Big On Pizza!

Super Bowl 50 is right around the corner football fans!  It's time to think of party food.  Always on the menu at my house is pizza, it's a favorite, easy to eat, and virtually no mess for crazy fans.  Finger food is what people like, a lot of hand motions going on that day and pizza is a one handed kind of food.  Instead of making the usual round pizza this time, I am making a slab pizza out of my fresh dough.  Eating a square slice is much better to hold, while screaming at a referee for a bad call, than a  pie slice!

My homemade dough, recipe below.

You can use homemade sauce (recipe on this blog 6/12/13)  A good friend recommended this sauce, now my favorite.

Roll the dough out to fit your baking sheet, add sauce, cheese and toppings.  I used a little olive oil on my baking sheet so my pizza doesn't stick.  If you want an extra crispy crust, when the pizza is almost done I slide it off the pan and onto the rack in the oven for a few extra minutes, to make the crust extra crispy.

 Everything is better homemade!  Nice, crispy brown crust, melted cheese and pepperoni, equals great pizza.

PIZZA DOUGH

INGREDIENTS

2 packages of active dry yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp canola oil (I use olive oil because I like the fruity taste of it)

1 1/4 cups of very warm water

3 1/2 cups of unbleached flour (plus additional flour for kneading)

2 tsp salt (I like the flavor of  kosher salt that's why I use it but you can use regular table salt)

DIRECTIONS

Attach dough hook to mixer. Combine the yeast, sugar, oil  and water in the bowl of the mixer.  Stir it up until the yeast and sugar are dissolved. Add 3 cups of the flour and the salt and turn the mixer on medium speed.  As the ingredients combine, the dough should start pulling from the sides of the bowl.  As this happens add up to the 1/2 cup of flour that is left.  Let the mixer knead the dough for about 5 minutes.  Turn mixer off.  The dough will be a tiny bit sticky. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it by hand about 10 - 12 times. It should be very smooth.  Roll it into a ball, seam side down.  Oil a large bowl with about 1 Tbsp of oil.  Put the dough in the bowl seam side up and roll the top in the bottom of the bowl.  Turn the dough right side up.  Cover the bowl with a linen towel and set in a cool dry place.  Let it rise for 1/2 hour.

When the dough has risen, dump it out of the bowl onto a floured surface.  Roll dough to fit your greased baking sheet, stretch to the corners of the pan and press lightly so it stays. Let dough rest for about 5 minutes.  Add sauce and toppings and bake at 375 degrees for about 25 - 30 minutes (depending on your oven). When pizza is baked, remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack to keep the crust crispy. If you are not using the dough right away cover with a damp linen towel and put in the refrigerator for up to 3 hours. Take out of the refrigerator and let the dough come to room temperature before adding topping and then bake.

Eileen's Pappardelle Alla Bolognese

Because I'm Italian I love all things Italian, except for calamari, that I can not eat.  All I can think of when I hear that word, is a squid slapping me with it's tentacles or trying to eat me.  I know, THAT sounds crazy!  I just can't do it.  But anyway, Italian food is always on my list of what I can make for dinner.  It's a simple food to make, rustic, tasty and fills you up.  Add a bottle of wine and you have an elegant meal, no matter what is on the plate.

I bought a couple of packages of pappardelle at Trader Joe's the last time I was there, and stored them in the pantry.  Pappardelle is a wide flat noodle, sometimes made with eggs, sometimes not.  I have been toying with the idea of a beef bolognese sauce for them, I don't usually have a bolognese sauce with my pasta, have some picky eaters in the house.  But, I decided to give it a try, pulled some things together and made this bolognese recipe my own.  It was so darn good!  The beef, the wine, cheese, veggies and sauce, all cooking together made the house smell so fantastic, I couldn't wait to eat that night.  What is it with Italian flavors that does that, it's just good food no doubt about. So here is my take on Pappardelle With Bolognese Sauce.

Recipe below.

To print recipe, click, highlight and print.

To view photos in a larger format, click on them.

These are the ingredients I started with.  I chopped my onion, celery and carrots to get them ready.

    

 I didn't have pancetta on hand, But I always have a container of bacon fat stored in the freezer.  I always save it after cooking bacon.  I melted some of it with olive oil, for added flavor while cooking the beef.

