Pork Chops & Chicken

Tomato Pie

 

 

Fellow food blogger Claudia Lamascolo of the blog What's Cookin' Italian Style Cuisine, once posted on her Facebook page, a simple picture of a take-out tomato pie. A classic New York, and New Jersey style pizza with Sicilian roots.

She later whipped up her own version here.

Having everything here that I needed to make this pie, I decided to give it a try. I had the herbs and tomatoes and a little bit of Parmesan and Romano cheese for it as well.

Most tomato pie recipes show only tomato sauce pizzas. I wanted to make mine a bit heartier. I don't know how traditional this makes my pie or not, but it ended up being wonderful. Sicilian sauce pie verses covered pie.

 

Crust:

Linda Larsen's Thick Pizza Crust

This has been my go-to pizza crust recipe forever now. I love it. It's simple, and it works really well especially for recipes like this that call for a thick, foccacia like pizza crust.

• 2 pkgs. active dry yeast
• 4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup warm water

In large bowl, combine yeast, 1/2 cup flour, and warm water in a bowl and mix well. Cover and place in warm, draft-free place; let rise for 30 minutes. Stir down batter. Add 2 cups flour, salt, and 1 cup warm water and beat well. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn down onto a lightly floured board and knead for 10 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise until double, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough and roll to 16" round. Place in greased 14" round deep dish pizza pan and form a raised edge. Let dough rise for 30 minutes. Then top with desired toppings and bake at 425 degrees for 20-30 minutes until crust is deep golden brown.

**I used a 10.5 X 15.5 jelly roll pan. You will have some left over dough which I will show you what I did with mine later on.

 

Toppings:

8-10 tomatoes (4 or 5 plum tomatoes and 4 or 5 medium sized beefsteak tomatoes)
1/3 to 1/2 jar of seasoned tomato/pasta sauce
4 or 5 cloves freshly minced garlic
Dried Italian seasonings
Fresh Basil
Grated Romano
Grated Parmsean

 

Slice each tomato thinly to be used as a row of tomatoes on your pie. Cover the raised dough with a genrous layer of tomato sauce. Then spinkle a light amount of the dried Italian herbs all over the tomato sauce. Next take the minced garlic and distribute evenly over the herbs and tomato sauce.

Now take one of the sliced beefsteak tomatoes and layer it on top of the sauce, herbs, and garlic. Layer it along the short side of the jelly roll pan. Then take one of the plum tomatoes and layer it slightly on top of the beefsteak tomatoes forming your next row. Continue the pattern all the way down.

 

Take the fresh basil and rip them into small spices and toss over the top of the layered tomatoes. You can roll the leaves and dice it too if you prefer. Sprinkle more Italian herbs on top. And then sprinkle a light amount of the Parmsean and Romano on top.

Bake according to the pizza crust directions. 25-30 minutes. Slice in squares and serve. Can be served cold the next day as leftovers and it's still awesome.

 

 

For that left over bit of dough, I made pizza pot pies. I copied this idea from the famous Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co. I have been fascinated with this idea of baking a pizza backwards and serving it up really simply in a bread bowl crust. So I had enough dough to try it and a couple of medium sized ramekins or souffle dishes just perfect for this idea. It was real simple to be honest and it tasted amazing. With cheese pizza, the only difference would be stacking cheese at the bottom and then building your pizza backwards with sauce on top and then the dough. I believe you would want to used sliced cheese and not shredded cheese.

Form a thick round and cover the top of your ramekin. Make sure there is enough dough for a 1 inch lip or so to hang over the sides. Press the dough tightly around the sides but make sure it's not indented with finger lines. Place on a baking sheet and stick in the oven. When the they are done baking (same amount of time and temp as the pizza) let them cool for about 2-5 minutes and then using a knife, edge it around the dough and the ramekin to loosen it up. Flip it over on a plate and remove the ramekin. It should all fall out into the crust bowl. Viola! Pizza Pot Pie.

 

 

Make sure you drink a nice fresh Czech Pilsner with this pizza. Tomatoes and pilsners are made for each other.

