some added tips and explanations).

1. The crust, of course.
2. 
   Thin spread of strained tomatoes. Pomi is my preferred brand, since it comes in BPA-free cardboard containers, avoids the flat flavor of canned tomatoes and contains only tomatoes and nothing else (no salt!). It is soooo worth the extra price.
3. Sprinkle of Italian herbs and seasonings. I usually like to apply my own combination of dried basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder and freshly ground black pepper, but sometimes I use a decent spice blend like Mrs. Dash's Italian Medley instead. If you take my advice and use Pomi tomatoes, you won't need to add any salt or sugar, but if you skimp and buy some cheap canned variety, you might want to add some of each to taste.
4. Grated mozzarella
5. Sliced baby bella (a.k.a. crimini) mushrooms
6. Sausage, removed from the casings and browned. It's also definitely worth paying extra for really good sausage. We have the good fortune to shop regularly in Philadelphia's Italian Market, and we LOVE Fiorella's sweet Italian sausage with fennel. (I also love their antique cash register... )
7. Since ML is addicted to spicy food, we often add chopped cherry peppers to at least part of the pizza, but that's entirely optional.

After baking it all in the oven until the cheese is melted and the crust edges are golden brown, we drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Shoot, now I'm hungry all over again.