    

I pan seared the beef on all sides..... 

    

then covered it with a lid for the remainder of cooking time.

    

Take them out of the pan and let them rest on a plate.  Lookin' good!

 I used diced tomatoes and pureed them in a small food processor.

 In the same pan with the meat juices, cook the onion, celery and carrots, then add garlic paste, more on that later.

 Add the tomato paste and stir it in.

 Ahhh, then the wine!  This gives so much flavor to the rest of the ingredients.

 Toss in those tomatoes, a little milk for creaminess, a cheese rind, bay leaves and return meat to the pan....

 .....stir the sauce so everything combines, cover and cook stirring occasionally.

 OMG! That meat, it's so tender and juicy.  Shred it with a fork, trim any fat off of it, and return it to the pan so it can absorb some of the sauce.

 Looks amazing!  Start a pot of water, bring to a boil and toss in the pappardelle to cook.

 Scoop out most of the meat from the sauce pan and put it into a bowl.  When the pappardelle was done cooking, I put it into the pan with the sauce.....

 .....gave it a roll in the sauce and WOW, that looks so good!

 When I plated the pappardelle, I topped it with the beef mixture, shaved Romano- Pecorino cheese, fresh basil, and dinner was served.  It was so good I didn't want to talk while eating, I wanted to savor every bite.

Eileen's Pappardelle Alla Bolognese

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive

1 tablespoon bacon fat, or 2 tablespoons pancetta (see note), or use butter

2 boneless beef short ribs

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 sweet onion, finely diced

1 rib celery, finely diced

1 carrot, finely diced

2 tablespoons garlic paste (see note)

3 tablespoons tomato paste (see note)

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup milk

2 bay leaves

small Italian cheese rind, optional

1 package Pappardelle noodles

Grated cheese

Directions

In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil and the bacon fat.  Add the short ribs and sear them on all sides.  Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Remove from pan onto a plate.

Add the onion, celery and carrot to the same pan, and cook for about 6 minutes.  Add the garlic paste and stir it in, cook for 1 minute.  Add the tomato paste, stir it in, cook for 2 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, wine, milk, bay leaves and cheese rind to the pan.  Stir until all is combined, then add the meat back into the pan and season with a little more salt and pepper.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover the pan partially with the lid so the moisture escapes, and let cook for 2 hours stirring occasionally.  The sauce will thicken during cooking time.

About 20 minutes before serving, start a pot of salted water for the pasta.

Remove the cheese rind and the bay leaves from the sauce.  Take the meat out and using two forks shred the meat and return to the sauce. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let the meat absorb some of the sauce while the pasta is cooking.

Scoop most of the meat out of the pan and into a bowl.  When pasta is done cooking, drain completely, then toss the pasta with the sauce that is left in the pan.  To serve the pasta, top with the meat mixture and shaved cheese. Makes 4 servings.

NOTE:
1.  If using pancetta instead of bacon fat, after browning the meat, cook pancetta in the olive oil  until brown and crispy, drain on a paper towel.  Add it to the sauce when you add the meat back in.  

2.  AMORE makes garlic paste and tomato paste in a tube, as well as many other good ingredients that you may only need a little of.  It's found on the shelves where jarred pasta sauces and canned tomatoes are sold. The garlic paste is so much easier to use, than chopping garlic cloves, and the tomato paste is less wasteful than opening a whole can of paste when you only need a few tablespoons.  If you are vegetarian or vegan, this dish is easy to switch out ingredients and still have a great, tasty dish.

I Did It My Way - Chicken Florentine

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, it's my favorite place to be.  I write The Bee Skep blogs from my desk in my kitchen, while I drink my morning coffee or tea.  I think of ideas of what to make for dinner to keep the dinner plates interesting.  I get tired of eating the same old things all the time, gets boring or I'm not satisfied and then eat junk after dinner because my belly is not full, BAD MOVE!  More food makes more of me, and I don't need any more of me, the good Lord has been too kind.

Some of the things I get done in the morning are: I  rise around 5:30 AM, shower, get dressed and feed the kitties.  Then I take something out for dinner, write my blog, read emails and think about what I have taken out for dinner and what I am going to do with it.  Creative juices flow until about 12:00 noon. By then I have a meal plan, sometimes including dessert.  I get all things ready as much as I can, never know when the hubby is walking through the door, he has a long commute.  He sends me a text about 20 minutes before his ETA and I start cooking, he is always curious as to what he is getting fed, so I let him know.

