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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Plethora of Pizza

So anyway, the leftover ingredients for my little pizza party didn't go to waste, I've got a metric ton of leftovers to take for much this week. So much leftover pizza I might freeze some of it.



Then again, some of this stuff turned out pretty awesome.



I'm not going to bother with formal recipes, you can find numerous pizza dough recipes on my blog and everywhere else. I have taken to stretching a very thin crust. Sometimes, I think, too thin because you want to be able to pick up a slice without the point flopping over. I like a thin crust with a nice handle, crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. But especially working with whole shrimp as an ingredient, I could have done with more structural support.



The Shrimp Scampi pizza is super simple: soak some crushed, minced garlic in olive oil with some crushed black pepper, salt and a touch of powdered cayenne. Brush this on the crust, then lay your shrimp down (I used raw, peeled & deveined 'medium' with the tails cut off even though I kinda like crunchy shrimp tails). Sprinkle on a few capers, some shredded parmesan and mozzarella, bake on the stone at 550ºF for four minutes. Six if you make a thicker crust like I will next time I do this one.



Chicken Carbonara, I crisped up four strips of bacon cut into half inch pieces, sauteed a chopped up chicken breast fillet in the bacon fat (the pan was already handy and my skillet was full of caramelizing onions). Drain both meats on paper towels to remove some of the artery clogging stuff. Caramelize a big onion or two medium ones with some fresh rosemary, dried fenugreek, black pepper and a dash of ground cayenne. Spread the caramelized onions on the crust, apply some shredded parmesan and mozzarella, toss the chicken in Alfredo sauce and top over the cheese, drizzling some extra Alfredo around, and then drop on the bacon bits. Four minutes on that 550ºF stone.



I had shrimp leftover and a jar of Alfredo sauce open, so I made a pie where I just brushed Alfredo on the crust, laid down the remaining shrimp, some capers, and shredded parmesan and mozzarella.



And then I made a final pizza with a bit of pesto for sauce, laid the cheese combo down and then topped it with anchovies and the few baby portobello slices I had left from Saturday's pizzas.



A friend of mine emailed me today suggesting a recipe he likes using tofu, cream cheese, spinach, and dried whole anchovies he gets from a Korean market that are spicy like Kimchee. I'll have to try that. Maybe with tempeh subbed in for the tofu.



I think I'll have to take a cue from a friend who responded to my posts about making General Tso's Chicken with the assumption I meant General Tso's Chicken Pizza. That's an idea I can get my mind around. I've toyed with trying to make my semi-famous Goan Style Shrimp Curry into a pizza, too.



All this writing about pizza is making me hungry.

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