 

 

Journeyman ~ Wine Stains: Highs & Lows with Mr. Hill 04-25-11

 

 

A financier, a Chocolate Advocate, an opera singer, a doctor, and a BeerAdvocate walk into a restaurant.....

 

Seth Hill, the beverage director for Journeyman in Union Sq. Somerville, Ma., invited us to a small wine tasting on a quite little Monday evening. Me being a wine lover, I was absolutely interested in going. Dragging Todd out to expland his horizons on wine a bit, wasn't as hard of a push as I thought it was going to be. He was thinking the same thing I was. The last time we had dinner at Journeyman's it was unbelievable. And wine or not, we just knew this was going to be good. We were so right.

Seth had us sit at a communal table with some nice people Neil, Neil, and Tania. The doctor, the financier, and the opera singer. Made for a fantastic evening of good and widespread conversations.

Click to enlarge the pictures.

 

Flight of Vermouths

Sutton Cellars Brown Label Vermouth, Dolin Blanc Vermouth, and Cocchi Americano.

Paired with cured fish and a white bean salad.

 

 

This was the most surprising course for me. I know next to nothing about vermouths. I didn't even know they were wines. I thought it was a liqueur of some sort added to cocktails and martinis. Being able to sit back and taste them, get a better understanding of them was great for me. The men at the table seemed to like the more herbal, earthy one which had a lot of Fernet Branca qualities about it. It is the last one pictured, the Cocchi Americano, but I liked the Dolin Blanc the best. The one pictured int he center. It was soft, subtle, and floral. Really delicate and delicious.

They all worked really well with the white beans and the cured mackerel. There was also some cured ham on the plate that added some smokiness that really brought out those herbal notes on the Cocchi Americano. It went in the right succession. The white beans for the Sutton Cellars, the fish for the Dolin, and the smoked meats for the cocchi.

 

Sour-style Beers

Panil "Bariquee Riserva" and Cantillon "Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru"

Paired with Wheatberry risotto, bone marrow, herb, and pea tendril salad.

Fats and acids. Fatty bone marrow and acidity from two sour beers. The buttery broth, and earthy wheatberry risotto, creamy and butter-like bone marrow with just enough sear on it to make it have crispy edges, with bright green and fresh tasting pea tendrils paired with the more fruity and acidic Panil Bariquee, and the much more mild and softer Cantillon.

I felt like the bone marrow was best paired with the Panil based on the deep fruit character of the beer and the acidity, while the Cantillon balanced the wheatberry and pea tendrils. Deliciously rich, but not overbearing. A perfect pairing and a delicious way to highlight contrasts in these sours.

It was also nice to feature this beer pairing in the center of a wine tasting. The folks at our table who were not that familiar with these kinds of beers, really liked it. For us, it felt like home.

 

 
Category-Foiling Wines

Heidi Schröck "Furmint" and Frères Grosjean "Premetta"

Paired with Spanish Mackerel, potato and tarragon.

 

 

Mackerel has been slowly but surely becoming one of my favorite sea food dishes as of late. I hadn't really been that familiar with it before going to Belgium. I love it. This again was a fats vs. acid course. Fatty fish oils versus bright wine acidity.

This was one of the first times white wine worked for me. My palate maybe changing, or maybe I am finding the right kinds of white wines to drink lately, but normally they are not for me. I cant usually drink too many white wines as they give me a headache very quickly and easily, and they tend to have an off taste to me that I have yet to understand what the cause might be. But not this time. The Furmint worked exceptionally well with the potatoes and tarragon and the light taste of the fish under all the oils.

The Premetta, was excellent in it's ability to work with the fish and it's salty skin. Seth described this as being a sort of Hamburger wine. It had remarkable light qualities to it but also a big enough, fruity balance for the oily and salty fish. And the tarragon potatoes also worked well here as tarragon tends to be sweeter and worked with the brightness of the Premetta.

 

Cabernet Francs from the Loire

Domaine de la Pepiere "La Pepie" and Clos Rougeard "Les Poyeux" Saumer-Champigny

Paired with Pork Knuckles, parsnips, radish, and greens.

