Ma Niche : pizza

16.5.13

Baking Partners Challenge : New York Style Pizza...

Its the 15th of the month and hence time to reveal this months Baking Partner's Bake !!

and this month we baked........

taDaaaa...

Yes ...we baked this month

New York Style Pizza......

a thin crust pizza with the signature pizza sauce

with toppings of our choice.

The recipes at hand were ....

New York Style Pizza Crust from Feeling Foodish and New York Style Pizza Sauce from Seroius Eats as suggested by Pam of Living Rancho Deluxe
New York Style Pizza from Serious Eats as suggested by Archana of Tangy Minds
New York Style Pizza from Pizza Making as suggested by Priya of Ennveetu Kitchen .

To say the truth though I was excited to make pizza, I did not feel very challenged when the recipes were suggested. after all pizza is a weekly affair. so what could be so challenging about baking it. neither the dough recipe nor the sauce recipe seemed challenging enough till i saw this video in Feeling Foodish...

and my reaction was.. oho.. so that is the challenge !! i played and replayed the video several times and tried my best to stretch the pizza dough like the chef. and i think i almost got it right the second time. though the pizza tasted great there are a few issues with my topping that i still need to work on. for starters i think i should stop using preshredded cheese because for whatever reason they tend to brown before the pizza crust is completely done... also i need to control myself when spreading the pizza sauce. somehow every time, i tend to get a little too generous while spreading the sauce on the crust and as a result my slices tend to be a little limp towards the center..

anyway i guess it'll take me a few more pizzas to make that ultimate thin crust pizza at home. however since the challenge things are definitely looking up and i am hopeful that the next one might be the one ! Many thanks to Pam, Archana and Priya for the challenge and Swathi for initially such a lovely group !

Escarole Pizza

Pizza or "Pithza" as my little one says is always in my weeks menu. i make the basic pizza dough every other Saturday and dividing it into 4 almost equal portions freeze it till we get our pizza craving... so last week when we got 'the craving' i decided to try the Escarole Pizza from Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen. of course, because Mr. MN cannot imagine his pizza without salami and mozzarella, so we accommodated those two and some feta into the crust and delightfully gorged our way through our new

favorite pizza, "Pizza Escarole with lots of Mozzarella, Feta and Salami. "

Just for the record, I might as well mention here that the topping was delicious enough to be served as a stand alone side-dish.. so even if you are not a big pizza fan, you might still like to try out the topping (minus the mozzarella and salami, if you wish) as a side-dish with your meal. it is tasty and healthy. and certainly a keeper for me..

now the recipe....

ingredients *

(Recipe Adapted from Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen, )

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 medium sized onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, grated

10 Kalamata Olives, cut into four pieces lengthwise

1 tablespoon Tiny Capers

1/2 dried red chilly, cut into small pieces(i used kitchen scissors to cut it)

1 bunch fresh escarole, sliced 3/4 inch crosswise and washed with water still clinging to the leaves

1 Basic Pizza Dough (I make mine in the bread machine following recipe from here)

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

1/4 cup shredded Mozzarella

Salami (we used 15 small slices)

4 tablespoons of crumbled Feta Cheese (I used like a garnish)

1/3 cup yellow cornmeal

what i did.

at the very beginning i must mention that i do not have a pizza stone. however we like our crust crispy. and we are able to get it using the tip here. so i started by preheating the oven to 500 degrees F and placing a large enough baking sheet in the oven. I left the sheet in the oven for over 15 minutes while i made the escarole topping and readied the pizza dough according to the instructions from the book.
for the topping, i began by heating the oil over medium heat and adding the onions and salt to it and then letting it sweat. once the onions became soft and translucent i stirred in the olives, capers, and red chilly flakes into it and cooked till the flavors were well combined, 2-3 minutes.
next i added the escarole to the pan, a little at a time, as the leaves wilted and made space for more. i let it cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the leaves became tender. then switching off the heat, i proceeded to top the pizza dough with it.
to prepare the pizza, i sprinkled the cornmeal over a aluminium foil, placed the prepared pizza dough over it and lightly brushed the dough with olive oil. then leaving 1/2 inch border of the dough around the edge, spread a thin layer of the escarole. then arranged the salami over it, spread a little more of the escarole on top and finally finished by spreading the grated Parmesan, Mozzarella and Feta over it.
then turning the oven temperature to 425 degree F, i baked it for 11-14 minutes, until the crust was golden and the cheese had melted and was bubbling.

after taking a few shots, we then instantly sat down for our pizza dinner :)

* i should mention here that we had actually made two 6 1/2 inch diameter-ed pizza's. and the measurements of the first 7 ingredients was enough for both of them.

If you have never had escarole before, i insist that you try it out with this recipe. We really liked it.

Happy Cooking and here is a tip for choosing escarole, in case you have never done it before.

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