As some of you might know, I'm obsessed with Specialty Produce. For those of you who don't...I'm obsessed with Specialty Produce. Like a CSA, without fees, and without a single farm produce limit, Specialty Produce provides you with fresh, organic, and locally grown fruits and vegetables each week. You can also add on meats, cheeses, eggs, butter, local/sustainable fresh caught fish, pasta, breads, chocolate, coffee, jams, local honey... you get the idea. All local, all vetted, all delivered to my door once a week. It's amazing. Plus, since I love to cook, I like being surprised by what was picked that week, and coming up with a meal to make out of it. (And, have I mentioned that we can feed our family of six for the week for less than $100?!?!)
Along with the produce and fruit, this week I also ordered some fresh chicken/apple sausages, and fresh pizza dough. I had some tomatoes that were starting to soften and needed to be used, so pizza was the perfect vehicle.
This was by far my favorite homemade pizza I've done. To quote the kids, "this pizza tastes expensive... I bet you could get $100 a slice!"
I used pre-made, but raw, pizza dough from Specialty. If you don't have access to the dough from Specialty, you could make your own dough...I have a recipe that I use. But, to be honest, I find that Trader Joes and/or Whole Foods make an acceptable substitute, and cut down on the time it takes to make. If you want a recipe for your own, let me know and I'll get you mine.
Roasted Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
8 Roma Tomatoes, quartered
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
12 tiny basil leaves (I used the tops of my basil plants I headed to stop them from seeding)
6 large basil leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 450. In a parchment lined jelly roll pan, toss tomatoes, tiny basil, and garlic in enough olive oil to coat. Salt and pepper.
Roast for 30-40 minutes, until tomatoes just start to brown. Empty tomatoes, basil, garlic, and juice into a bowl. Add fresh basil. Using an immersion blender, purée. Set sauce aside.
Steamed Artichokes
Ingredients
4 cups of chicken broth
3 limes, halved
4 cloves of garlic
Large handful (or a bunch) of fresh dill
4 artichokes
Directions
Bring chicken stock, dill, garlic, and 2 of the limes to boil in a large stock pot.
Meanwhile, remove stems of the artichokes and trim the top off. Remove majority of outside hard leaves. Rub cut edges with the remaing lime. Place artichokes in the boiling liquid, bottoms up.
Turn heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes. Test for doneness by sticking a knife in the bottom. It should be easily pierced.
Remove artichokes from liquid and cut the heart from bottom. (If you were me, you would use this opportunity to scrape and eat all the artichoke yuminess from the leaves with your teeth, as you won't be using them on the pizza). Make sure to remove all the spikey choke from the hearts. Chop artichoke hearts and set aside.
Sausage
3 uncooked chicken and apple sausages, casing removed
1 T of olive oil
Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium high. Add loose sausage meat, and crumble while cooking. When browned, remove from heat and set to rest on a paper towel to drain the excess fat.
Pizza
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
Artichoke Hearts, diced
Chicken Apple Sausage, cooked and drained
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
Directions
Preheat oven to 400.
Stretch pizza dough on a parchment-lined cookie sheet or directly on a pizza stone if you have one. Spoon tomato sauce onto the dough. Sprinkle artichokes over sauce. Cover pizza with cheese. Top with sausage.
Bake on bottom rack for 10 minutes. Bake on top rack for 5 minutes, or until cheese starts to get golden brown.
No comments:
Post a Comment