Pizza Margherita

Pizza is not a junk food unless you create a junk food pizza. We Americans sometimes like to pile our pizza high with meaty toppings and load it up with fatty cheeses and then practically deep-fry the crust until we have a heart-attack on a disk. I'm not entirely against that. One of my favorite pizzas for years now is in my own backyard at a place called the Pie Pizzeria. But the couple of times I've been to Italy something I have adored about real Italian pizza is the attitude that less is more. Give me crisp on the outside, soft in the middle European bread with some light toppings, olive oil and herbs sprinkled on to enhance the flavor and texture.

Pizza isn't strictly Italian. Many cultures have a similar dish of flatbread with toppings. The ancient Greeks baked bread in a round disk and covered it with oil, herbs and dates.

My husband next to brick ovens and hearths in Pompeii, Italy:


Pizza Margherita is a Neapolitan Pizza (from Naples, Italy) named after Queen Margherita. The story goes that the Queen was inspecting her subjects and the peasants were eating pizza. She ordered her guard to bring her some of the food. She loved it so much that in spite of the court circles being shocked by her desire to dine on peasant food, she ordered her chef, Rafaelle Esposito, to create a pizza for her. Rafaelle topped his pizza with Tomatoes, Mozarella Cheese, and fresh Basil to represent the colors of the Italian flag: Red white and green.

The following is my recipe for authentic Italian pizza dough, which comes from research and talking to a lot of people. Of course there are hundreds of variations of pizza dough in Italy and all over the world, so this is just one of many.


4 cups of bread flour (I recommend using King Arthur Bread Flour)
One teaspoon of instant yeast
2 teaspoons of salt
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 cups of water
Semolina flour (to scatter beneath dough)

The key to good pizza dough is a cooking stone. There is no way to get the texture of Italian pizza without one. I purchased my cooking stone from Williams-Sonoma but there are many good cooking stones and some people make their own from unglazed terra cotta bought in a hardware store. I also bought my pizza peel from Williams-Sonoma. It's a necessity! Plus it's fun to tease your kids by telling them you'll paddle them with it.


Another main key to making brilliant pizza dough is allowing the yeast to ferment for 48 hours, so you need to make this pizza dough a day or two ahead. Work with all cold ingredients. Mix together the flour, insant yeast and salt and work the oil and water into them until you have a sticky dough. You'll need to knead the dough for at least seven minutes to get the right texture. Keep in mind that the flour and water proportions will be different in each kitchen at each altitude and even on each day. So many things affect the texture of dough. If the dough is not sticky (it should be just barely dry enough to roll into a ball), add more water. If it is too sticky, add more flour. Divide the dough into four or five chunks and coat each chunk in olive oil. Place in a plastic bag and refridgerate overnight at least but for 48 hours is better.


Remove one of the chunks of dough from the refridgerator and press into a thick, flat disk on a floured surface. Rub lightly with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Allow dough to sit at room temperature for two hours. Preheat oven to 450º at least 25 minutes before cooking the pizza. It takes a while to heat up the stone. Stretch (or throw) dough until it is desired thickness. Sprinkle pizza peel with semolina flour (or corn meal) and place stretch dough onto peel.



Rub the dough with olive oil. Seed and dice two tomatoes and sprinkle them with salt. Spread over dough.



Cut fresh Mozerella into chunks (or tear it into chunks if you prefer). Scatter over tomatoes.
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Sprinkle fresh basil over all and slide from the pizza peel to the stone. Cook for 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from stone with peel and slice and eat.


The dough will make five small pizzas. My kids wanted me to make a five-cheese pizza with another chunk of dough. This pizza has mozerella, colby, parmesan, jack, and goat cheese. I rubbed the dough with olive oile, sprinkled it with various freshly ground dried Italian herbs and topped it with fresh basil.



My husband next to a food market vendor in Italy. Me in Naples, home of the famed Pizza Margherita:

Egyptian Yogurt Cheese

When I visited both Greece and Egypt some of the yogurt had a wonderful, rich texture more like cream cheese than the yogurt we eat in the U.S. Because it was out of context, I had forgotten that the texture was the simple draining process I had used before to make what I called "yogurt cheese". It is fabulous on crackers and mixed with various herbs, or as a topping for potatoes in the place of sour cream. In Egypt they served it with pita bread or pita chips.


I use a sauce pan with a steamer to drain my cheese. I know this is probably silly, but it's what I had around the first time I tried it and it worked so well that I continue to do it the same way. I simply drape some cheesecloth over the pan and dump in a 16 oz container of plain yogurt.


I then wrap the cheesecloth around the yogurt and twist a wire bread twisty around the top.


I leave the yogurt in the steamer in the refrigerator for 48 hours. (I often place some heavy bowl on top of the yogurt to help squeeze out the moisture).


After 48 hours, I remove the yogurt and store in the refrigerator for up to a week (if it lasts that long)









Me in Egypt (not eating yogurt cheese at the moment):

Vodka Mushroom Soup

Mushrooms have a rich, earthy, sweet flavor and come in many different varieties and textures. Each type of mushroom has it's own unique flavor. Mushrooms contain selenium which is an essential mineral. Selenium works with vitamin E to produce antioxidants. I developed this recipe to be a lower-fat version of my creamy mushroom soup. The vodka and red wine give it a wonderful fullness.














Use about 15 oz of your favorite mushrooms. I used shitake, portobello and garden button mushrooms. I removed the stems from the button mushrooms so I could cook them longer (they are a bit tough).


I chopped one large carrot, an onion, some fresh rosemary and thyme leaves, then combined these with the mushroom stems in a large soup pot. I added 1 Tbsp olive oil and cooked until the veggies were slightly soft.


I covered the veggies with water (about 6 cups) and added salt and pepper, then brought to a boil, reduced heat and simmered for 30 minutes.


In the meantime I chopped the mushrooms and cooked them in olive oil and butter (the butter adds a wonderful flavor, but go easy on it depending on how much you are watching fat). After the mushrooms were tender I added 1/2 cup of red wine and 1/4 cup of vodka and cooked until most of the liquid was gone. I then sprinkled 1/4 cup of flour over the mushrooms and combined, cooking until the powdery flavor of the flour was gone.



Then I added the mushrooms to the the soup pot with the veggies and added 1.5 cups of 2% milk and 1/2 cup of half-and-half. I sprinkled in 1/2 bundle of chopped fresh parsley. And cooked until thickened.

Delicious!

African Bean & Squash Soup

This recipe is based on a NY Times recipe posted here, but has been slightly altered here and there. This is a colorful, spicy soup full of rich and earthy flavors. It is bursting with nutritional value. This soup is popular with some of my vegetarian visitors.

Soak 1 cup of chickpeas in water overnight

Chop 1 large onion, 2 medium carrots, 4 garlic cloves and 1/2 pound winter squash. Crush 1 dried red chili pepper.

Cook chopped veggies in 2 Tbsp or olive oil in the bottom of a large pot. Add 1 tablespoon sweet paprika and 2 tsp Indian yellow powder (or turmeric).



Cook veggies until slightly tender then add 1 (28-ounce) can chopped tomatoes, with juice and 1 1/2 quarts water and Salt to taste. Add one bunch of chopped cilantro.



Add chickpeas and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.


Right before serving add 1/2 cup of vermicelli and salt and pepper to taste.


Stir in 3 Tbsp of chopped fresh mint and serve