I took chicken cutlet out for dinner and my plan was a Chicken Florentine, my way of course.  This was a new dish for me, never made it before.  I'm exploring as you can probably tell from these last few weeks of blogs.  It's fun, and so far so good on all the recipes.

Recipe below.

To print recipe, click on it, highlight and print.

To view photos in a larger format, click on them.

I started with fresh spinach, chopped garlic and extra virgin olive oil.  Chop and seed two plum tomatoes.  Love the plums, meaty and tasty all rolled into one!

Oil and garlic in the pan, cook until fragrant and add 3 cups of fresh spinach.

Add salt an pepper and saute until wilted, it won't look like much but it will be.  Good way to get your greens (as my grandmother use to call them).

Add tomatoes and saute them for about 2 minutes.  In the pan divide the mixture into 4 equal parts for each chicken cutlet.

Now for the chicken.  I had four chicken cutlets so that is what I made the recipe for.  If you are cooking a larger amount add ingredients accordingly.  I used four slices of provolone, cut in half so you have 8 slices and four slices of prosciutto.

Pound the cutlets flat, add two slices of provolone.  Ahhh, everything is better with provolone.

Add one slice of prosciutto on top of the cheese and 1/4 of the spinach mixture.  Look how pretty those colors are!

Roll them up seam side down and onto a plate.  

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Place the chicken seam side down.

 Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover the pan.  

 Cook for 8 minutes, turn and cook for another 8 minutes on the other side.  Cover and reduce heat to simmer.  Let them rest, they have been working hard in that pan!

 On to the Creamy Basil Alfredo Sauce - These are my ingredients.

Melt butter, add the heavy cream and cheese, whisk.

 Add the basil, I love basil!  OK, back to the sauce.  It's done when the thickened sauce covers your wooden spoon.

 Plate your Chicken Florentine and pour some of the sauce over it and serve.  Now what you have here is an awesome restaurant quality meal good enough for company too.  This meal was pretty easy to cook even though it looks hard.  Now go and prove you can do it!

 I served my chicken on a bed of orecchiette, it's a round disk shaped pasta.  I tossed the pasta with the remaining Creamy Basil Alfredo Sauce.  And my side dish, roasted whole baby carrots in balsamic.  This meal was amazing, the hubby liked it so much he took the leftovers for lunch!

Oh, I almost forgot, this is the orecchietti I used, it absorbs a good amount of  sauce.

 Chicken Florentine

Ingredients

For the chicken

2 tablesooons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

3 cups fresh spinach

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

4 chicken cutlets, pounded flat

4 slices provolone or sharp provolone, cut in half

4 slices prosciutto

salt and pepper

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, for cooking the chicken

Directions

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, but do not brown it.  Add the spinach and saute until wilted.  Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn off the heat. In the pan, divide the mixture into 4 equal parts.

Pound the four cutlets until they are flattened.  Add two slices of provolone cheese and then 1 slice of prosciutto to each cutlet.  Top with the spinach mixture, roll each one up and place seam side down on a plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Add the last 2 tablespoons of oil to the same pan and heat over medium-high heat.  Place each chicken cutlet roll in the pan seam side down.  Cover and cook for 8 minutes, turn them over and cook for another 8 minutes. They should have a nice brown color to them. Keep them covered, reduce heat to simmer, let them rest and stay warm.  Make the Creamy Basil Alfredo Sauce.

Ingredients

For Creamy Basil Alfredo Sauce

1 stick of butter

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup grated Parmigiano cheese, divided

8 basil leaves sliced (chiffonade style)

salt and pepper

Directions

Melt the butter in a medium size sauce pan over medium - high heat. Reduce heat to medium and slowly add the cream with a whisk, continue stirring as it cooks. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese and stir it in. The sauce will thicken as it cooks, but do not let it boil it will burn. Add the basil.  The sauce is done when it heavily coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 15-20 minutes. Turn the heat off, add the other 1/2 cup of cheese and stir it in until it melts. Serve over the chicken and/or pasta.