 

 

Let us bow our heads and give thanks to the 380 pound pig that gave it's humongous life so that we could be the happiest gluttons in town. The oldest pig on the farm sourced from about 40 miles away. This pig gave us this huge pork knuckle, the smoked, cured meat on the first tasting, and even bits of ham in the parsnips.

Neil the doctor, took the reigns and cut this bad boy up. So many different tastes of pork in this huge monstrosity. Light meat surrounded by thick and flavorful fat, and then gorgeous dark meat from the bones. But there were different tastes on that dark meat depending on where Neil hunted it down. He found the most delectable pieces of meat that most might have ignored. The sides came to the table, and thinking the the pork was in the parsnips, we didn't expect to see this giant bone in pork knuckle come to the table like being presented with a massive ham at Christmas dinner. But family-style servings of this beast was the perfect way to go.

The La Pepie was my favorite to drink and sip on. It was very light bodied. It worked with the parsnips and the light meat cut of pork. While the more oak-y Les Poyeux, it was almost like it was taylor-made for the darker cuts of meat. Big, rich oak flavors and sweet ham. The greens worked with both wines wonderfully based on the garlicky and earthy flavors, while the surprise was the radish dish. It was sweet and fresh but also savory at the same time giving us a little high and low on it's own.

 

Lesser-known Sparklers

Camillo Donati "Malvasia Dolce" and Patrick Bottex "Bugey-Cerdon"

Paired with Pistachio cake, black treacle ice cream, and raspberry.

 

 

This course was all over the place and yet it worked so well. I think we all decided the black treacle was the best part of the desert while the pistachio cake was unexpected and fabulous. Very much like my first experience with Journeyman, where you might expect a big chocolate dessert but when you get treated to a nut cake and it ends up completely changing your thinking on how desserts should finish your night. Our first time, we had the most delicious pear cider with a nutty semolina cake. It was fantastic.

I thought that the Bugey-Cerdon was the best paring for the dessert. It just balanced so perfectly. But I think the table was most fascinated with Malvasia Dolce. It smelled like a Gueze and had this interesting aroma of peppercorns with an underlying stone fruit aroma. These aromas weren't gradual they were literally stacked on top of one and other. But it tasted nothing like that. It was very, very soft and subtle. It worked wonderfully with the pistachio cake.

 

Treats of Madeleines and chocolate cookies with a taste of Cappellano Barolo Chinato.

 

That Barolo Chinato was pure joy. Cinnamon and cloves aroma with a dry and earthy rich tobacco leaf taste. It was unreal.

Fantastic evening once again at Journeyman and most impressive was all of this for $85. This easily could have gone for way more. It was a comfortable evening with nice people that felt like old friends by the end of it. The pairings were spot on and really taught me a few things about wine.

If my two posts about Journeyman, haven't been able to convince you that they are indeed the best new restaurant in the Boston area, then you must be one of those people who simply can't be pleased. Get over there soon for dinner. You won't be left unsatisfied. Ask for one of their awesome cocktail creations too. Seth is always sending out messages on Facebook about testing, creating, trying new cocktails.

Fig, Cheddar, Rye Ale Mustard, Prosciutto Grilled Cheese

Reading tweets from @LucysWhey, I saw her tweet the daily grilled cheese inspiration.

"grilled cheese: Invierno, @EatMeaty Ham & @MustardMadness; Prairie Breeze Cheddar & Fig; Landaff & DP Chutney Collective Spice Rte Chutney"

Realizing that I had everything for that sandwich in my pantry, I whipped up my own little copycat version. Granted the bread isn't some glorious rustic sourdough, and the cheese is just a mild shredded cheddar and not some awesomely aged, rustic farmhouse cheddar. It still did the trick. Served with a little leftover potato and leek soup I made few days ago.

 

Whole Foods 12 Grain Bread
My Friend's Mustard Rye (Sixpoint Righteous Rye Beer)
Applegate Farm Prosciutto
Mild Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Dried Turkish Figs
Trappist Mango and peppr jam

Fried in butter = Banging yo!