Eating Italian

28 Feb

Two weekends in a row now I’ve cooked up an Italian storm. One of them – a risotto I made for the first time ever – was quite a disappointment, barely a puff of wind that left no mark on the palate’s memory, and the other – my culinary specialty, pizza – was a reliable success, which delivered satisfying howls of satiety. Here be recipes and pictures.

For the risotto, which was SO not worth it and you’re a fool if you still want to make it, you’ll need:

1lb Arborio or other short grain rice
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsps butter + 2 more tbsps for stirring in at the end
6-7 cups vegetable stock or water
salt, pepper, spices and herbs to taste

Time: 50 minutes incl. prep time
Serves 6

The recipe itself could not be more simple, but is a pain because you have to stand there the whole time stirring continuously. In a large pot, saute onions and mushrooms in two tbsps butter, until onions carmelise and mushrooms are lightly browned. Add the rice and mix in until the rice is coated with butter. Mix in spices and salt.

Add just enough stock or water to cover the rice, and cook while stirring continuously until all the water is absorbed. Then add a little more stock and cook some more while stirring. Repeat until your stock of stock is depleted. And then your risotto, supposedly ambrosial food of the gods, will look like the picture on the right. It will taste like rice with butter, onions, mushrooms and spices.

Now pizza, on the other hand. YUM. This is a recipe I have perfected over more than two years of making it on a regular basis. I got my start working in Yassir’s pizza place during college in Delaware… until then it hadn’t crossed my mind that one could make pizza at home, that though time consuming it was essentially a very simple recipe. I’ve optimised it for the puny ovens we have at home that go to a maximum temperature of 500F rather than the 1000+F of real pizza ovens. And even if I say so myself, I make a mean pizza, people. Take a look at how it’s done.

The dough, started at least 3 hours in advance:
6 cups plain white flour (half of it can be whole wheat flour if you want a whole wheat pizza, but no more than half or the dough won’t rise)
1 small package of rapid rise yeast (about 1/4oz or 2.25 tsp)
2 tbsps salt (or to taste)
1/2 tbsp sugar
Optional: 2 tbsps of any ONE of either garlic, cumin or red chili flakes for a flavoured dough (I used red chili flakes this time)
Optional: 2 tbsps olive oil for kneading

This recipe gives you enough dough for two medium-thickness 12″ crusts.

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients except the yeast, and separate the mixture into two halves.

2. Place one half in a large bowl, mix in the yeast. Add two cups of lukewarm water (don’t make it too hot, the yeast will die) and stir with a wooden spoon. The dough should be the consistency of porridge.

3. Add the remaining half of the flour mixture to the wet dough little by little, stirring with the wooden spoon as you go along. Once that becomes impossible, knead by hand.

4. Knead the dough for a good 10 minutes. The longer you knead, the better your bread will be. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil if you like. In the end, you should end up with a smooth ball of fairly moist dough.

5. At this point you can freeze all the dough or part of it. It will keep for months. Or you can let the dough rise to double its size to continue making the pizza. If you have the time, punch it down after it rises once and let it rise again.

The pizza dough, in my opinion, is the most important part of the pizza and also the most difficult to get right. Don’t expect a perfect crust on your first try. You’ll probably want to make your own modifications, too, as you get more practice.

The Sauce:
3/4ths of a 1lb can of crushed tomatoes
Italian seasonings (basil, oregano, marjoram, parsley)
2 tbsps olive oil
Salt to taste
Optional: 1 medium onion, chopped
Optional: 1 jalapeno, chopped
Optional: other spices (paprika or red chili powder, cumin, turmeric, asafoetida… Indianise it! )

1. Saute onions and jalapeno in olive oil. Add crushed tomatoes and cook until it separates from the edges of the saucepan.

2. Add spices and italian seasonings with salt and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Cool to room temperature.

The toppings:

Anything you like, as long as you take care to keep the moisture level low and keep toppings to a reasonable amount (don’t overload). If you’re using tomatoes, squeeze out the pulp. If you’re using pineapples, squeeze out the juice. Most other common toppings are naturally low in moisture.

The assembly:

1. Preheat oven to the highest temperature possible – 500F is good.

2. While waiting for oven to preheat, stretch out dough into pizza pans with your hands. This takes patience, don’t expect the dough to hold the shape you give it because it is elastic and will shrink back. Go slow. This should take about ten minutes with practice, 20 minutes without.

3. Put just the crust in the oven for about 10 minutes, until it has risen a little and ever so lightly beginning to brown. In the meantime, you can chop your toppings and grate your cheese.

4. Take the crust out. Add sauce and then toppings.