Pizza, the final frontier

"These are the voyages of the starship Pizzaprize... Our continuing mission: to explore strange new toppings, to seek out new tastes and new sensations, to boldly go where no pizza maker has gone before!"

Yay for Thinkgeek swag! For Christmas this year, Santa (i.e. my Dad) brought us a brand new, Enterprise shaped pizza cutter! Other stellar pizza related Christmas gift were a lovely bamboo pizza peel (which, since we don't have a wood-fired oven, we are currently using as a monster cutting board) and a short guide to the history of the pizza (Pizza: A Global History), given to us by Erin's cousin.

Last night, we had a big family lobster feed, and since there were a couple lobsters that we didn't eat, Erin and I hit upon the brilliant idea of making lobster pizza! We also had a chunk of brie left that we used to stuff the crust. Here it is before adding the final layer of cheese:

And here is the starship Pizzaprize in action!

BACON! and things...

All right, it's time for the weekly pizza update. We're fast approaching Christmas here at Chez Alan and Erin, which means a lot of running about doing emergency gift shopping and not so much time for incredibly creative pizza ideas. That doesn't mean we're skipping pizza night - no, we're cooking a couple of pies and just throwing on whatever we've got!

Tonight's toppings involve a base of garlic and onion slapchopped and cooked with melted butter, bacon, red pepper, mushrooms, kale and various cheeses. We often like to use Zerto's four cheese blend plus a healthy dose of mozza.

In the oven...

Out of the oven...

Delizioso!

Farmer Josh says, "Eat your beets."

This week in our veggie share from Taproot Farms we received many, many beets. So this week we are featuring beets on our pizza.

We've made beet pizza before, and Alan is not the biggest fan, but he agreed to try it again tonight. Using a pesto base, we decided to pair the fresh beets with feta cheese, inspired by a salad that The Port Pub does. We also included mushrooms, kale and prosciutto.

The sous-chef was his usual helpful self :

Beets and feta over pesto :

Some chopped kale and smoked prosciutto (sprinkled with some balsamic vinegar) :

The finished product :

We also made a prosciutto, mushroom, red and green pepper, black olive and feta pizza. This shot was particularly aesthetically pleasing :

And the completed product :

Erin's pizza dough recipe

2 1/2 cups flour (we use kamut, but wheat flour would work as well in the same amount)
1 tsp salt
2(ish) Tbsp yeast
mix the above ingredients in a large bowl
1 tsp sugar (or honey)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup warm water
mix the above ingredients, then add to the dry and knead for about 2 minutes.
Set aside to rise while you chop toppings - at least 20 minutes
Makes two 12 inch round pizzas.

Grease the pans with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with corn meal.

Top.

Bake at 425° for about 15 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.

Patata e salsiccia

At our house we receive a appetizer-size veggie share every week from Taproot Farms. We regularly use what we get on our pizzas - this week, we discovered that our box of veggies sitting in our chilly entryway contained a large number of potatoes. This, plus some leftover sausages from earlier in the week, gave rise to this week's pizza.

First, the dough. Erin is allergic to wheat (but not gluten itself), and after trying out a number of different flours, we settled on kamut. Following Erin's handy recipe, I made this week's dough myself! It turned out rather well, as you can see.

While the dough was rising, I did a little sous-cheffing.

Once the dough was ready, we spread pesto on it and proceeded to added the sliced potatoes and green onion.

Added some portabella mushrooms...

Red pepper and artichoke hearts...

Finally, sliced sausage and cheeses (parma and mozza)...

Voila! Another tasty pizza experience, chez Alan and Erin!

Yum!

You have to start somewhere

Alan and I have been making crazy-good pizzas for the past couple of months. Posting a single picture on Facebook no longer seems like enough of a tribute to the deliciousness...

This week we decided to go with a basic pizza, it's been a while since we had pepperoni on a pizza.

First, the sauces. We used basil pesto and tomato sauce.

 Next came hot pepperoni and mushrooms :

 Then green peppers, red peppers and black olives :

Some parmesan cheese :

Some mozza :

And voilà!

 Deliciousness.