Pizza – Rosemary and the Goat

Mushroom Fontina Kale Flatbread

Great little flatbread from not so good restaurant.

Normally I don’t complain about food I get in a restaurant. Well, maybe I do if it isn’t good; but I haven’t emailed this hotel yet and probably won’t because even though the service was kind of good and chef couldn’t really manage to get more than one order out at a time out, I came away this this idea for a flatbread pizza.

The night before we left for our Turks and Caicos vacation we decided to spend the night down in Houston since our flight was at 6:30 am. If we didn’t go down early that would have meant getting up like at 3:00 a.m. to get down there for our flight. We stayed at a hotel that didn’t have a restaurant and since we had Ubered down there we didn’t have a car and we ended up walking down the street to the Hilton Garden Inn for dinner. GA’s tuna bowl was well done instead of medium rare and arrived about 10 minutes before my Asian salad that tasted nothing like an Asian salad BUT we ordered a flatbread to share for an appetizer and it was the best thing I have tasted in a long time.

July 22, 2019 By Sherry

Beef/Veal/ Entree/ Morning Foods/ Pizza

Parmesan Naan Breakfast Pizza

Steak and eggs, what could be better for breakfast?

Are you one of those people that take home leftovers from a restaurant because you couldn’t possibly have eaten another bite off your plate? Sometimes I ask for a box when they bring my food just so I’m not tempted to eat the whole thing.

My husband is always bringing home something from Mexican restaurants and sometimes they actually make it into the refrigerator. Once I went to get in my car to go someplace and the most horrific smell hit me in the face. Guess what, it was HIS Mexican food in the back seat. I’ve gotten where I order everything a la carte from Mexican restaurants because I can get exactly what I want and not so much that I’m not finishing it because I have eaten too many chips and bowl(s) of salsa.

Well, if you happen to have left over steak, I’m sure it will make it into the house. There probably won’t be enough to make a meal out of it but you can make this breakfast pizza that is made with naan for the crust. You can really add whatever ingredients you want; I didn’t add a lot of cheese (just parmesan) because it was for breakfast and I just didn’t want a real cheesy pizza.

February 10, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Pizza

Tomato Phyllo Pizza

Have a pizza craving but not much time?

(We had pizza once while in Paris and I have to say I was not impressed. After a day of seeing so many museums, we were just too tired to track down one of our restaurants that we were going to try while there so we decided on pizza. It was a local place and it was just so-so.)

Do you ever have a pizza craving and don’t want to take the time to make a homemade crust? That is if you make homemade crust. Then, this recipe is for you, no using scissors to cut open that prepared pizza dough or crack that can on the counter to unroll some pizza dough but you simply open the thawed package of phyllo dough and you instantly have your crust and it is much better. This is definitely a light, thin and flaky/crispy type crust

When I first got married a good pizza to me was a Chef Boyardee pizza mix, a pound of hamburger meat and I actually tried to jazz up the crust by adding some Italian seasoning to the crust mix. Then one day, some years ago I decided to make my own crust and I never used that mix again.

What is a pizza anyway but a “crust” of some sort, rolled thin or not, slapped with some sauce or not and baked in the oven. French bread, pita, crescent rolls, naan…. anything can really make a crust for a pizza. The Greeks spread their pitas with oils and herbs and cheese — pizza. The Romans took a sheet of dough, topped with cheese and honey and bay leaves — pizza. A Calzone and stromboli are similar to pizza but the dough is rolled around the filling. In America we have deep dish, traditional, Chicago Style, California style, white pizza (no red sauce), thin/cracker crust and now this phyllo crust. Our toppings or unlimited. One I posted here a while back is a favorite now and that is a Shrimp and White Bean Pizza. Yummmm.

I remember when we lived in Ft. Madison, Iowa we had a Happy Joe’s Pizza Parlor. They had a taco pizza which was a regular hamburger or sausage pizza and when it came out of the oven they covered it with shredded lettuce and tomato and served it with taco sauce and it was delicious. It’s been over 20 years since I have had that pizza and I may try it again soon.

I made this pizza to take to a friend’s house one night. She was making spaghetti and meatballs and I had planned to make this for the blog that day so I took it to her house as an appetizer. It was perfect; a light crispy crust, fresh tomatoes and feta and it made a perfect first course to her spaghetti. It would also make a nice lunch with a salad. I’m anxious to try out different toppings using this phyllo crust.

April 11, 2012 By Sherry

Entree/ Pizza

Shrimp and White Bean Pizza with Herbs

“When the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie, that’s amore” and Dino sings on and on….

