April 27, 2010

PIZZA PIE



Another kind of pie we're obsessed with is the pizza kind. We especially love putting "weird" things on pizza and calling it fabulous. Awhile back we were inspired by InStyle and Aida Mollenkamp ("Food Network's rising star," apparently) to have our very own pizza party with one of our favorite people and fellow blogger, Saltina.


(Saltina takes the most lovely, thoughtful photos. Check out: myphoneograpy. Really, you'll love them.)

And today, we're thrilled to do a co-post. Here for the recipes. There for more photos. Join us.

Note: We used one package of Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough, divided and made one of each of the pizzas below. Recipes are for two small pizzas each, so you might want to halve the ingredients. Although we believe that pizza is very forgiving and don't worry about measuring (maybe that's why we love it).

POTATO, ARGULA, PECORINO AND MOZZARELLA
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
2 T grated pecorino cheese (we think Parmesan would work, too)
1/4 lb. mozzarella, sliced
1 small (about 1/4 lb.) cooked potato thinly sliced (we sliced, then cooked)
4 T olive oil
2 cups baby arugula

Preheat oven to 450. Drizzle 1 T olive oil over cookie sheet (or, you could use a pizza pan or pizza stone if you're feeling fancy). Prepare dough (to us that means rolling out as thin as possible, we don't worry about the shape, as long as it fits on the pan). Sprinkle garlic, pecorino, mozzarella and potato slices onto rolled out dough. Drizzle 1 T olive oil over pizza. Pierce dough with a fork several times. Bake 10 - 12 minutes or until crust is crispy. Remove and top with fresh arugula.



BLUE CHEESE AND ROASTED SQUASH
1/2 cup diced butternut squash*
1/4 cup diced onion
5 T olive oil
1 t salt
1/4 t ground pepper
2 T grated pecorino cheese
4 T crumbled blue cheese

In large bowl, toss squash and onion with 1 T olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread vegetables in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast at 400 until tender (about 20 minutes, but depends on how small you dice 'em), set aside. Preheat oven and prep pan/dough as above. Sprinkle pecorino onto dough. Spoon the veggies evenly over dough. Sprinkle pizza with blue cheese and 1 T olive oil. Pierce dough with fork several times. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until crust is crispy.


*We diced up all the butternut squash and threw small batches into individual ziplock bags and froze them for future pizza parties. Easy!

If you're feeling extra fancy make the Orange & Lillet Cocktail that Aida recommended. 

Thanks to InStyle, October 2009 for recipes and inspiration.


2 comments:

CVilleFieldNotes said...

Beautiful pics of some delish looking pizza! Thanks for the link to Saltina's blog - love her images.

chopsuey said...

Isn't she amazing?