When I first got married 40 years ago, pizza to me was a 50 cent box of Chef Boradee pizza mix and a 50 cent pound of hamburger meat. We, of course, didn’t have a pizza place in the town we grew in, so if you wanted pizza, you made it. The little town we lived in when we were first married had a great local place called Alex’s Pizza and to this day, I still can remember the thin crispy crust. We still made our pizzas most of the time because my husband was still in college and we didn’t eat out alot.

We went to Italy a few years ago and had some of the best Italian food I have ever eaten. Also, had some of the best pizza I have ever put in my mouth.

I have to tell you the story about when we were in Venice. This was our first trip to Italy and I wanted to have everything perfect. So I loaded my iPod with all kinds of music that I thought would just make the trip special. I had packed some external speakers so everyone else could enjoy the music also. We were with two other couples (one couple we would meet up with in another town a few days later). One night in Venice after going out for just one of our memorable meals, we went back to our hotel which was kind of in an alley way with a big brick courtyard. It was late at night and we set the speakers up on a fountain that was there and we were listening to the music and dancing. This was about the same time some of the local guys were getting off work for the night and they could hear the music coming from our area and decided to come see what was happening. We had one guy who had been selling roses during the day give us a rose each and a few guys interested in the ipod. But, the one thing they all knew was — “that’s Dino they said. And, he WAS singing, “When the moon hits your eyes”. I always love to tell this story.

Anyway, when we returned from our trip we tried (I think successfully) to replicate a lot of our dishes like the tomato bread soup, linguine with seafood (will be posting later). I haven’t tried any pizza recipes for quite awhile but I wanted to do something not quite so traditional. This recipe I found in a little pizza book I picked up called “Pizza and Other Savory Pies” by Brigit Binns.

I tweaked this recipe somewhat. To the pizza dough, I added about 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning. To the mashed white beans I added 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper and about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.

To the finished pizza, after sprinkling with the fresh herbs, I drizzled a small amount of olive oil over the pizzas and also squeeze fresh lemon juice all over.

Pizza with Shrimp, White Bean Puree and Herbs

Ingredients

1 ball pizza dough
2 1/2 tbsp. olive oil plus extra
1 can small white beans rinsed and drained
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2-3/4 lb. small shrimp peeled, deveined and halved lengthwise
1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Garlic Bread Crumbs:

4 Tbsp. bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. Olive
2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp. garlic finely chopped
2 Tbsp. chopped basil and parsley
2 tsp. finely chopped fresh oregano

Thin Crust Pizza Dough

3 1/3 c. all purpose flour extra for dusting
1/4 c. whole-wheat flour I used all plain flour
1 pkg. 2 12/ tsp. quick rise yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 1/4 c. warm water
2 Tbsp. olive oil plus extra if needed

Instructions

Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lawer third of the oven and preheat to 450°. Let the pizza stone heat for 45-60 minutes. I cooked my pizza on a perforated pizza pan and another one just on a cookie sheet.
Roll out the dough on parchment paper or flour dusted cutting board. (I made my pizza into individual ovals instead of doing one large pizza.) Press the dough out into the shape you desire using oil to coat your fingers. If dough starts to draw up, cover with towel and let rest or a few minutes, then continue. The thinner the crust, the more crisp it will be. Cover dough with towel and let rise for 15 minutes.
In food processor, combine the white beans, garlic, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, lemon juice and olive oil. Process until smooth and set aside.
In a bowl, combine the shrimp, dried oregano, salt and pepper to taste and 2 Tbsp. olive oil.
Brush the edges of the dough lightly with the olive oil. Season the dough with salt and pepper. spread the white bean puree evenly over the dough, leaving 1/2″ border uncovered. Scatter the shrimp and garlicky bread crumbs over the puree. Carefully slide the pizza topped parchment or cutting board onto the hot pizza stone (or put it on the cookie sheet). Bake until the crust is golden brown and the shrimp are pink, about 14 minutes.
Remove pizza from oven and garnish with the fresh herbs, drizzle with a little olive oil and squeeze the remaining one-half lemon over the pizza.
For crust: In food processor or mixing bowl with dough hook, combine the flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, sugar, salt and Italian seasoning. Pulse or mix the ingredients. With the motor running, add the water and olive oilin a steady stream and then pulse or mix until the dough comes together in a rough mass, about 12 seconds.
If the dough does not form ino a ball, sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons of water and pulse/mix again until a rough mass forms. Let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes. Process again for 25-30 seconds. The dough should be tacy to the touch but not sticky. Transfer the dough to lightly floured work surface and form it in a smooth ball. Place the dough in large oiled bowl, turn to coat with oil and cover with plastic wrap.
Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk and spongy, about 1 1/2 hours. Makes 2 balls of dough. You can freeze what you don’t need for this recipe.

July 12, 2009 By Sherry